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With Ireland’s garden festival season in full swing, many horticulture-minded travellers are looking overseas for bigger floral spectacles. From Latin America to Europe and Australasia, several well-established flower events offer striking displays — and some can be combined into multi-stop vacations, according to travel industry experts.
Flight Centre’s general manager Joe Beevis says combining garden visits with international travel is increasingly popular. He notes that a well-planned itinerary can let visitors attend more than one festival on a single trip, turning a holiday into a string of memorable floral experiences.
Standout festivals to plan around
Medellín, Colombia — Feria de las Flores
Six floral and garden festivals to include in your holiday itinerary
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Each August Medellín bursts into colour for the Feria de las Flores, a city-wide celebration that began in 1957. The event peaks with the Silleteros parade, where flower growers carry elaborate arrangements on their backs. Some of these floral “saddles” can weigh up to 70 kilos, span roughly five metres across and include as many as 25 different flower varieties.
Western Australia — a wildflower season
Western Australia boasts more than 12,000 species of native flora, producing a prolonged bloom that rolls across the state from June through November. Perth’s Everlasting Kings Park Festival, held each September into early October, showcases this diversity with displays and events dedicated to wildflowers.
For a wilder encounter, the coastal Coalseam Conservation Park, about a four-and-a-half-hour drive north of Perth, is known for dense carpets of seasonal blooms and strong wildlife-spotting opportunities. Across the state, the floral show continues in city parks, woodlands and outback plains.
Singapore — Singapore Garden Festival
The international Singapore Garden Festival, staged at Gardens by the Bay, brings together landscape designers, florists and growers from around the world. While visitors may have missed the festival dates this year (the source lists the event as running from July 4–12 in the most recent edition), the festival is worth noting for future travel planning thanks to its large-scale installations, themed gardens and a mix of cultural programming.
The event highlights how Singapore integrates urban design with tropical biodiversity, from immersive floral art to everyday green initiatives.
Brussels — Flower Carpet on the Grand-Place
Every two years the UNESCO-listed Grand-Place in Brussels is covered by the Flower Carpet, a vast tapestry made from hundreds of thousands of dahlias. The source describes this year’s design as inspired by Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa, marking the 160th anniversary of Belgium–Japan diplomatic ties.
About 120 volunteers reportedly plant nearly a million flowers in under four hours to create the 70m by 24m carpet. For the first time, a second display at the Bourse will celebrate Belgium’s brewing tradition with a hops-themed carpet.
Netherlands — Bloemencorso (Flower Parade)
The Dutch Bloemencorso stages an impressive spring procession of floats covered in bulbs and blooms. The parade runs along a route from Noordwijk to Haarlem, described as a 42km ribbon of ornate floats crafted from millions of tulips, hyacinths and daffodils.
The main parade date noted in the source is April 17, 2027, which will mark the 80th edition of this colourful event; the wider festival spans several days and includes local activities in surrounding towns. Many travellers pair the parade with a visit to the nearby Keukenhof gardens.
València, Spain — La Batalla de Flores
València’s Battle of Flowers, or La Batalla de Flores, takes place on the last Sunday in July and dates back to the late 19th century. The parade features elaborately decorated floats and horse-drawn carriages covered in fresh blooms. According to the source, participants and spectators traditionally toss more than a million carnations during the festivities, creating a vivid, carnival-like atmosphere.
Practical note for planners
Many of these events attract international visitors and sell out early, especially for guided tours or packaged multi-stop itineraries. If you want to combine festivals across countries, consider using an agent or a specialist operator to coordinate flights, transfers and entry to timed events — an approach the travel industry highlights as useful for maximising what you can see on a single trip.
