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The Great country of India features an endless variety of historical monuments including the Taj Mahal. The Indian subcontinent consists of varying landscapes from the Himalayan mountain range in the North, the deserts in the East, the hills in the West to the Beaches in the South. With 22 regional languages, a vast array of wild and exotic plants and species one must experience this unique wonderland.

The home of one of the world's oldest civilizations, and several of the world's great religions, India has been changing and re-shaping itself for as long as anywhere on earth, forever producing new forms of culture and absorbing new influences. Visiting the subcontinent, you'll see Kipling-esque visions of spectacular carved temples and gleaming marble palaces, lonely Himalayan lamaseries and far-flung dusty villages where council meetings are held under the shade of a banyan tree, plodding camels and man-eating tigers, holy cows, snake charmers and wild-haired sadhus: you'll also find a dynamic state racing towards the twenty-first century. The boundaries of modern India, fixed less than fifty years ago, are merely the latest in a four-thousand-year sequence of redefinitions that have produced one of the most heterogenous societies in the world. The land where the Buddha lived and preached, and where the Moghul Muslims erected the Taj Mahal, has recreated itself as both a majority Hindu nation and the world's largest secular democracy, home to almost one thousand million people.

The best Indian itineraries are the simplest. To imagine that there is some set list of places you must go, or things you must see, is a sure way to make your trip self-defeating. You couldn't see everything in one expedition, even if you spent a year trying. Far better then, to concentrate on one or two specific regions, and above all, to be flexible. Although it requires a deliberate change of pace to venture away from the cities, rural India has its own very distinct pleasures. In fact, while Indian cities are undoubtedly adrenalin-fuelled, upbeat places, it is possible - and certainly less stressful - to travel for months around the subcontinent and rarely have to set foot in one.

If you enjoy delving into convoluted cosmologies, thrive on sensual overload, and have a firm grasp of the absurd, then India is one of the most intricate and rewarding dramas unfolding on earth.

Other Main Cities of  India