Before you book
Travel Guide
Honest, practical guidance on each destination — when to go, what genuinely deserves your time, what paperwork you need and how many nights the place actually warrants.
17 guides
India destination guides
Kashmir
The valley that earns the cliché
Kashmir is the one Indian destination that consistently exceeds expectations. Dal Lake at dawn, the meadows above Pahalgam, the gondola at Gulmarg climbing into snow — it delivers scenery that competes with Switzerland at a fraction of the cost.
North India
Mountains, monuments and the Ganga
North India holds the country's most recognisable images — the Taj Mahal at dawn, snow on the Pir Panjal, aarti on the Ganga at Varanasi, the Golden Temple lit at night — and they are close enough together to combine into one trip.
Himachal Pradesh
Hill stations and high passes
Himachal is the Himalayan state that works for everyone — Shimla and Manali for families wanting comfort and cool air, Spiti and Kinnaur for travellers wanting genuine high-altitude wilderness, and Dharamshala for something quieter in between.
South India
Backwaters, temples and hill stations
South India moves at a different pace and rewards it. Kerala's backwaters, Tamil Nadu's temple towns, Karnataka's ruins and coffee country, and a coastline on both sides — with food that alone justifies the trip.
Kerala
Backwaters, tea hills and Ayurveda
Kerala is the most complete short holiday in India — hill country, backwaters, wildlife and beaches within a few hours of each other, connected by good roads and served by hotels that consistently outperform their price.
Rajasthan
Forts, palaces and desert
Rajasthan is India at its most cinematic — hill forts, lake palaces, painted cities and camel camps in the Thar. It is also one of the easiest states to travel in, with good roads linking cities that are each worth two nights.
Goa
Two coastlines, two moods
Goa is really two destinations. The north is busy, social and endlessly entertaining; the south is quiet, green and largely about doing very little. Choosing the wrong one is the most common Goa mistake.
Andaman Islands
India's clearest water
The Andamans give you Southeast Asian water without a passport. Radhanagar Beach at Havelock is regularly ranked among Asia's finest, the diving is excellent, and the colonial history at Cellular Jail adds weight to what is otherwise a pure beach trip.
Uttarakhand
Char Dham, tigers and the Ganga
Uttarakhand carries India's most important Himalayan pilgrimage circuit alongside Jim Corbett's tigers, Rishikesh's rafting and hill stations that have been drawing people out of Delhi's heat for a century and a half.
Ladakh
High desert, high altitude
Ladakh is the most dramatic landscape in India and the one that demands the most respect. At 3,500 metres in Leh and higher on the passes, altitude governs everything about how the trip is planned.
Sikkim & Darjeeling
Kanchenjunga, tea and monasteries
Sikkim and Darjeeling sit beneath Kanchenjunga, the world's third-highest peak, and on a clear morning the view from Tiger Hill or Gangtok's ridge is one of the great Himalayan panoramas.
North East India
Living root bridges and one-horned rhino
Meghalaya, Assam and Arunachal remain among the least-visited parts of India, which is precisely their appeal — living root bridges, the world's wettest villages, Kaziranga's rhinos and a culture entirely distinct from the mainland.
Golden Triangle
Delhi, Agra and Jaipur
The Golden Triangle remains the best first trip in India and the most efficient — three cities, roughly four hours apart by road, covering Mughal, colonial and Rajput India in under a week.
Varanasi
The oldest living city
Varanasi is not a comfortable destination and it is not meant to be. It is among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, and everything about it — the ghats, the cremations, the aarti, the lanes — operates on a logic that predates tourism entirely.
Amritsar
The Golden Temple, and the food
Amritsar is a two-night city that consistently leaves a stronger impression than its size suggests — the Golden Temple at night, the langar that feeds tens of thousands daily, Jallianwala Bagh next door and the Wagah border ceremony at sunset.
Meghalaya
Abode of clouds
Meghalaya is waterfalls, caves, root bridges and rain on a scale found almost nowhere else. It is also refreshingly uncrowded, with a matrilineal Khasi culture that makes it feel distinct from anywhere else in India.
Gujarat
Lions, white desert and stepwells
Gujarat holds the only wild Asiatic lions on earth, a salt desert that turns white under a full moon, and stepwells whose engineering is centuries ahead of their time — yet it sees a fraction of the visitors of neighbouring Rajasthan.
23 guides
International destination guides
Dubai
Skyline, desert and old creek
Dubai compresses an enormous amount into a city you can cross in forty minutes. In four nights you can go up the world's tallest building, ride a camel over a dune, haggle in a spice souk that has not changed in a century and ski indoors — which is precisely why it works so well as a short international break.
Europe
Old cities, high mountains, fast trains
Europe remains the benchmark international holiday for Indian travellers, and for good reason: a dozen genuinely different countries sit within a few hours of each other, connected by trains and motorways that make multi-country routes practical rather than exhausting.
Singapore
The city that works
Singapore is the most frictionless international destination in Asia. Everything runs on time, English is the working language, Tamil is an official one, and the entire island can be crossed by a spotless metro system for the price of a coffee.
Southeast Asia
Short flights, long value
Southeast Asia is where most Indian travellers take their first international holiday, and where experienced travellers keep returning. Flights are short, visas are straightforward, and the rupee stretches further here than almost anywhere else.
Middle East
Three hours away, a world apart
The Gulf is the closest genuinely international holiday to India — under four hours from most metros, with a large Indian community, familiar food and a startling amount packed into a small area.
Thailand
Beaches, temples and the best food in Asia
Thailand has been the default first international holiday for Indian travellers for two decades, and it has earned the position. Short flights, straightforward entry, exceptional value and a genuine choice between city energy, island calm and northern hill country.
Bali
Rice terraces, clifftop temples, warm water
Bali is a small Hindu island in the world's largest Muslim country, and that single fact shapes everything about it — the temples, the offerings on every doorstep, the ceremonies that stop traffic. It is also a superb beach and honeymoon destination, provided you understand that the island is bigger and slower to cross than the photographs suggest.
Switzerland
The Alps, at their most photogenic
Switzerland is the most-requested destination in Europe for Indian travellers, and the scenery genuinely justifies the reputation. It is also the most expensive country in Europe, which makes planning it properly the difference between a memorable trip and an uncomfortable one.
France
Paris, and everything after it
Most Indian itineraries treat France as Paris plus a day trip, which sells the country short — but Paris alone justifies the journey. It is a city that rewards walking more than ticking, and three nights is the minimum that feels like a visit rather than a transit.
Italy
Ruins, canals and the world's best food
Italy is the European country that most rewards slowing down. Rome, Florence and Venice each deserve two nights minimum, and the fast trains between them make a three-city route genuinely comfortable rather than a scramble.
Maldives
One island, one resort, nothing else
The Maldives is not a country you tour; it is a resort you choose. Each island holds exactly one property, so the decision you make at booking determines the entire holiday — the beach, the reef, the food, the price and the atmosphere.
Mauritius
Beaches with a country attached
Mauritius offers what the Maldives cannot: a real island with mountains, waterfalls, markets, tea estates and towns, alongside beaches that stand comparison with anywhere. For travellers who would get restless on a single resort island, it is the better choice.
Vietnam
Limestone bays and lantern-lit streets
Vietnam has become the fastest-rising destination in Southeast Asia for Indian travellers, and the appeal is easy to understand — Ha Long Bay's limestone islands, Hoi An's lantern-lit old town and some of the best value in the region.
Sri Lanka
An island that changes every two hours
Sri Lanka packs beaches, hill country, ancient cities, tea estates and leopard-rich national parks into an island you can drive across in a day. For Indian travellers it is close, affordable, culturally familiar and shares our time zone entirely.
Japan
Bullet trains, temples and cherry blossom
Japan rewards travellers who like precision. Trains leave to the second, cities are immaculate, and the gap between a thousand-year-old temple and a neon intersection is often a ten-minute walk. It is also more navigable for a first-timer than its reputation suggests.
Turkey
Where two continents meet
Turkey gives you Roman ruins, Byzantine churches, Ottoman mosques, hot-air balloons over fairy chimneys and a coastline on the Mediterranean — at prices well below Western Europe and with no Schengen application to navigate.
Australia
Reef, rock and very good cities
Australia is a long flight and a serious budget, so it works best as a properly planned two-week trip rather than a quick sampler. Done well, it delivers the Great Barrier Reef, world-class cities and landscapes that exist nowhere else.
New Zealand
The world's best driving country
New Zealand is small, empty and astonishingly varied — glaciers, fjords, volcanoes, geothermal fields and beaches within a few hours of each other. It is also the finest self-drive country on earth, and it is genuinely worth hiring the car.
Egypt
Five thousand years, still standing
Egypt is a history trip above all else, and it delivers on a scale that photographs never quite convey. The Pyramids, the Valley of the Kings and the temples at Luxor and Abu Simbel are among the oldest things humans have built that are still standing.
South Africa
Safari, wine country and a table-topped mountain
South Africa is the most complete safari destination for a first-time visitor to Africa — it combines the Big Five with a world-class city, a wine region, a spectacular coastal drive and infrastructure that simply works.
United Kingdom
History, countryside and no language barrier
The UK is the easiest European country for Indian travellers in every respect except cost — no language barrier, a large Indian community, superb Indian food and a rail network that makes London, Scotland and the countryside all reachable.
Azerbaijan
Europe's price, Asia's flight time
Baku has become one of the most popular new destinations for Indian travellers, and the logic is straightforward — a short flight, a simple e-visa, European-looking architecture and prices well below Western Europe.
Nepal
The Himalaya, up close
Nepal is the most accessible international destination for Indian travellers — no visa, a short flight or an overland drive, the rupee widely accepted, and the highest mountains on earth visible from a hotel terrace in Pokhara.