Indien

Enthralling, historical Jaipur, Rajasthan’s capital, is the gateway to India’s most flamboyant state.

A particularly tourist-friendly region, thanks to its strong expatriate connections with the UK and Canada, Punjab, the homeland of India’s Sikh population, provides a wonderful opportunity to go traipsing into the backyards of North India. The Golden Temple in Amritsar is an undoubted highlight, but Punjab hides other small treasures among its agricultural expanses. Rarely visited towns like Patiala, Bathinda and Faridkot contain seemingly lost-in-time marketplaces and crumbling forts that hint at faded grandeur, while welcoming gurdwaras (Sikh temples) are to be found across the state.

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.

Bihar is the birthplace of Buddhism – indeed its very name derives from vihara, the Sanskrit word for Buddhist monastery. Thousands of pilgrims from around the world throng its many places of religious significance. Most extraordinary among these spots is Bodhgaya, the site of Buddha's enlightenment, where getting caught up in the spiritual atmosphere is a major draw for travelers. In tribal Jharkhand, holy Parasnath Hill is a revered Jain pilgrimage site, and joining devotees on the hike to the top is a surreal highlight. That apart, the forests of Betla (Palamau) National Park promise a date with elephants and leopards, and maybe even the odd tiger.

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:

Spectacularly jagged, arid mountains enfold this magical Buddhist ex-kingdom. Picture-perfect gompas (Tibetan Buddhist monasteries) dramatically crown rocky outcrops next to fluttering prayer flags and whitewashed stupas, while prayer wheels spun clockwise release merit-making mantras. Gompa interiors are a riot of golden Buddhas and intricately colourful murals and home to red-robed monks. It's a little corner of Tibet marooned in the furthest reaches of India.

Du kanske har sett bilder på överfulla indiska tåg där passagerarna lutar sig ut genom dörrarna och sitter på taket. Lugn, så illa är det inte. En indisk tågresa är betydligt mer civiliserad och bekvämare än så. I alla fall om du bokar plats i förväg. Vagabonds Indienexpert förklarar vad du bör veta innan du kliver ombord.

For many visitors, particularly cashed-up young Indian tourists from Bangalore and Mumbai plus Europeans on package holidays, this is Goa’s party strip, where the raves and hippies have made way for modern thumping nightclubs and wall-to-wall drinking. The Calangute market area and the main Baga road can get very busy but everything you could ask for – from a Thai massage to a tattoo – is in close proximity and the beach is lined with an excellent selection of increasingly sophisticated restaurant shacks with sunbeds, wi-fi and attentive service.

The union territory of Puducherry (formerly Pondicherry; generally known as ‘Pondy’) was under French colonial rule until 1954. Some people here still speak French (and English with French accents). The internationally famous Sri Aurobindo Ashram and its offshoot just north of town, Auroville, draw large numbers of spiritually-minded visitors. Thus Pondy’s vibe: less faded colonial-era ville, more bohemian-chic, New Age–meets–Old World hang-out on the international travel trail.

Located on the banks of the holy Godavari River, Nashik (or Nasik) gets its name from the episode in the Ramayana where Lakshmana, Rama’s brother, hacked off the nasika (nose) of Ravana’s sister. Today this large provincial city’s old quarter has some intriguing wooden architecture, interesting temples that reference the Hindu epic and some huge bathing ghats. The city is noticeably cleaner, better maintained and greener than many Indian cities of its size.