Indien

Unfairly overlooked by many travelers scurrying between Mumbai and Rajasthan, Gujarat is an easy, and highly rewarding, sidestep off the tourist trail. While its major city Ahmedabad can draw you in with its deep sense of culture and remarkable architecture, the countryside holds most of the state’s many treasures. Artisans in tribal villages weave, embroider, dye and print some of India’s finest textiles, and excellent parks harbour unique wildlife, including migratory birds, wild asses and growling prides of Asiatic lions. Sacred Jain and Hindu pilgrimage sites sit atop mountains that rise dramatically from vast flatlands. For lovers of sand and sea, the chilled-out, former Portuguese island enclave of Diu lies just off the state's southeastern coast.

One of India’s most relaxed state capitals, Panaji (Panjim) crowds around the peninsula overlooking the broad Mandovi River, where cruise boats and floating casinos ply the waters, and advertising signs cast neon reflections in the night.

Tamil Nadu is the homeland of one of humanity’s living classical civilisations, stretching back uninterrupted for two millennia and very much alive today in the Tamils' language, dance, poetry and forms of Hinduism.

When Swiss architect Le Corbusier was commissioned with the job of designing Chandigarh from scratch in 1950, he conceived a people-oriented city of sweeping boulevards, lakes, gardens and grand civic buildings, executed in his favourite material: reinforced concrete. Seventy years on and the parks, monuments and civic squares are all still here, albeit somewhat aged.

The beating heart of India, this incredible neighborhood will knock you sideways with the power of its sights, sounds and smells, and with its unrelenting chaos. But if you can survive that first hit, you'll soon realize you've just landed in one of the world's truly special places. Prepare to be amazed.

Den före detta portugisiska kolonin Diu ligger utanför delstaten Gujarat i nordvästra Indien. Tack vare sina liberala alkoholregler är Diu känd som en party-ö.

With shimmering turquoise waters fringed by primeval jungle, fantastic diving, and sugar-white, sun-toasted beaches melting under flame-and-purple sunsets, the far-flung Andaman Islands are the perfect Indian escape.

Visakhapatnam – also called Vizag (vie-zag) – is Andhra Pradesh’s largest city, famous for steel and its big port, but also doubling as a beach resort for sea-breeze-seeking domestic tourists. During the main December–February holiday season there's a distinctly kitschy vibe, with camel rides and thousands of bathers (though no swimmers).

The Taj Mahal rises from Agra's haze as though from a dream. You’ve seen it in pictures, but experiencing it in person, you'll understand that it's not just a famous monument, but a love poem composed of stone. When you first glimpse it through the arched entryway, you might find yourself breathless with awe. Many hail it as the most beautiful building on the planet.

Founded in 1577 by the fourth Sikh guru, Guru Ram Das, Amritsar is home to the spectacular Golden Temple, Sikhism's holiest shrine and one of India’s most serene and humbling sights. The hyperactive streets surrounding the temple have been calmed to some extent by recent urban landscaping, including graceful pedestrianised walkways, but duck into any side alley and you’ll soon discover Amritsar’s fantastically frenetic old-city bazaars, sheltering a sensory overload of sights, sounds and smells.