India

A first journey through the north

Most travellers begin here.

Delhi, Agra and Jaipur over a week gives the essential introduction, and adding Udaipur turns it into something considerably more romantic. Rajasthan is best covered by car with a driver, which is comfortable, straightforward and lets the landscape between the cities become part of the trip.

A slower southern escape

Others want India at a gentler pace.

Kerala offers houseboats on the backwaters, tea estates in the hills, wellness retreats with real Ayurvedic pedigree and beaches at the end. It is the easiest introduction to the country and suits travellers who want culture without intensity.

A wildlife or Himalayan journey

A smaller number come for the natural world.

The tiger reserves of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan offer some of the best big cat viewing in Asia, while Ladakh and the foothills around Rishikesh and Darjeeling bring mountains, monasteries and cool air.

The key is choosing intensity or ease, and then building around it.

India is shaped by the monsoon, and the best months differ from region to region.

October to March is the ideal window for the north, with cool, clear days that make the cities and Rajasthan genuinely comfortable, and December and January can be surprisingly cold in the mornings. Kerala and the south are at their best from around November to March. April to June brings intense heat across most of the country, which is when the Himalayan regions come into their own, and Ladakh is really only accessible from June to September.

The monsoon arrives in June and lasts into September, moving up the country as it goes. The tiger reserves generally close during it, and reopen in October for the best tracking of the year.

India rewards restraint far more than ambition.

The distances are considerable and the cities are demanding in the best sense, so a route with a new hotel every night leaves very little energy for the country itself. Two or three nights in each place, with internal flights for the longer legs and a car and driver for the shorter ones, makes an enormous difference.

Building in somewhere restful is the other thing that helps. A few nights in Udaipur, on a Keralan backwater or at a wellness retreat, placed deliberately in the middle or at the end, is what turns a remarkable trip into an enjoyable one.