The Rio carnival, the Monaco Grand Prix, the Tall Ships’ Races, the northern lights. They are among the world’s great spectacles, once-in-a-lifetime travel experiences packed with colour and drama and thrills. What could be better than that?

How about getting to the Rio Carnival via a paradise beach in the Caribbean? Seeing the northern lights among polar bears and reindeer on an Arctic safari? Or tying up in the harbour at Monaco for a champagne knees-up with the yachting set?

All these trips are available next year, if you team one of the blue-riband events of 2008 with a cruising holiday. The world’s leading lines now offer stylish voyages to a host of international cultural festivals and sporting showpieces. And that has its advantages, too – because booking a conventional trip to Alist events like these can be an expensive headache. They tend to be overpriced and oversubscribed. Every hotel within 100 miles hikes its room rates, and flights fill up months in advance.

By cruising, you will be taking your hotel with you – and your berth afloat often makes a perfect platform for viewing the action. Here are the best “event cruises” of 2008.

RIO CARNIVAL

This is still the world’s maddest urban extravaganza: mile-long parades, knockout costumes and unstoppable partying, all choreographed to an intoxicating samba rhythm. The processions and performances in the Sambodromo are scheduled for February 3 and 4, but the street action seems to blast on for weeks. Don’t forget your whistle. The cruise: on the 37-night Brazil and the Rio Carnival cruise, you’ll leave Southampton on January 17 aboard the three-star liner Athena. Like a Sambodromo star, she is seriously curvy – generous lounges, wraparound teak deck, and room for about 600 (mostly British) passengers.

The ship calls at Lisbon and Madeira, crosses the Atlantic and spends a day on the Caribbean island of St Vincent before cruising down the Brazilian coastline into the welcoming embrace of Christ the Redeemer. The Athena will be in port for the party for three full days before continuing to Ilheus, Natal and the Cape Verde islands, returning via Leixoes and Vigo to Southampton.

Pros and cons: cruising to Rio is relatively good for both the planet and your wallet. No flights are involved, and the holiday works out at about £60pp per day.

Carnival tickets are not included in the package, though you can book those now at www.rio-carnival.net – or wait a while and book through the cruise company later this year. Grandstand seats range from £30 to £700.

The details: from £2,299pp, through Classic International Cruises (0845 330 0387, www.cic-cruises.com).

THE SUN FESTIVAL

Egyptian pharaohs didn’t just command their people, they commanded the forces of nature. Twice a year, at Abu Simbel, the rising sun illuminates the inner sanctum of the temple of Ramses II, who ordered its alignment so that the sun’s rays would mark his ascension to the throne and his birthday – that’s February 22 and October 22 to you.

The rays light up the statues of the gods Amun-Ra and Ra-Harakhty, while Ptah, the god of darkness, remains in the shadows. When the moment has passed, there’s music, dancing, eating, drinking and shopping in the festive market outside. The cruise: the nine-night Jewel of the Nile itinerary, with On the Go Tours, departing on February 15, includes four nights aboard ship, cruising between Luxor and Aswan, three nights in a five-star hotel in Cairo, two on first-class sleeper trains and the excursion to Abu Simbel from Aswan. You’ll be aboard one of two Nile cruisers: the Royale or the Domina.

Pros and cons: the tour delivers all the marvels of ancient Egypt, with the glittering bonus of the Sun Festival thrown in. You and your shipmates won’t be alone, though, so don’t expect spiritual contemplation.

The details: from £898pp, including transfers and admission fees – or £1,198pp with flights from London to Cairo – through On the Go Tours (020 7371 1113, www.onthegotours.com).

THE DUBAI WORLD CUP

The world’s richest horse race offers a purse of about £3m – which works out at £1,400 a yard. Staged on March 29, it’s one of the great sporting spectaculars, an arid Ascot where the thoroughbreds on track compete with the fillies at the fashion shows to dazzle 65,000-strong crowds. The cruise: the week-long Jewels of the Emirates itinerary casts off from Dubai on March 22, visiting Muscat, Fujairah, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain before looping back to base for a couple of days at the races.

You’ll be aboard the 1,600-berth Costa Romantica, a “three-star plus” ship from the growing fleet run by the Italian-owned Costa Cruises. You can expect a lively, contemporary vibe, because the Costa Romantica attracts a younger than average cruising crowd.

Pros and cons: the cruise takes in a comprehensive tick list of Gulf states, and offers excellent odds of winter sun – better than your odds of picking a winner, anyway. Race tickets are not included, but online booking will soon be available at www.dubaiworldcup.com. For general information about the meeting, visit www.dubairacingclub.com.

The details: from £489pp, cruise-only, through Costa Cruises (020 7940 4499, www.costacruises.co.uk). Fly to Dubai with Emirates (0844 800 2777, www.emirates.com) or British Airways (0870 850 9850, www.ba.com); from £350.

THE MONACO GRAND PRIX

This is one of the iconic motor races, mentioned in the same reverential breath as Indianapolis and Le Mans, and made especially thrilling by the hairpins of its harbourside street circuit. Alain Prost said that racing at Monaco felt like trying to cycle around your living room. Staged on May 25, it’s the most glamorous Formula 1 gathering, as Alist yachts line up on the quayside for a champagne party. The cruise: the Silver Cloud is one of the class acts of the cruising world – an intimate all-suite vessel sleeping 296 passengers. It visits Monaco for the race as part of an eight-day trip that leaves Barcelona on May 22 and calls at Livorno, Portovenere, Civitavecchia (for Rome) and Calvi.

Pros and cons: the trimmings are exceptional – Frette linen, minibar stocked with your favourite tipple, 24-hour à la carte room service – and all are included in the price. Tickets for the Grand Prix, however, are not (book them at www.formula1monaco.com). And take earplugs, because the race is as noisy as hell.

The details: £2,236pp, including flights, through Silversea (0844 770 9030, www.silversea.com).

THE TALL SHIPS’ RACES

From July 18 to 21, to coincide with its reign as European Capital of Culture, Liverpool will crack the bottle on the world’s most sumptuous-looking sailing event, with more than 100 ships expected to line up along the Mersey. It promises to be a rabble-rousing, rum-guzzling gathering, with vessels manned mainly by young trainee sailors.

The cruise: Crystal Symphony’s 11-night Tall Ships and the Emerald Isle voyage leaves Dover on July 13, en route to Edinburgh, Dublin and Liverpool, where you’ll have fine views for the regatta while experts place the action in its historic context. The return voyage is via Belfast and Guernsey. And there’ll be no walking the plank: Crystal Symphony is a five-star liner carrying 940 passengers, all in cabins facing the sea (many have balconies), with a wraparound teak deck, a spa, a library and a choice of decent restaurants.

Pros and cons: this is a brilliant chance to inspect the British Isles with a nautical eye, with tickets to assorted maritime events and shore excursions available in Liverpool.

The details: from £2,767pp, through Crystal Cruises (020 7287 9040, www. crystalcruises.com).

THE SOLAR ECLIPSE

You remember it: 1999, everybody wearing weird plastic specs, ooohing and aaahing over a vague darkening of the sky. That European total eclipse was reckoned to be the most viewed in history – and on August 1, there’s another one. This time, however, you’ll need to be in the remoter corners of Canada, Russia or China to get the full impact – or on a cruise ship in the Arctic. The cruise: two weeks from Harwich on the 650-passenger Discovery, an attractive, unpretentious ship that visits intriguing bits of the world with guest lecturers on board. Well loved by Brits, she is small enough to reach out-of-the-way ports, but large enough to make light work of the great oceans.

Departing on July 25, you’ll play hopscotch across Norway’s islands and inlets, round the North Cape and sail along the Svalbard archipelago, where there’s a fair chance of spotting polar bears, walrus colonies, reindeer and arctic foxes. You’ll be north of Spitsbergen when you watch the plunge into darkness – made more bizarre by the Arctic summer, with its relentless, unceasing daylight.

Pros and cons: land-based locations along the narrow corridor of the eclipse are difficult and costly to reach, making the cruise option seriously attractive. But an overcast day could take the edge off the vanishing act.

The details: from £1,699pp, including parking at Harwich (or selected coach transfers) and tips, through Voyages of Discovery (01444 462150, www.voyagesofdiscovery.com).

DIDO AND AENEAS

The Roman theatre at Sabratha is in the northwestern corner of modern Libya – but don’t let that put you off. In a spectacular location on the edge of the sea, it is probably the best-preserved imperial monument of its kind, and a divine place to experience Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. The opera will be performed on October 6 by the Academy of Ancient Music, one of the world’s leading late-baroque ensembles, and it’s just one cultural highlight among many on your cruise through the southern Med in the wake of the Romans. The cruise: embarking on October 3, The Romans in Africa is a 10-day voyage that takes in Libya and Tunisia, whose cities were among the most architecturally impressive in the Greco-Roman world. You’ll enjoy performances in the theatres of Leptis Magna and Apollonia, with guided tours of other archeological sites.

The Columbus can carry 420 passengers, but on this cruise is limited to 236. Most of her cabins are sea-facing, and several have been set aside for single travellers.

Pros and cons: there are few good hotels on this 1,000-mile coastline, so exploring by cruise ship makes perfect sense. You’ll need to be agile enough to traipse over rough-strewn Roman ruins, some of which teeter on steep hillsides.

The details: from £2,540pp, including flights, meals, guides and most excursions and performances, through Martin Randall Travel (020 8742 3355, www.martinrandall.com).

THE NORTHERN LIGHTS

Scintillating arcs of silken colour flaming across the night sky – the aurora borealis has been exploding across the frozen north for the past few billion years or so. It is caused not by burning glaciers or shoals of shimmering herring (as the ancients thought), but by a solar wind of charged ions surging into the earth’s magnetosphere. But don’t worry too much about that. Sit back and enjoy a celestial dance of the seven veils. The cruise: the ships of the Hurtigruten fleet sail daily on the port-hopping route along the coast of Norway and across the Arctic. To maximise your chance of catching the light show, choose one of the northern-lights itineraries, which stay north of the Arctic Circle. Several are on offer between October and March.

Pros and cons: if the lights turn up, the ships make perfect viewing platforms as they leave behind the land’s ambient lights.

The details: a four-night circular cruise from Tromso starts at £795pp, including flights from Heathrow (regional departures by arrangement) and transfers; call 020 8846 2666 or visit www.hurtigruten.co.uk. Optional activities range from snowmobiling to dogsledding.