The Best Places to Travel in February

With a chill in the air we head into February literally and figuratively cold, with no idea what those rodents we trust as meteorologists will predict on Groundhog Day, February 2nd. Will it be six more weeks of a holed-up winter? Or will it be an early, forgiving spring? Like pretty much every single day of the last few years, the answer is: Who knows! (Certainly not our friend Punxsutawney Phil, whose accuracy rate is an underwhelming 39%. You’d be better off flipping a coin.)

We do know, however, that February is a time for irreverent fun. There are wacky barstool races in Montana, underground runs in Kansas City, and ice sculpting competitions in Fairbanks. There’s desert warmth and a really cool airport in Palm Springs—plus slick architecture, for the city’s celebrated Modernism week. There’s Black history in Tulsa, Super Bowl shenanigans in New Orleans, fake fire in Yosemite and real fire in Barcelona. No matter what happens, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel (and shimmering down a cliff).

We won’t know for a while who will be playing in Super Bowl LIX on February 9th. We do know, however, that Kendrick Lamar is performing the halftime show, and that’s reason enough for us to make plans to head to New Orleans. It will be the 11th time the city’s hosted the big game, the first since 2013 (when Beyoncé performed and the lights went out in the third quarter), which ties it with Miami for hosting the most Super Bowls. It’s also the first in the renovated Superdome, now called the Caesars Superdome, which will be celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2025.

This is New Orleans, so make sure you touch down early. The day before the Super Bowl there will be a Mardi Gras-style parade rolling through the French Quarter, with marching bands, stomping groups, and a 20-float procession. Riding the floats will be famous Crescent City and Louisiana locals, including Raising Cane’s billionaire founder Todd Graves, who will be the grand marshal. If you want actual Mardi Gras rather than Mardi Gras-style, you’re in luck, as this year’s Carnival season runs January 6 through to Fat Tuesday on March 4. There are parades held around the city, which increase in both frequency and intensity as the season goes on.

A trip to Palm Springs is like stepping back in time. This California hotspot holds the largest concentration of preserved mid-century modern architecture in the world, with architects like John Lautner, who studied under Frank Lloyd Wright, and Albert Frey, who studied under Le Corbusier, adapting the attractive modernist style to the landscape (check out Frey’s cool Tramway Gas Station, now the Palm Springs Visitor Center). Indoor and outdoor spaces are blended, gaping windows bring in sunlight, and roofs are careful not to obstruct spectacular mountain views. Even their airport is spectacular.

You can see these architectural wonders—including homes once owned by stars like Frank Sinatra, William Holden, Kirk Douglas, and Magda Gabor—during Modernism Week (February 13–23), an annual celebration of architecture and Palm Springs’s vintage fun-in-the-sun lifestyle. Take bus or walking tours, check out a classic car or fashion show, attend a throwback concert, and hear lectures. Maybe you’ll get a chance to check out the Dinah Shore Estate, a true mid-century example designed by Donald Wexler, now owned by Leonardo DiCaprio. Either way, when you’re in Palm Springs, you should eat some dates.

Sure, a summer music festival is nice. But the best music festivals happen in the colder months, where you can dance with abandon and not worry about generating copious amounts of sweat. Add to that some powder that sparkles in the sunlight and the ability to come right from some time on the ski slopes, and it’s downright magic. That’s what you’ll find at the Palm Tree Festival in Aspen, happening February 21–22. The name is tongue-in-cheek, but you can still show up in a Hawaiian shirt, if that’s your vibe, for electronic acts like Kygo and Fisher.

And while you’re there you might as well eat well. Not only is the W Hotel in Aspen a stellar spot for a rooftop sunset, they’ve also upped the après-ski (or après-concert) game, recently debuting a new bar concept, HIDALGO, by Dushan Zarić, the drinks wizard behind bars like Macao Trading Co. and Employees Only (which celebrates 20 years this year at its original location in New York). Through April 2025 the W is also home to a takeover by HaSalon, the Mediterranean restaurant-slash-nightlife spot by celebrity chef and MasterChef judge Eyal Shani, to help take the party vibes from day to night.

You can catch one of the coolest natural spectacles in America in northern California’s Yosemite National Park in February when the 2,000-foot-tall Horsetail Fall, located on the eastern face of the El Capitan monolith, turns into lava. Well, okay, not quite. From February 8 to 23 during the 10 minutes before and after sunset on a clear day, the sun hits the upper reaches of the flowing waterfall in such a way that it looks like a cascade of fiery orange-red lava. It’s called Firefall, and it’s very surprising that that’s not also the name of a James Bond film.

Reservations are now required for the weekends February 8–9, February 15–17, and February 22–23, but on any non-weekend day, you’re good to go. You’ll be parking at Yosemite Falls, one and a half miles away from the viewing area, and if that’s full, there’s a shuttle from other parking lots. Bring a flashlight and dress warmly, with shoes for traction. (This is Yosemite in February.) For more details and up-to-date restrictions, visit the official park website.

Though they may look tough on the outside, the lives of cowboys and cowgirls are really pure poetry—becoming one with wild beings, roaming open land, learning the rhythm of their surroundings under expansive open sky. If you'd like to explore the softer side of the Wild West head to Elko, Nevada, where National Cowboy Poetry Gathering kicks off on January 27 and wraps up on February 1st. First starting out as a small gathering of poets and folklorists, it’s grown to an international phenomenon, drawing all manner of wordsmiths to the Western Folklife Center on the corner of Railroad and Idaho streets.

Then make it a two-fer in West Texas for the Lone Star Poetry Gathering in Alpine (February 20 to 22), which picks up where the Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering left off after 33 years in 2019. There are chuckwagon breakfasts, suppers, readings and performances, including something called “Cowpuncher Songs: Old and New.” It apparently sounds more violent than it is: “cowpuncher” is just another nickname for cowboy. Also on the roster is one of our faves, Amy Hale, who you can read all about here.

If you like the cold, might as well go all in. And all the way up. From February 17 to March 2 Fairbanks, Alaska hosts the 2025 World Ice Art Championships, when luminous displays made by some ridiculously talented people pop up in a pretty “cool” art gallery. About 50 miles north of Fairbanks is Chena Hot Springs: part resort, part hot springs in a natural steamy lake with mysterious healing properties and which also houses Aurora Ice Bar, in the year-round Aurora Ice Museum, where you’ll sip cocktails in glasses carved out of ice.

Because Fairbanks is under the “Auroral Oval,” a ring-shaped zone over the far north where aurora activity is concentrated, it’s also an outstanding location to spot the northern lights. Rent a home, stay at somewhere like Borealis Basecamp, or stick around Chena, where you can view the dancing lights with a side of soak.

February is considered the low season in Barcelona, which makes it a great time for the crowd-averse to come though. You won’t have to worry about getting museum tickets, or the notoriously difficult entry into La Sagrada Familia. It might be a tad too chilly for the beaches, but otherwise the city is your tapas restaurant, with plenty of experiences to savor.

And one of those is the February 12th’s festival of Santa Eulàlia, named in tribute to one of two patron saints of the city, a 13-year-old girl who stood her ground and protested the persecution of Christians, and ended up losing her life over it. It’s smaller than most of the city’s festivals, but offers a sampling of cultural fare like sardana dances —a traditional Catalan dance that emerged in the Renaissance—a parade, human towers in the diada castellera, where towers are built as high as ten stories, and a fire run through the streets, with pyrotechnics and beasts including devils and dragons. (Subtle, this festival is not.)

In recent years Tulsa has transformed itself from a somewhat overlooked Midwestern city to an urban hub of innovation, differentiating itself with incredible public parks, a museum inspired wholly by the movie The Outsiders, and its own Walk of Fame honoring Oklahomans like Gene Autry and Kristin Chenoweth. It apparently also houses the Center of the Universe, and architecture aficionados will also want to visit the treasure trove of Art Deco constructions. Recently it’s also been amping up its filming cred: in addition to being a filming location of Reservation Dogs it’s currently the location of The Sensitive Kind, a new FX series starring Ethan Hawke and Kyle McLachlan.

But for all its looking forward it has also taken steps to remember its Black history. Despite being formed as a result of Jim Crow segregation, Tulsa’s Greenwood District was a thriving and prosperous Black community before 35 blocks were destroyed by a group of white residents in a horrific 1921 race massacre. In 2021 a new museum opened honoring its legacy and overarching systems of anti-Blackness in America through immersive exhibits and technology including holograms. Greenwood Rising is dedicated to the history of what was known as Black Wall Street and how it continues to inform the city’s—and the country’s—present.

You know when it’s been cold for so long you can’t help but get a little… nutty? In Martin City, Montana they sure do. And they go all in, for decades honoring that feeling with the annual Cabin Fever Days (February 14–16), a rowdy weekend where the usually subdued region gets silly in the snow, for charity.

Picture it: you’re at the bottom of a steep slope, snow as far as the eye can see. You’re gazing up, and over the hump comes… a barstool on skis, speedy and unwieldy, and the rider looks like they’re either holding on for dear life or having one hell of a time. While Cabin Fever Days has more “traditional” events like egg and spoon races and snowshoe softball, the main attraction is the wild and wacky Barstool Ski Races. Participants—which could be you!—compete in four categories: steerable, non-steerable (AKA traditional), open class, and show class, which is where you’ll find your more creative setups like a live band on skis. Come for the antics, stay for the elk sausage.

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