You are greeted with delight, dazzle, and decadence when arriving at the annual Brazilian Carnival. People from all around the world flock to the streets of Rio de Janiero to share in the celebration with locals known as Cariocas. Starting the Friday before Ash Wednesday, seven weeks before Easter Sunday, Rio de Janeiro hosts many festivities that occur throughout the city complete with music, parades, dancing, and renowned Carnival balls. Many activities take place during the carnival, including events that take place before the actual four day festival, including parades and rehearsals. The various gatherings combine to create days of enchantment, energy, and enjoyment, capturing the true sense of Rio's Carnival. The Carnival is celebrated every year on a different weekend, the official date always being fourty days before Lent.

The city of Mendoza, one of the world’s great wine capitals, with wineries at the foothills of the Andes that include Bodega Catena Zapata, Trapiche and Norton, hosted its first Masters of Food and Wine event in February 2007, based at the Park Hyatt Hotel. This event is now scheduled to take place annually, every February. The event consists of a wide variety of gastronomic experiences in intimate settings – most events allowed up to a maximum of 50 guests. Acclaimed sommeliers from around the globe will present wine tastings featuring Mendoza’s finest wines, providing opportunities to taste, pair and learn about wine from respected worldwide industry names.

Constructed in the 13th century BC by Ramses II, Abu Simbel is one of antiquity’s most spectacular sites, built to convey the might of the Pharaohs to Egypt’s southern neighbours. Even today, lying beside the tranquil waters of Lake Nasser, this magnificent temple complex conveys an immense aura of power and majesty that is a lasting tribute to the reign of one of Egypt’s most powerful Pharaohs. No less remarkable is the incredible effort taken to rescue it from the rising waters of the lake in 1963, when an $80 million project saw the entire complex relocated to a site some 65 metres higher than its original setting, in a truly remarkable feat of archaeological engineering.The combination of human endeavour and natural phenomena provides what must be one of the most spectacular sights in the world. Crowds pack in to the temple before sunrise and watch the shafts of light slowly creeping through the stone. Once this dramatic sighting has been marvelled at, spectators can join celebrations outside, including a fair and music demonstrations. However, nothing can compare to such a sight as the lighting of these magnificent temples.

A unique festival which attracts visits from all over the world. This Art Deco weekend is held annually, giving visitors the opportunity to enjoy a variety of wines, excellent cuisine, jazz, dance, film and theatre. Classic cars fill the city, and people dress up in Deco style clothing for the event. As a result of an earthquake, Napier was rebuilt in the early 1930s. Subsequent fires had destroyed most of its commercial heart, but by the end of the decade, Napier was the newest city on the globe. It is now a city in which one can see a variety of buildings in the architectural styles of the period, including Art Deco. It is held on the third full weekend of February each year and there are over one hundred different events, many of which are free to attend.

The Kingdom of Thailand draws more visitors than any other country in South East Asia with its expansive natural parks, fertile plains, remote jungles, beaches washed by turquoise waters and tropical islands bathed in endless sunshine. Thailand's natural wonders are matched only by its cultural marvels. You could spend years just trekking its highlands, mooching through its national parks, browsing its islands, and checking out the temple architecture, traditional crafts and ancient cities in between.