The holidays that quietly wreck travel plans

The cheapest flight on a fare calendar often sits next to the most expensive week of the year, and the reason is rarely the destination’s weather. It’s usually a public holiday somewhere, either where you’re going or where everyone else on the plane is coming from. A billion people moving at once will affect your trip whether you celebrate or not.

Below are the ones that matter most for international travellers, roughly in calendar order, followed by a few rules for planning around them.

Lunar New Year: the biggest migration on Earth

Lunar New Year falls on 6 February 2027 (timeanddate). In mainland China it’s the anchor of chunyun, the Spring Festival travel season. In 2026 that 40-day rush ran from 2 February to 13 March and logged 9.41 billion inter-regional trips, including about 94 million by air (Henan provincial government, citing national figures). Most of those trips were by road, but the rail and air numbers alone are enough to sell out trains and push domestic fares up for weeks.

What closes: in China, many small restaurants and family-run shops shut for several days around New Year’s Eve and the first days of the year, and offices stay closed for the official holiday week. In Vietnam (Tết), South Korea (Seollal), Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong, closures are shorter but real. In Vietnam, rural areas can feel almost shut.

How prices move: domestic Chinese rail and air fares rise sharply heading home before the holiday and heading back after it. Outbound Chinese tourism also jumps, so popular regional destinations such as Bangkok, Singapore, Tokyo and Bali get busier and pricier that week. Long-haul flights to and from China fill early.

Ramadan and the two Eids

Ramadan 2027 is expected to begin around 8 February, with Eid al-Fitr on 9 or 10 March and Eid al-Adha on 16 or 17 May (Khaleej Times, citing UAE astronomers). Exact dates depend on moon sighting and can differ by a day between countries.

Ramadan itself is not a peak for flights. In many Muslim-majority countries it’s actually a quieter, sometimes cheaper time to visit. Expect shorter working and opening hours, some daytime restaurant closures, and slower government offices. Rules on eating in public vary a lot by country, so check locally. Evenings after iftar are often the liveliest time of day.

The Eids are different. Both are multi-day public holidays across the Gulf, North Africa, Turkey, South and Southeast Asia, and large diaspora communities. People travel home, and outbound leisure travel from the Gulf peaks. Flights between the Gulf and South Asia, and fares from Gulf hubs to European cities, are worth booking early for Eid weeks. In Indonesia, the post-Ramadan exodus home (mudik) is one of the world’s largest seasonal movements.

Songkran: Thailand’s three-day water fight

Thai New Year runs 13–15 April each year. For 2026 the national celebrations ran across 11–15 April, and the Tourism Authority projected around 500,000 international arrivals and 5.96 million domestic trips over the festival period (Tourism Authority of Thailand).

What it means for you: Bangkok empties as people head to their home provinces, while Chiang Mai, Pattaya and the islands fill up. Domestic flights and buses out of Bangkok sell out. Some businesses close for the holiday. If you’re out in the street, you’ll get wet. Put your phone in a waterproof pouch and don’t plan a smart dinner for the 13th. The roads are also unusually dangerous during the holiday, so avoid long overnight drives.

Golden Week, twice

Two different “Golden Weeks” catch travellers out.

Japan: 29 April to 5 May

Japan’s Golden Week strings together four national holidays: Shōwa Day (29 April), Constitution Memorial Day (3 May), Greenery Day (4 May) and Children’s Day (5 May) (Wikipedia). Many workers take the gap days off, and some companies shut entirely. It’s one of the three big travel peaks in Japan, along with Obon in mid-August and New Year.

Shinkansen reserved seats sell out, hotels in Kyoto and resort areas raise prices, and outbound flights from Tokyo and Osaka are expensive on the way out and on the way back. Department stores and attractions mostly stay open and very crowded. If you’re planning a first visit, our Japan primer explains why mid-May is a much better choice.

China: the May and October holidays

China’s State Council publishes the holiday schedule each November. For 2026 it set a five-day Labour Day break (1–5 May) and a seven-day National Day holiday (1–7 October), each with “make-up” working weekends to compensate (Kaizen CPA, summarising the State Council notice; Chongqing government). The October week is the true “Golden Week”. Famous sites such as the Great Wall, West Lake and the Bund get extremely crowded, train tickets sell out on release, and Chinese outbound demand pushes up prices in nearby countries.

One quirk to note: the make-up working days mean a Saturday or Sunday can be a normal working day in China. Banks and government offices will be open, while some of your Chinese contacts may be off on a Wednesday.

Thanksgiving: America’s busiest airport days

US Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday of November: 26 November 2026 and 25 November 2027. In 2025, the Sunday after Thanksgiving became the busiest day in TSA history, with 3,133,924 people screened (TravelPulse, reporting TSA figures).

The pattern is predictable. The Tuesday and Wednesday before the holiday and the Sunday after are the worst days. Thanksgiving Day itself is often quiet and cheaper to fly. Most shops are shut on Thursday and open early on Friday (“Black Friday”). For visitors, it’s a strange week: cities can feel half-empty while airports are full.

Christmas to New Year

The most widely shared peak, and the one people underestimate because they’re used to it. Late December fares out of Europe, North America and Australia are high, especially for family-friendly dates around school holidays. Expect closures on 25 December almost everywhere with a Christian heritage. In Germany, Austria and much of central and northern Europe, 26 December is also a holiday and shops close. Several European countries also stop on 24 December from midday.

Japan works the other way round. Christmas is a normal working day, but the New Year break (shōgatsu) closes many businesses, some restaurants and some museums from roughly the last days of December into the first days of January. Transport is packed in the days on either side. Check the opening calendar of any specific attraction.

How to plan around any of these

1. Check both ends of the route. A holiday at your departure city can matter as much as one at your destination. A London–Bangkok flight fills up in Songkran week partly because of Thais flying home.
2. Look at the days around the holiday, not just the holiday. The rush happens the day before it starts and the day after it ends. The holiday day itself is often calm.
3. Book refundable accommodation early. If a trip overlaps a peak, lock in a cancellable room as soon as dates are likely. Booking.com Partner lets you filter for free cancellation, which leaves you free to rebook if prices fall.
4. Use flexible-date search. A fare calendar shows the holiday premium immediately; moving a trip by three days either side can make a big difference.
5. Don’t count on “open” meaning normal. Holiday opening hours, reduced public transport and fully booked restaurants can all hit a trip even when nothing is officially closed.

TravellerSeed’s holidays page lists public holidays for more than 100 countries by year, and flags long weekends, likely bridge days and holiday clusters as “busy weeks”, the dates when prices rise and trains fill. Check it for both your origin and destination before you book. Each country page (try /country/JP or /country/TH) shows upcoming holidays alongside currency and plug types.