Off-the-beaten-path destinations

The most dramatic landscapes on earth.

The last intact Himalayan Buddhist kingdom, on its own terms.

The cheapest serious travel on the continent — and the highest.

A big-distance island epic where nine-tenths of the wildlife lives nowhere else.

An expedition across the empty steppe to one of the last nomadic cultures on Earth.

The Nature Island — a volcanic rainforest with a boiling lake and almost no beaches.

The Arctic at its most overwhelming — city-sized icebergs, silent fjords, and almost no one there.

The most accessible corner of nomad Central Asia — high alpine lakes, yurts, and horses, for almost nothing.

Music, classic cars, and crumbling grandeur — go for the country, not the comfort.

Seventeen thousand islands of volcanoes, reefs, and temples — the most varied country in Southeast Asia.

Newly open, and the most surprising trip in the region right now.

Best street food in the world, dramatic gorges, deeply welcoming culture.

The cheapest stretch of Mediterranean coast left in Europe — for now.

Green volcanic islands in the mid-Atlantic, half-empty and gloriously weird.

A reef-and-jungle two-parter where everyone speaks English.

East meets West in one small, absurdly cheap country layered with living history.

The most exclusive safari in Africa, built around a flooded desert.

Extraordinary food, wine, hospitality, mountains, and old cities — all cheap.

Maya ruins, volcano hikes, and a lake ringed by villages — cheap and intense.

A self-drive epic through some of the emptiest country on Earth.

The Himalayas. Trekking that changes how you see scale.

The calm, scenic alternative to the Gulf — wadis, mountains, and empty desert.

The most atmospheric, least touristed corner of Europe — at a fraction of the price.

One hour, face-to-face with a gorilla family, in the easiest and safest place to do it.

Frescoed monasteries, Roman old towns, and empty mountains at prices Europe forgot.

The lagoon of your dreams, at a fraction of Bora Bora money.

A medieval old town wired to one of the most digital states on earth.

The Spice Island — nutmeg, a genuinely lovely harbour capital, and no crowds.

The slowest, gentlest country in Southeast Asia, and the better for it.

Bali’s quieter neighbour — the same warm sea and volcano drama, with a fraction of the crowds.

The Caribbean’s biggest party and its best birding — on two islands that share nothing but a flag.

The Silk Road made real — turquoise-tiled cities that look like nowhere else, at prices that barely register.

The best shore diving on earth, outside the hurricane belt, with flamingos in the salt pans.

Central America’s comeback story — world-class surf, volcanoes, and prices nobody has caught up to yet.

Eighteen green, cliff-walled islands in the North Atlantic — grass-roofed hamlets, waterfalls off the edge of the world.

West Africa’s friendliest first trip — deep history, big culture, and beaches, in fluent English.

Costa Rica’s wilder, cheaper neighbour — volcanoes, colonial cities, and empty surf, for a fraction of the price.

The Indian Ocean’s answer to Hawaii — an active volcano, roadless canyons, and world-class hiking, on French soil.

The Balkans’ best night out — grilled meat, rakija, and river clubs, in Europe’s most underrated capital.

A UNESCO fortress, a sugar-train railway, and a two-mile channel to a much quieter island.

The place to look a mountain gorilla in the eye — plus the classic savanna safari, on far quieter ground.

Ancient history and hypermodern cities at a scale that's hard to grasp until you're there.

Geysers, glaciers, northern lights, hot springs.

Fjords, volcanoes, glaciers, beaches — in one country.

Seoul alone justifies the flight — food, nightlife, and mountains inside the city.

Buenos Aires has the best steakhouses and nightlife in South America.

A continent of a country. Pick two or three things and commit.

Medellin is one of the most exciting cities in the world right now.

Surfing, rainforest, volcanoes, and wildlife in extraordinary density.

Overwhelming, beautiful, and utterly unlike anywhere else.

Rent a car, chase the coast, accept the weather.

The most underrated food trip in Southeast Asia.

Medinas, desert, mountains, and coast — sensory and varied.

Fjords, northern lights, midnight sun — utterly unlike anywhere else.

Machu Picchu, the Sacred Valley, Lima's food scene, and the Amazon.

Europe's best-value city break, with the history to match.

Atlantic beaches, excellent food and wine, slow pace.

Highlands, lochs, castles, and whisky. Dramatic, moody landscapes.

Island-strewn cities in summer, aurora and snow in the far north.

The best food in Southeast Asia, remarkable scenery, a long coastline.

Seven hundred islands of impossibly clear water, from cruise-port Nassau to the empty Out Islands.

Canals, beer, and Flemish art, all an easy train ride apart.

Angkor is one of the great sights on earth. Build the trip around it.

Year-round warm weather, volcanic landscapes, easy from Europe.

Reef diving, island-hopping, and a country that takes hospitality seriously.

The winter trip — aurora, huskies, and snow — with saunas the whole year round.

Overwater bungalows and lagoons in their most expensive form.

The most characterful island in the Caribbean — and the one that asks a little more of you.

Petra alone justifies the trip.

The original safari, plus an Indian Ocean coast to land on afterward.

A sun-baked limestone island with more history per square mile than almost anywhere.

A whole country where mountains drop straight into the Adriatic.

Over 7,000 islands and the best beaches in Asia.

Italy at its most layered and intense — Greek temples, Baroque towns, street food, and a live volcano.

Alps, coast, and a capital you can cross on foot — all in one small country.

Cape Town, safari, and wine country in one self-drive trip.

Beaches, ancient ruins, tea country, and wildlife in one compact island.

Serengeti, a volcanic crater full of animals, Kilimanjaro, and Zanzibar — in one country.

The largest sheet of falling water on Earth, with a town on either side.

The classic wind-down after a Tanzanian safari — beaches, spice, and a Swahili trading city.

The sailing capital of the Caribbean — sixty islands, short hops, and a bar you swim to.

A 4,000km country of deserts, wine valleys, lakes, and southern fjords.

A country-sized Greek island — Europe’s oldest civilisation, pink-sand lagoons, and a mountainous wild south.

Dependable Mediterranean warmth, ancient mosaics, and cool mountain wine villages on one easy island.

Andes, Amazon, Galápagos, and colonial Quito — packed into a small country.

A steep, green volcanic island in the Atlantic — spring-like all year and built for walkers.

A resort island that actually has an interior worth leaving the beach for.

A canal, a real skyline, Caribbean islands, and cloud forest — all inside one small country.

The good life, distilled — lavender, hilltop villages, Roman ruins, and rosé under the plane trees.

The Mediterranean’s best beaches, wrapped around a wild, ancient interior most visitors never see.

Granite-boulder beaches that look engineered, on islands built for slowing down.

The most dramatic-looking island in the Caribbean — two green volcanic spires rising straight out of the sea.

One of the great beaches on earth, and not a lot else — which is exactly the appeal.

A beach for every day of the year, and a sailing heritage to match — the Caribbean at its most classic.

Pink-sand coves and a very British subtropical island — a two-hour hop off the US coast, not the Caribbean.

A mountain range in the sea — France’s wildest island, where the Alps meet Caribbean-clear water.

The most characterful of the Dutch ABC islands — a candy-coloured capital, below the hurricane belt, over great diving.

Two islands in one — a rainforest volcano on the left wing, beaches on the right.

The Arctic winter fantasy made real — northern lights, huskies, snow, and the original Santa.

France in the tropics — rum distilleries, a volcano, and food that takes itself seriously.

A polished, compact stopover built almost entirely around Doha.

A French village with superyachts parked outside — the Caribbean’s most expensive small island.

Rome-grade ruins, real Sahara, and blue-and-white coast — a cheap hop from Europe.

The calm, safe, well-off corner of South America — beef, wine, and empty Atlantic beaches.

Thirty-three beaches, no high-rises, and not much else — deliberately.