May is the month that signals the start of summer in Europe’s coastal resorts. Temperatures in Mediterranean, Aegean and Ionian waters start to rise, many of the region’s lidos and beach clubs open, and Ibiza's superclub season gets underway with big launch parties.
There are plenty of seaside arts festivals kicking off, too. Notably Brighton Festival (6-28 May 2023) in the UK — a mega multi-arts event taking over the Sussex coastal city, with a programme large enough to warrant its own fringe event — and Primavera Sound in Spain, which brings international pop and electro acts to Barcelona (29 May-4 June 2023), then Porto and Madrid in early June.
Out in the water, there's the arrival of migratory marine life. Whale sharks start appearing around the Ningaloo Reef off the coast of Western Australia. In Madeira, there will be a surge in sightings of blue whales, pods of dolphins and sea turtles, as whale-watching season kicks off. And in Scotland, May heralds the arrival of more orcas. If you’re lucky, you might spot them on the Hebridean Whale Trail, which skirts the northwest Highlands, the isle of Skye and the Hebrides.
Nature also springs into life in the UK and Ireland's ancient woodlands at this time of year, with carpets of bluebells blooming, usually between mid-April and mid-May, and dedicated trails opening in National Trust estates so fans can stroll among them.
Guernsey, Channel Islands
Spring in the UK’s Channel Islands is a season of celebration, with a bevy of high-profile events including the Guernsey Literary Festival (2-14 May 2023). This two-week book bonanza features more than 50 events including local and international authors introducing their new titles with readings, signings and Q&As, along with illustration classes for kids and book-themed tea parties.
For lovers of the outdoors, there’s also Guernsey’s annual Spring Walking Festival, which arrives towards the end of the month (20 May-4 June 2023) with organised hikes, foraging tours, guided rambles and urban walks taking in Guernsey’s fascinating geology, winding coastline, World War history and abundant displays of bluebells and spring flowers. Liberation Day (9 May) commemorates the island’s freedom from German occupation during World War II with celebrations and fireworks over St Peter Port.
Sustainable travel tip: It’s easy to reach Guernsey by public transport. Book a ferry from either Poole (3hrs) or Portsmouth (usually the cheapest, less weather-reliant option, taking around 7hrs). Both departure ports are easily accessible by train from elsewhere in the UK.
Paris, France
La Nuit des Musées (Night of the Museums) is just one excuse to book a trip to Paris in the spring. This annual event, usually held on the third Saturday of the month (13 May 2023) sees numerous arts and culture institutions in the French capital offer free admission, keeping doors open as late as midnight, with special illuminations and DJ sessions.
May is also a great time to explore Paris as an open-air gallery: works by contemporary artists are displayed in the garden of the Fondation Cartier; the seven-acre garden of the Musée Rodin is punctuated by the sculptor’s works; and the Musée Bourdelle has monumental sculptures amid the greenery. The forecourt palisades at Notre-Dame Cathedral are currently displaying a free exhibition of drawings depicting its ongoing reconstruction work, while the Tuileries Tunnel, a defunct underground road link, became an 800-metre-long street-art gallery last year, with Paris-themed murals by European artists including Andrea Ravo Mattoni, Hydrane and Madame.
Sustainable travel tip: Make your way by train and explore by bike with bike-share rental schemes, which include e-bike options. If you visit on the first Sunday of the month, the centre of Paris will be closed to traffic.
Memphis, USA
During Memphis in May, artists, musicians and chefs converge on the Tennessee home of blues, soul and rock ‘n’ roll for a month-long festival, each year focused on a different foreign destination – last year it was Ghana and this year it will be Malaysia. Expect street music, BBQ cook-offs and sports events including the Great American River Run along the banks of the Mississippi. A £49.5m transformation of riverfront Tom Lee Park brings new pavilions, sound gardens and the Canopy Walk — an elevated trail connecting the park to downtown — while recent urban investment has created a hotel boom, with many new openings in revived historic buildings, including an old train stop reborn as Central Station, and chic neighbourhood hotel Arrive in a former art school. The city’s restaurants, too, are shifting from traditional meat-focused models, with a burgeoning number of creative vegan restaurants.
Sustainable travel tip: Memphis has 400 miles of bike trails, including the recently launched Wolf River Greenway via the Mississippi River to Shelby Farms Greenline, an old railway track leading to one of the USA’s largest urban parks. Spring is also a fine time to explore the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, when wildflowers are in bloom and mating fireflies light up forests.
Madeira, Portugal
This autonomous island outpost of Portugal, set in the subtropical waters off northwest Africa, has become something of a hub for nature and adventure travel. Surrounded by wildlife-rich Atlantic swells with sizeable surf breaks and wreck-dive sites, Madeira’s thickly forested interior is famed for its 1,350-mile network of levadas — old aqueducts that have created one of the most novel terrains for hiking in Europe. Here, self-guided walks offer panoramic views and guided tours reveal Madeira’s botanical secrets, including carpets of wildflowers in spring and early summer.
The island holds its annual flower festival in May with a floral float parade in the capital of Funchal, where parks and greenspaces are bright with blooms. There’s ample opportunity for canyoning and coasteering activities across the island’s steep, craggy cliffs and chains of waterfalls, while whale-watching season starts around this time of year, too.
Sustainable travel tip: Several species of whale can be found in Madeira’s waters from May to September, including the blue whale, Bryde’s whale and sperm whale plus pods of dolphins and sea turtles. Sail with tour operators who are certified by wildlife conservation organisations including the World Cetacean Alliance, such as Lobosonda, some of whose trips are aboard a traditional wooden sailing boat.
Australia
As autumn and winter hit the south-coast cities Down Under, May is an excellent time to take an adventure into the Outback — especially with the recent opening of two new spectacles in the Northern Territory. The first, Wintjiri Wiru, is the long-awaited sound and light show at Uluru. With a name that suggests a ‘beautiful view out to the horizon’ in the local Anangu language, the immersive performance will include a choreographed sequence of 1,000 luminous drones lifting ancient Indigenous images to the sky, telling a chapter of the Mala ancestral story from Uluru and Kaltukatjara (Docker River).
It will be the first projection and drone show of this scale to run as a regular attraction anywhere, and has been created in a partnership between Voyages Indigenous Tourism Australia and the Anangu — custodians of the region and one of the world’s oldest living continuous cultures. Visitors will view it from a sustainably built platform atop a desert dune.
Another immersive, large-scale artwork to land in Australia’s Red Centre is Light-Towers. This new installation by British/Australian artist Bruce Munro features 69 two-metre-high towers that change colour in keeping with the music that plays from within them. It will be the second Outback art piece from Munro, whose Field of Light was installed at Uluru in 2016.
Sustainable travel tip: Since 2019, climbing Uluru has been banned. But there are numerous respectful and adventurous ways to experience Australia’s ‘spiritual centre’. Bike and hike tours around the base get you up close to the rock, with interpretation from local Indigenous storytellers. Or try an eco-certified tour by camel (a creature that’s roamed the outback since the 1800s) — a novel way to beat the heat and snag that spectacular red rock photo.
