Lunar New Year celebrations that go beyond tradition

For generations of celebrants around the world, Lunar New Year has long been synonymous with homecoming. It’s an occasion marked by reunion dinners and the familiar choreography of red packets and age-old rituals. Yet in recent years, the way people choose to spend the season has begun to evolve.

The 2025 Lunar New Year travel period was the busiest chunyun, or “Spring Festival travel rush”, on record in the Chinese Mainland, with 14 million border crossings during the public holidays. Growth was observed to both regional and long-haul destinations, including South East Asian countries, Australia and Europe – with a spike in car hire showing a move away from group tours. More than 500 million people also travelled domestically, marking a 5.9 per cent year-on-year increase, according to official figures.

A growing appetite for travel has opened the door to new ways of welcoming the year ahead. Especially for younger, more adventurous travellers, Lunar New Year no longer has to mean choosing between tradition and exploration. Increasingly, it’s about weaving the two together.

For Chongqing-based travel blogger Brodon Wang, this shift reflects a broader change in how the holiday is understood. “As people born in the 1980s and ’90s have started having families of their own, Lunar New Year traditional customs have been slowly fading. The holiday feels more like a break now. People care more about how they feel, not about following rituals.”

For Wang, the decision to spend Lunar New Year on a tea estate in Yunnan last year replaced the concept of gathering around a table with gathering on the road. “We used to think New Year was about visiting relatives and attending dinners,” she says. “Now we want to travel with family members, to be together while experiencing somewhere new.” The result, she adds, is a holiday that feels lighter, healthier and more intentional.

From quiet tea estates to high-altitude adventures, these Lunar New Year celebrations carry the same underlying spirit: to begin the year with purpose and meaning.

1. Toast in tea country, Chinese Mainland

Slower, more personal celebrations are evident in places like Yunnan. Tea tourism has gained traction here in recent years, driven by the region’s production of Pu’er – an aged, fermented tea known for its earthy complexity and commonly given as a gift.

At Yinsheng Tea Manor, outside Pu’er City, you can join guided tea activities that include picking fresh leaves, learning basic processing techniques and pressing Pu’er tea cakes. The estate also offers onsite accommodation, allowing you to stay and learn about tea production.

2. Rev up for the new year, Vietnam

Want to zoom into the new year with serious horsepower? Celebrate Tet in Vietnam by venturing off the beaten path and discovering breathtaking scenery on two wheels. Vietnam Motorcycle Tours offers a range of adventures, from a leisurely day ride to a tea plantation in the Thu Bon River basin, to the legendary eight-day Ha Giang loop. For the ultimate journey, embark on an epic, two-week ride from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City. You’ll roar past beaches and through rolling countryside while visiting Unesco World Heritage sites, sampling authentic Vietnamese cuisine and meeting locals.

3. Canter through Joshua Tree, US

If the Year of the Horse calls for a different kind of beginning, consider starting it from the saddle. Just over two hours east of Los Angeles, Knob Hill Ranch in the Yucca Valley offers guided horse rides through the high desert near Joshua Tree National Park.

You’ll follow miles of equestrian trails that wind through slot canyons, dry washes and wide-open landscapes rarely glimpsed on foot or wheels. In a year symbolised by the free-spirited horse, the experience feels both fitting and elemental.

4. Kayak by moonlight, Australia

Just a couple of hours’ drive from Adelaide, in South Australia’s picturesque Riverland region, guided full-moon kayaking tours offer a more tranquil way to mark the turn of the year.

The full moon, associated with reunion, reflection and the passing of time in Chinese culture, is a ubiquitous symbol in food, literature and festivals. Seen through that lens, a full-moon kayaking tour on the balmy waters of the southern hemisphere feels like a continuation of tradition.

You’ll spend the evening on the water, paddling slowly as the moon rises and the sounds of the river abate to near silence – a celebration that leaves you uplifted and restored.

5. Take a leap of faith, New Zealand

For a memorable start to the year, few experiences are as liberating as a skydive over New Zealand’s dramatic landscape. The moment you step from one of Nzone Skydive ’s custom-designed Cessna aircraft, the world becomes pure sensation: crisp alpine air rushes past as the scenery expands in breathtaking detail.

Last year, divers at the Queenstown skydiving centre dressed as Choi Sun, the Chinese god of wealth, to welcome the Year of the Snake – their scarlet robes fluttering in freefall against the blue sky before their parachutes bloomed open.

Few ways of celebrating compare to watching the earth rise to meet you as you greet the new year in unforgettable, utterly exhilarating style.