Regions
Southeast Asia, the Andes, the Balkans, East Africa and the rest — what each region is like to travel in, when to go, and how the pieces fit together.
13 placesSoutheast Asia
The region that taught a generation how to travel cheaply and is still the easiest place on earth to do it. Warm, connected, and far more varied than the circuit suggests.
The Andes
The longest mountain range on earth, running the length of a continent, with the altitude that shapes every decision you make about travelling in it.
East Africa
The Serengeti and the Mara, Kilimanjaro, the Rift Valley lakes and the Swahili coast — and the safari industry that sits on top of all of it.
The Mediterranean
Twenty-two countries around one sea, with three thousand years of everybody conquering everybody else layered into the same towns. The easiest great region to travel and the hardest to see freshly.
Western Europe
The most travel-dense region on earth, where the trains work, the borders barely exist, and the main constraint is money rather than logistics.
South Asia
India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Bhutan — the most intense travel on earth, and the region that rewards a long slow trip more than any other.
East Asia
The most efficient travel on earth. Trains that leave to the second, cities that work, and a language barrier that is more absolute than anywhere else in this guide.
The Middle East
Petra, Persepolis, the Nile and Damascus — the oldest continuously inhabited region on earth, and the one where current advice matters more than any guidebook.
Patagonia
A million square kilometres of wind, granite and ice split between Chile and Argentina, with a four-month season and a booking window that opens the year before.
The Balkans
Mountains, a spectacular coastline, Ottoman and Habsburg towns, and prices from twenty years ago. The best-value travel in Europe and the least understood.
Southern Africa
Namibia's deserts, Botswana's delta, the Cape, Victoria Falls and Kruger — the part of Africa you can drive yourself, and the reason a lot of people do.
Central America
Volcanoes, Maya cities, cloud forest and two coastlines, in an isthmus you can cross overland in a month for very little money.
Oceania
Australia, New Zealand and thousands of Pacific islands spread across a third of the earth's surface. Enormous distances, reversed seasons, and the most expensive flights in this guide.