Indien

A favourite destination for adventurous travelers, Odisha (Orissa) rewards those who make the effort to stray off the beaten track with an intricate patchwork of archaeological wonders, fascinating tribal culture, and natural beauty, along with an old-fashioned sprinkling of sun and sand.

Like a giant wedge plunging into the ocean, South India is the subcontinent's steamy heartland – a lush contrast to the peaks and plains up north.

Hyderabad, one of Islamic India's greatest cities, is reason enough on its own to visit this region. Its skyline is a sight to behold, defined by the great domes and minarets of ancient mosques, mausoleums and palaces of once-mighty dynasties. Delve inside the city's fabled old quarter for fascinating street markets, Sufi shrines, teahouses and biryani restaurants. Meanwhile, Hyderabad's newer districts are awash with the upmarket restaurants of IT-fuelled economic advancement.

Stretching 600km along the Brahmaputra River Valley, with a spur down to the hilly southeast, Assam is the largest and most accessible of the Northeast States. Well known for its national parks abounding in rhinoceroses, elephants, deer and primates (with respectable tiger numbers too), it welcomes visitors with a subtly flavoured cuisine and a hospitable population with a vibrant artistic heritage. The archetypal Assamese landscape is a golden-green panorama of rice fields and manicured tea estates, framed by the blue mountains of Arunachal Pradesh in the north and the highlands of Meghalaya and Nagaland to the south. The birthplace of Indian tea, Assam has more than 3000 sq km of land carpeted in bright-green tea gardens, and visits to these estates are high on many travellers' itineraries.

Anjuna has been a stalwart of the hippie scene since the 1960s and still drags out the sarongs and sandalwood each Wednesday (in season) for its famous flea market. Though it continues to pull in droves of backpackers, midrange and domestic tourists are increasingly making their way here for a dose of hippie-chic. Anjuna is continuing to evolve, with a heady beach party scene and a constant flowering of new restaurants, bars and backpacker hostels. If anything, Anjuna is having a renaissance.

Nu har du chansen att bo i ett riktigt palats. Kungligheten Maharadja Sawai Padmanabh Singh hyr nämligen ut ett rum i den i familjens slott i Jaipur via bokningssajten Airbnb. Kolla in bilderna från palatset:

Tåg genom Indien bjuder på fantastiska vyer, möten med människor och äventyr. Per J Andersson tog Ökenexpressen till Jaisalmer – här är guiden för tågresan. Plus tågtips från andra delar av Indien.

North Goa is the Goa you might have heard all about: crowded beaches, upbeat nightlife, Goan trance, cosmopolitan cuisine, hippie markets and yoga retreats. If you like a fast pace and plenty of things to do, this is the place.

With sublime silken-blonde beaches, twinkling teal shallows and some of the best diving in South Asia, thickly forested Havelock (Swaraj) enjoys the well-deserved reputation of being a travellers' paradise. Indeed, for many, Havelock is the Andamans – it's what lures most visitors across the Bay of Bengal, many of them content to stay here for the entirety of their trip.

Länge har de avlägsna öarna som tillhör Indien varit utom räckhåll för turister. Nu blir det ändring på det, efter ett beslut från landets inrikesminister.