8 music trips that will sing to travelers with a taste for rhythm

For centuries, local music has provided an insight into the nuanced history of a destination — and often, it’s easy and accessible for travellers to dip into. You could find yourself in a local bar, your heart warmed by the haunting melodies of old folksongs, or pausing to tap a foot at the jaunty jig of a street performer.

To delve a little deeper, it’s also possible to book tours, workshops and entire trips centred around the appreciation of music. Here are some of the most rewarding experiences on offer this year, from opera-themed cruises to tango classes and blues road trips.

1. Produce your own techno music in Berlin

Club culture and hedonism have been inextricably linked in the German capital since the heyday of Weimar cabaret in the 1920s and early 1930s. Classic tours may look at the city’s turbulent past, taking in landmarks such as the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag parliament building and the Bernauer Strasse Berlin Wall Memorial, but the city’s energetic nightlife remains key to its international persona: Tresor is one of the world’s most famous techno nightclubs, while Berghain has become a symbol of modern sensualism.

In buzzing Kreuzberg, music producer Andy Sexton opens his studio to those seeking to get behind the decks themselves. During his masterclass, Sexton uses synthesisers, drum machines and production software to teach budding DJs how to record, arrange and mix a techno track. This behind-the-scenes look at how producers work is a rare insight into a way of life now instilled in Berliners.

2. Set sail on an opera cruise

The narrow lanes and cobbled piazzas of Verona set the scene for this themed trip celebrating a 400-year-old art form. The city is dotted with medieval and Renaissance-era architecture, but the highlight for opera-lovers will be the striking Arena di Verona. Built in 30 CE, making it older than Rome’s Colosseum, the open-air amphitheatre is the place to catch a performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata.

From Verona, you’ll be transported to Venice, where you’ll board the 20-passenger hotel barge La Bella Vita to sail out of the San Marco Basin and along the Giudecca Canal. The city is where Claudio Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea was first performed in 1643. The voyage comes to an end six days later in Mantua, but not before you’ve visited the grand, bell-shaped Teatro Bibiena theatre, where a 13-year-old Mozart performed in 1770.

3. Dip into San Juan’s reggaetón culture

Reggaetón has been quietly nurtured in the Puerto Rican capital since its inception in the 1990s — and, thanks to internationally renowned artists like Bad Bunny, it’s recently been taking the world by storm, too. Inspired by Jamaican dancehall, American hip-hop, Latin American bomba, plena and reggae, the genre as it’s known today is representative of Puerto Rico’s multicultural heritage — one that combines a 500-year Spanish history with African and Indigenous Taino influences.

Local guide Clement De Freitas leads private walking tours along San Juan’s old town backstreets and beyond, showcasing where musicians such as Daddy Yankee, Myke Towers and Rauw Alejandro were raised.

Take in the rainbow-coloured shopfronts and houses that have been used as backdrops for music videos: Bad Bunny and J Balvin shot a part of Si Tu Novia Te Deja Sola against the Mural de Doña Fela.

4. Take the Trad Music Trail through Belfast

If you’re looking for ceol agus craic (‘music and fun’), there’s plenty to be had in the Cathedral Quarter. It’s home to several of Belfast’s cherished watering holes and neighbourhood bars, including some that faced difficult times during the Troubles, and each has its own story to tell.

The two-and-a-half-hour Belfast Traditional Music Trail takes in stops such as the Duke of York pub, which was bombed in 1972. The opulent Harp Bar, by contrast, mirrors a 1920s speakeasy with its ruby-red decor and live Irish blues. Along the way, guitarist, flautist, harpist and pipe player guides — many of whom have played at these venues themselves — share tales of community, movement and resilience that have shaped Belfasters. Look up and you’ll see St Anne’s Cathedral and its Spire of Hope glistening above the rooftops — a symbol of what this city stands for.

5. Learn the flamenco in Seville

It’ll be the sweet citrus aroma from bitter orange trees and the unmistakable sound of clicking castanets that will remind you you’ve landed in Seville. The sound of flamenco is never far off here, in its home city. History suggests this style of music and dance largely evolved from the Roma communities of the Triana neighbourhood during the 1800s. At the time, flamenco was looked down on by the Spanish elites, but today it’s celebrated as a quintessential part of Andalucian culture.

Tucked away among the mish-mash of baroque, Moorish and Renaissance architecture is the Museo del Baile Flamenco, an 18th-century palace exploring flamenco history. Displays of costumes and choreography reveal how the music has evolved over two centuries. Backstage in the studio, expert instructors offer flamenco classes that cover both the handclapping percussion and the foot, arm and finger movements symbolic of the genre.

6. Join a kora workshop on the coast

Dubbed the ‘voice of the jali’ (a name given to musicians and storytellers of the Mande cultural groups of West Africa), the kora is a 21-string instrument played in select areas of Senegal, Guinea, Mali, Guinea Bissau and The Gambia. It’s helped generations of storytellers pass on oral histories and is shrouded in folklore, dating back more than 300 years. The kora is also increasingly recognised internationally, thanks to Grammy Award-winning artist Toumani Diabaté, who took its soft, melodic sound to a global stage.

On Senegal’s Atlantic coast, the fishing village of Kafountine welcomes travellers interested in learning this harp-lute. Run by a British family, The Kora Workshop holds week-long courses, with opportunities to explore the local beach and Kafountine’s busy markets, where stalls overflow with handicrafts.

7. Follow the Blues Trail in Mississippi

As the birthplace of some the world’s greatest blues artists, including BB King, Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson, the US state of Mississippi has enticed music lovers for decades. Which is why, in 2006, the Mississippi Blues Commission opened the Blues Trail, a self-guided drive dedicated to 200-plus exhibits and places that are etched into the state’s cultural history. You’ll not only see sights such as the house where Elvis was born or the Alamo Theatre, which hosted Nat King Cole and Dorothy Moore, but the very backdrop that brought the blues to life. It was in the fields of places such as Tunica and Isola that enslaved people sang songs inspired by tribal music, and it was in towns like Glen Allan and Alligator that hymns emanated from churches. Both lay the foundations for Delta blues.

Across the state, family-run cafes serve hot tamales, fresh seafood and Mississippi mud pies ­— unmissable local staples.

8. Learn to tango the Buenos Aires way

Cultour’s Tango Tour takes you deep into the heart of tango culture, beginning in the art deco neighbourhood of Abasto, where legendary singer Carlos Gardel once lived. It’s on these streets that his most famous song, Por Una Cabeza, came to life.

Today, a string of traditional parrillas (steakhouses) and elegant cafes fill Buenos Aires’s main Avenida Corrientes, but Garde’s legacy remains in the form of murals plastering the station concourse leading to subway Line B.

In San Telmo, one of the city’s oldest barrios, the Casa Ezeiza mansion marks one of the spots where tango is said to have originated during the late 1800s. Wander along Calle Balcarce, famous for its baroque-style buildings and softly lit tanguerias (tango dance halls) or stop off at Plaza Dorrego, the vibrant central square, for pop-up performances. You might even have the chance to join a street tango session.