The routes people actually travel — Delhi to Jaipur, Kenya's safari circuit, Kerala's backwaters. Each is a sensible skeleton you can stretch by trip length, budget, and travel style, with how to get between every stop and what to skip. Filter by length, transport, and month, or browse them on the map.
Caribbeanisland hoppingThe Dutch Caribbean trio off the Venezuelan coast - start with Aruba's resort beaches, cross to Curaçao's UNESCO-listed Willemstad and its Creole culture, then finish on quiet Bonaire, one of the world's great shore-diving islands. Sun-sure and below the hurricane belt, the three are linked by short 20-minute island-hopper flights.
United StatesnatureCoastal Alaska on boats rather than behind a windshield - day-boats into the calving glaciers of Kenai Fjords, the end-of-the-road spit at Homer, then a hop to the Inside Passage for Juneau, Glacier Bay and the Gold Rush port of Skagway. Short drives, long sailings, and whales instead of highway miles.
North Americaroad tripThe classic point-to-point drive of the whole Alaska Highway - from its Mile 0 in Dawson Creek, British Columbia, north through Fort Nelson and Watson Lake into the Yukon (Whitehorse), across the remote US - Canada border and on to Delta Junction and Fairbanks, Alaska. A summer-only self-drive of long, empty legs, big wildlife and one genuine wilderness border crossing.
North AmericaLooproad tripA summer-only loop through the sub-Arctic north - Anchorage and Denali in Alaska, then across the border into the Yukon for Whitehorse and Kluane, linked by the Alaska Highway and long, empty drives between the two great mountain wildernesses of the continent.
CanadaLooproad tripAlberta's classic Rocky Mountain loop - Calgary, Banff, Lake Louise, the Icefields Parkway to Jasper, then Edmonton and back. A self-drive circuit stringing together the country's most famous national-park scenery.
PortugalcoastalA self-drive run down Portugal's southern coast and up its wild Atlantic edge - Faro's old town, the golden-cliff beaches around Carvoeiro and Lagos, the end-of-Europe cape at Sagres, then the surf-battered Costa Vicentina around Aljezur. Short hops the whole way, but a hire car unlocks the coves the buses skip.
FranceLoopadventureThe marquee French-Alps circuit: Chamonix's glaciers and Mont-Blanc high country, the Espace Killy powder of Val d'Isère and Tignes, and the world's largest linked ski area in the Three Valleys (Val Thorens, Courchevel, Méribel) - a winter ski slam or a summer alpine tour, closed off by lakeside Annecy.
ChinaculturalThe dynastic heartland of northern China, strung across five imperial and merchant capitals - Beijing's Forbidden City, the Northern Wei cave-temples at Datong, the best-preserved Ming-Qing walled town at Pingyao, the Qin terracotta army at Xi'an, and the Buddhist grottoes of Luoyang. High-speed rail links every leg; no desert crossings, no flights required.
Thailandisland hoppingSouthern Thailand's Andaman coast strung together by minivan and speedboat - Khao Lak's dive base, Phuket's arrival hub, Railay's limestone cliffs, laid-back Koh Lanta and the far-south, still-quiet Koh Lipe near the Malaysian border.
ArgentinaLoopculturalA self-contained loop through Argentina's high Andean Northwest: Salta's colonial core, Cafayate's cloud-level Torrontés vineyards, and the rainbow-striped Quebrada de Humahuaca - built for travelers who want this region on its own, paced around the altitude gain rather than squeezed onto the end of a bigger country tour.
South AmericaoverlandA three-country high-desert overland corridor - Salta's colonial Andean Northwest, San Pedro de Atacama's geysers and dunes, the multi-day Laguna Route jeep crossing into the Salar de Uyuni, and La Paz's cable cars and markets - built around two remote international border crossings rather than a single country's highlights.
ArgentinaskiOff-season Mendoza cellar-door wine, then south through the gateway town of Malargüe to Las Leñas - South America's steepest, most serious lift-served ski terrain - a winter-only pairing distinct from Argentina's other Mendoza and Bariloche routes, both of which run in warmer months.
ArgentinaexpeditionThe land-side approach to an Antarctic cruise: a Buenos Aires stopover to clear customs and reset after the long international flight, then south to Ushuaia, the world's southernmost city and the embarkation port for almost every Antarctic voyage, for a few days of Beagle Channel wildlife and Tierra del Fuego National Park before boarding.
Middle EastLoopcityFour Gulf capitals in one flight-linked loop - Dubai's skyline spectacle, Abu Dhabi's museums and grand mosque, Muscat's old-Arabia forts and corniche, and Doha's post-World-Cup waterfront - each an hour or two apart by air, with no land border crossing required.
TurkeyadventureTurkey's remote far east - Lake Van's Armenian church-island, volcanic Mount Ararat at the Iran border, the abandoned medieval city of Ani on the closed Armenian frontier, Seljuk Erzurum, and the alpine Georgian-border valleys of Artvin - ending on the Black Sea at Trabzon.
SwedenwinterInterior Swedish Lapland in the dark half of the year: the Iron Ore railway runs Stockholm to Gällivare, Kiruna (home of the Icehotel, rebuilt from river ice every winter) and Abisko, whose rain-shadow position gives it some of the most reliably clear aurora skies in the north. A deep-winter trip built around the northern lights, dog sledding and snow, not summer fjords or city sightseeing.
Argentinaroad tripSan Carlos de Bariloche's chocolate shops and Nahuel Huapi lake views, then a self-drive along the Ruta de los Siete Lagos through Villa La Angostura to San Martín de los Andes - Argentina's Alpine-flavored Lake District, a world away from the deep-south trekking circuit and the western wine valleys.
Argentinafood & wineCórdoba's Jesuit missions and student-city energy, then Mendoza and San Rafael's high-altitude Malbec valleys beneath the Andes - the wine-and-heritage heartland of central Argentina, entirely separate from Iguazú/the Northwest and from Patagonia's deep south.
AustriaskiA winter-only ski week on Austria's interlinked Ski Arlberg pass: fly into Innsbruck, base in loud, steep St. Anton am Arlberg, ski through Stuben's legendary off-piste, and finish on Zurs and Lech's quieter, snow-sure, five-star slopes - one lift pass, almost no road transfers.
Southeast Asiafood & wineA pan-Southeast-Asian eating circuit through four of the world's great food cities - Singapore's hawker centres, George Town's Malaysian-Chinese-Indian street food, Bangkok's markets and canals, and Vietnam's northern and southern kitchens in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City - linked by short regional flights (with overland alternatives for the tight legs).
Greeceisland hoppingThe easy island escape from Athens - a short ferry hop out of Piraeus down the Saronic Gulf through Aegina, Poros, Hydra and Spetses. No planes, no long crossings, just car-free harbours and swimming coves an hour or two from the capital.
Canadaroad tripThe full Maritimes-plus-Newfoundland loop - Halifax, Cape Breton's Cabot Trail, Prince Edward Island over the Confederation Bridge, New Brunswick's Bay of Fundy tides, and a ferry-or-flight hop to Newfoundland - driven at a coastal, lighthouse-and-lobster pace.
AustraliaLoopnatureA big-country loop through Australia's headline natural wonders - the Great Barrier Reef and Daintree, Kakadu's Top End, Uluru and the Red Centre, the Great Ocean Road and wild Tasmania - stitched together by domestic flights and a couple of scenic drives.
Bahamasisland hoppingNassau is a one-night connector, not the destination: this route pushes past it and the Exumas into the Out Islands - pink-sand Harbour Island and the sailing villages of the Abacos - a slower, colonial-village-and-flats-fishing circuit that never leaves the Bahamas.