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.
What it is
India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and the Maldives — about a quarter of the world’s population on a subcontinent that was one landmass, then a set of empires, then partitioned in 1947 in a way that still shapes almost everything about travelling here.
It is the most demanding region in this guide and the one people are most divided about. The sensory load is genuinely high: crowds, noise, smell, traffic that obeys different rules, and a level of direct attention on a foreign visitor that does not exist in Southeast Asia. People who love it usually loved it by week two. People who hate it usually left in week one.
The monsoon
The single organising fact. The southwest monsoon arrives in Kerala around the start of June and moves north over about six weeks, then withdraws through September and October. It brings the majority of the year’s rain in three months.
October to March is the travel season for almost all of the subcontinent: dry, and in the north genuinely cold at night from December.
April and May are brutally hot on the plains — 45°C in Rajasthan and Delhi — and are exactly when the Himalayan foothills are at their best.
June to September is the monsoon. Rajasthan and the deserts are fine and cheap. Kerala is beautiful and wet. Ladakh, in the rain shadow behind the Himalaya, has its only accessible season.
Sri Lanka has two monsoons hitting opposite coasts, so one side of the island is always in season.
India, practically
Trains are the great pleasure and the great planning problem. The network is enormous, cheap and reaches everywhere, and popular routes book out weeks ahead. Book on IRCTC as early as you can. Classes matter: 2AC and 3AC are air-conditioned sleepers and are what most visitors want; sleeper class is fine by day and a long night otherwise.
Internal flights are cheap and save days across a country this size.
Regions to choose between: Rajasthan for forts and desert; Kerala and Tamil Nadu for the south, which is a different country in food, language and temple architecture; Himachal and Ladakh for mountains; Varanasi and the Gangetic plain for the oldest continuously inhabited cities; the northeast, which almost nobody visits and requires permits in places.
Scams exist and are mostly variations on one theme: someone tells you the thing you were going to do is closed, and offers an alternative. It is not closed.
Nepal
Two things: the Himalaya and the Kathmandu Valley. The trekking seasons are October–November, the clearest and busiest, and March–May, warmer with more haze and rhododendrons.
The classic treks — Everest Base Camp, Annapurna Circuit, Annapurna Base Camp, Langtang — are teahouse treks, meaning you walk between lodges and do not carry camping equipment. That makes them far more accessible than they sound. Permits and a TIMS card are required, and independent trekking rules have tightened — check current requirements.
Altitude is the real risk, not fitness. See the Andes page; the physiology is the same.
Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Pakistan, Bangladesh
Sri Lanka is the region’s easiest introduction: compact, beautiful, cheap, with beaches, hill country, ancient cities and good trains, and it can be done properly in three weeks.
Bhutan charges a Sustainable Development Fee per day on top of costs, which makes it expensive by design and keeps numbers low.
Pakistan’s Karakoram — Hunza, the KKH, Fairy Meadows — is some of the most spectacular mountain country anywhere and sees very few visitors. Security advice varies sharply by province; read current guidance carefully.
Bangladesh is almost untravelled and rewards people who like being the only foreigner in a city of a million.
Costs
Very low outside the Maldives and Bhutan. India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Pakistan are among the cheapest places on earth to travel well. The costs that do add up are internal flights, trek permits and guides, and the occasional heritage hotel worth the splurge.
The health part
Stomach illness is close to universal on a long first trip and is usually a few unpleasant days. Bottled or filtered water, hot freshly cooked food, and caution about raw salads and ice reduce but do not eliminate it.
Vaccinations — typhoid, hepatitis A, and rabies if you will be rural or long-term — are worth a travel clinic appointment two months out. Malaria risk varies by region and season.
More Regions
Southeast 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.