> ✈️ Search flights, hotels, and tours
> Compare prices across 5,000+ airlines and 1.4M+ hotels worldwide on Trip.com.
1. Fast and Furious: Hollywood Drift, Los Angeles
Universal Studios Hollywood is opening Fast and Furious: Hollywood Drift this summer, and the early ride footage looks ridiculous in the best way. You strap into a recreation of one of the franchise's iconic cars, then get spun through 360-degree rotations, high-speed sideways drifting, and inversions that tip the floor out from under you.
For a trip-builder, this is the one-day pin in a longer Southern California week. Pair it with a Venice Beach morning, a Griffith Observatory sunset, and a couple of nights wandering through East LA's food scene. The local photographers and event creators on bookingagency.io can shoot a coaster-day reel or build a private studio tour for a group.
2. The 61st Venice Biennale, Italy
The Venice Biennale takes over Venice every two years, and 2026 is its 61st edition. The historic arsenals and grand palaces become a city-sized maze of contemporary art: pavilions from over 80 countries, side shows in chapels and palazzi, installations spilling into the canals.
Buy a multi-day pass. The Giardini and Arsenale are the headliners, but the off-program shows scattered through Cannaregio and Dorsoduro often steal the visit. Mornings for art, late afternoons for spritz, evenings for the slowest dinners of your life. If you are hiring a guide or a local host, ask for someone who actually lives in Venice. The rhythm of the Biennale reads better when learned from a local who has worked three or four of them.
3. Taste of China at the Bund, Shanghai
Taste of China is a seven-course immersive dinner at the Bund that turns dinner into a slow theatrical hour with the city's history sitting at the table. Live Shaolin Kung Fu and Sichuan Opera performers work the room between courses. You can dress in Hanfu before you arrive and turn the night into a photo shoot you keep for years.
It is the kind of experience that anchors a trip rather than fills a slot. Build around it: a morning at the Yuyuan Garden, an afternoon walking the Tianzifang lanes, a slow night cruise on the Huangpu. Shanghai's creator scene is huge, so finding a photographer or videographer who knows the Bund's golden hour is easy.
> 🏨 Stay near the Bund
> Compare boutique hotels and city-view rooms across Shanghai.
> Find your stay on Trip.com →
4. Minecraft Experience: Villager Rescue, Singapore
Mandai Wildlife Reserve is hosting Minecraft's Asia debut: a real-life Villager Rescue quest where you team up, follow clues, and play your way through a fully built Minecraft world. There is exclusive merch and a limited-edition in-game cape for everyone who finishes the quest, which makes this a quietly perfect parent-friendly grail.
Singapore is small enough that you can pair this with the rest of Mandai (Night Safari, River Wonders), then close with hawker dinners and a swim at one of the reservoir parks. Travelers with kids: book early. The experience is timed-entry and the prime weekend slots will move fast.
5. The Lotus Lantern Festival, Seoul
The Lotus Lantern Festival is a 1,200-year-old UNESCO-inscribed celebration that fills Seoul with paper lanterns every spring around Buddha's birthday. The Jongno parade alone is worth the flight: thousands of lanterns shaped like lotus blossoms, dragons, and pagodas drifting down Jong-ro past Jogyesa Temple.
Make this a long weekend if you can. Daytime in Bukchon Hanok Village, evening at the lantern festival, late night at one of the rooftop bars in Itaewon or Yongsan. Seoul-based photographers know the festival angles; book one ahead of time if you want a clean set of memory-keepers.