If you love the delicate, poignant beauty of Japan’s cherry blossom season, you’ll be happy to know that these destinations are also home to a variety of cherry trees that bloom at different times of the year. Spanning the globe, from their most famous home in Japan to neighbouring countries and beyond, here is where you can admire these delicate blooms on your next holiday, whenever that may be.
January to February: Taiwan, Japan and Thailand
From late January to February, catch cherry blossoms in Taiwan, particularly in Taipei’s Yangmingshan National Park and Taichung’sWuling Farm. The bright pink blooms you will see here are from the Kanzakura cherry tree which can also be found in Vietnam and China.
Over in Japan, viewing cherry blossoms this early in the year is possible down south in Okinawa where they bloom mid-January to early February. Make trips out to see the Kanzakura variety, which blooms a beautiful dark pink, over in Nago and on Mount Yaedake, the tallest mountain on the Motobu Peninsula which also hosts a cherry blossom festival later in the year.
Another surprising destination for January blossoms is Chiang Mai in Thailand, where wild Himalayan cherry blossoms grow in the Doi Inthanon National Park and the Royal Agricultural Station Angkhang.
March to April: Japan, South Korea and the United States
As any cherry blossom fan will know, these months are prime time to view the flowering trees in central Japan, with most of them blooming in late March to early April in popular areas like Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya. Unfortunately, it’s also when you’re most likely to have to fight the crowds, so do consider flying into one of these hubs and then travelling a bit further afield to see them. One such option is to fly into Osaka and then travel further afield throughout Nara prefecture to Mount Yoshino, where there are plenty of blooms and a lot less people. Or use Nagoya as a base and travel around the Aichi prefecture where there are less tourists.
In South Korea, visitors can see cherry blossoms during this time in Seoul. It’s also worth travelling further afield to places like Jinhae (three hours away by train) where an annual cherry blossom festival is held, and Gyeongju, a coastal town accessible from Busan which also hosts its own cherry blossom festival.
The United States can also be a great cherry blossom destination with blooms flourishing in a number of cities like Seattle, San Francisco and New York. Japantown in San Francisco is particularly good for viewing them while the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in New York has a “cherrywatch” map that is updated daily so no one misses when their 26 species of flowers bloom.
May to June: Northern Japan and Europe
As Spring travels north in Japan, destinations such as Hokkaido start exhibiting cherry blossoms from early May onwards. Sapporo and Hakodate both are visually stunning with trees in bloom.
This is also the time to see cherry blossoms in Europe, when countries such as France, Germany and Sweden have their trees blooming. The best time to see these are in early May with the blossoms visible in Paris and Bonn (just an hour-long train ride from Frankfurt).
Perhaps the best place to visit is Copenhagen in Denmark, where a two-day sakura party celebrates Japanese culture and the 200 cherry trees that were a gift from Hiroshima. The trees were planted in Langelinie Park and bloom late April to early May.
September to October: Australia and New Zealand
The southern hemisphere experiences Spring during these months which means cherry blossoms are in bloom in both Australia and New Zealand.
From mid-September to October, visit the Melbourne Botanic Gardens to witness their beauty, or travel out of Sydney to the Blue Mountains where they bloom in the towns of Leura and Katoomba. There is also the Sydney Cherry Blossom Festival held at Auburn Botanic Gardens in the city. In New Zealand, Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington are all great places to catch these transient blooms with parks home to an ample number of trees.
For more information on Singapore Airlines flights to these destinations, visit singaporeair.com.
