Adventures for the curious

India - Goddess of the ghats

The Ganges River drapes like a necklace around the north of India. For Hindus, it is a goddess whose celestial waters first cascaded to earth through a lock of Shiva’s hair. She is also a lifeline for the 650 million people along her snaking course. 

In the city of Varanasi, stepped waterfronts called ghats invite the devout down to meet the river. Here the people bathe, pray, and scatter the ashes of their dearly departed. At dusk each day, while the sun slips behind the tumble-down temples, oil lamps shimmer in the rippling black, chants and chimes float through the aromatic haze, and a sense of the sacred is palpable. Locals and pilgrims alike attend the nightly aarti rituals lead by Hindu priests to honour the holy river – and you, too, are welcome.

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The Grand Tour of India

Small group tour | 16 nights | From £4,395 per person

Visit hallowed Varanasi, admire the Taj Mahal, seek out Bengal tigers in the wild, and tour the princely cities of Jaipur, Jodhpur and Udaipur.

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Sri Lanka - High tea in Little England

In the highlands of central Sri Lanka, you will find a small slice of home. Nuwara Eliya is known locally as ‘Little England’ for its cool climate, verdant countryside, and British colonial buildings – including a Victorian red-brick post office and 19th-century golf course.

The hills are a sea of Ceylon green, where skilled hands pluck fresh leaves to be turned into Sri Lanka’s best-known export: tea. Many of the plantations here offer guided tours, so you can follow the process from leaf to cup. Beyond the tea terraces, wilderness beckons. Leopards in thick coats adapted for the climate slink through the mountain forests of Horton Plains National Park, while waterfalls such as Bomburu Ella and Lover’s Leap lure hikers seeking the perfect picture.

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The Enchanted Island

Small group tour | 13 nights | From £2,975 per person

Explore Sri Lanka’s headliners and unsung stars, including Nuwara Eliya’s tea terraces, the jungle fortress of Sigiriya, and the cave temples of Dambulla.

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Peru - Weavers of the Andes

The mountaintop citadel of Machu Picchu may lie empty, but Inca culture lives on in Peru – through the Quechua language, festivals venerating the Sun God, and traditional handicrafts as vibrant as the rainbow flag of Cuzco, the old capital.

Millennia before Columbus set sail for the Americas, the Andean people were weaving – clothes, baskets, and tapestries that told their stories in the absence of written language. The Nazca carved vast, mysterious drawings of animals and flowers into the Peruvian desert, and echoed these motifs in their delicate textiles. Centuries and civilisations later, the Inca picked up the thread, and Peru’s indigenous women continue to dress in fabulous finery made the traditional way.

Watch Peru’s artisans at work, as they separate, spin and dye alpaca and llama wool before creating colourful manta shawls, chumpi belts and more to sell – each piece made sustainably and interwoven with Andean history.

Recommended 

Train to Machu Picchu

Small group tour | 14 nights | From £3,595 per person

Discover the cultures and landscapes of Peru, visiting Machu Picchu, Lake Titicaca, Cuzco and beyond. Selected departures coincide with the Inca festival of Inti Raymi.

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Costa Rica - Sea shells

Along soft, sandy shores, under the cover of night, tiny heads peek out. They are searching for a light to guide them into the safety of the sea. Their first steps are clumsy – flippers aren’t designed for land – but they persist, scooping themselves gently towards the ocean under teardrop-shaped shells. These are the sea turtles of Costa Rica.

Beaches in Tamarindo, Nicoya and Tortuguero (‘Land of the Turtle’) are vital nesting grounds for these ancient animals. Threats are numerous: hungry lizards, birds and crabs, but people, too – hunters, egg stealers, habitat destroyers. Many hatchlings do not survive their journey.

In the 1950s, naturalist Archie Carr and philanthropist John Phipps established the Brotherhood of the Green Turtle, paving the way for the Sea Turtle Conservancy. Today, the organisation is dedicated to protecting the Costa Rican nesting grounds of green, leatherback, hawksbill and olive ridley turtles – and you can see these efforts first-hand in the growing turtle population. 

Recommended 

Natural Splendours of Costa Rica 

Small group tour | 9 nights | From £2,795 per person

Experience one of the world’s most biodiverse habitats, home to mist-covered volcanoes, untouched rainforests and tropical beaches, including a visit to the turtle haven of Tortuguero.

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Cambodia - Secret citadel

It’s the centrepiece of Cambodia’s flag, the world’s largest religious structure, and the medieval capital of the Khmer empire. Angkor Wat and its jungle-tangled temples are undoubtedly among Asia’s greatest treasures. 25 kilometres away shelters a temple unlike the others. It’s smaller, pinker, and filled with the fi nest relief carvings – so delicate, it was assumed only women could have created them. Banteay Srei (which means ‘Citadel of Women’) wasn’t commissioned by Angkor’s rulers, but by courtiers in the 10th century, and is devoted to the Hindu god Shiva and goddess Parvati. Almost every inch of its red-sandstone interior is adorned with iconography. There are scenes from the ancient epic Ramayana, divinities known as devatas, intricate floral patterns, rearing elephants, and fanged monsters, watched over by monkey-faced guardians crouching on pedestals. Despite its distance from Angkor Wat’s central temples, Banteay Srei is a jewel of Khmer art that will reward you for the detour.

Recommended 

Grand Tour of Indochina

Small group tour | 16 nights | From £3,895 per person

Journey between Indochinese neighbours Vietnam and Cambodia, enjoying tropical cruises, town tours, and atmospheric temple visits – including Banteay Srei.

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Uzbekistan - Star of the Silk Road

Many moons ago, caravans laden with silk, tea and perfume crossed Central Asia to the markets of Europe and Africa. Heading in the opposite direction: honey, horses and gold. And along this old Silk Road, nations and empires emerged.

The ancient cities of Samarkand and Bukhara – now part of Uzbekistan – lay at the heart of it all, enjoying fabulous wealth and influence. In the 14th century, the conqueror Timur established an empire here that was Roman in scale. He began a renaissance in Islamic architecture, which you can admire to this day – in Khiva’s old town, Bukhara’s historic quarters, and Samarkand’s Registan Square. Awaiting you: glittering mausoleums, mosques and madrasahs, full of mosaics, multifoil arches, and shapely cupolas of the most vivid cobalt blue.

Recommended 

Uzbekistan: Heart of Central Asia

Small group tour | 11 nights | From £2,895 per person

Admire the monumental legacy of Uzbekistan’s Silk Road riches, including the towering fortresses of Khiva and Bukhara, and the Islamic architecture of Samarkand.

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Italy - Head turners

Visit Sicily, and you may meet the gaze of the graste: hand-painted, head-shaped flowerpots that sit watchfully on balconies across the island, typically in pairs. 

Folk stories about their origin abound. The Renaissance writer Boccaccio recounted a tale of two star-crossed lovers in Italy – but not the ones you’re thinking of. His ‘Romeo and Juliet’ are Lorenzo and Lisabetta, and his tragedy ends with a grief-stricken maiden hiding the head of her beloved in a flowerpot full of basil.

These graste heads reflect the local love affair with ceramics, which you can buy during market tours and studio visits across the island – from the capital of Sicily, Palermo, to its capital of pottery, Caltagirone. They also reflect the unique blend of cultural influences that sets Sicily apart from mainland Italy. You can taste it in the Arab-influenced cuisine and see it in the Norman palaces, Sicilian-baroque cathedrals and fine Greek temples.

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Classic Sicily

Small group tour | 7 nights | From £2,595 per person

Revel in the individual delights of Sicily on an island-spanning journey complete with vineyard visits, food tastings, city tours and trips to ancient sites.

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Tanzania - Roaring from the treetops

Seeing a pet cat gambol up a garden tree isn’t a surprise. Even leopards seek sanctuary in the high branches. But what about lions? Heavier set, the queen of the savanna is more at home on fi rm ground. Yet, a handful of prides in East Africa aren’t letting gravity keep them down, offering you a rare sight: lions lazing in the treetops. 

Around Lake Manyara and Tarangire in Tanzania, these elusive tree-climbing lions have drawn attention. Biologists speculate that their unusual arboreal behaviour may be an attempt to escape the sun-baked ground and its bothersome flies to the cooling, buzz-free shade of the canopy, and might also give mothers a break from their mewling young. On safari here, you could be lucky enough to see a whole pride lying prone in the open arms of an acacia tree.

Recommended 

In the Footsteps of the Great Migration

Small group tour | 12 nights | From £6,695 per person

Follow millions of wildebeest, zebra and antelope as they migrate between Tanzania and Kenya, with immersive safaris and cultural encounters along the way.

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Saudi Arabia - The Lonely Castle

It stands alone in the Arabian desert, easily mistaken for a mirage. From behind, you could dismiss it as any one of the hulking sandstone outcrops here. But as you round the corner, you’re met by a doorway, flanked by columns and crowned by pediments, carved into a sheer face too smooth to be the work of nature.

Qasr al-Farid is a tomb that was never finished. The ancient Nabataeans abandoned it before achieving the level of detail seen in their capital, Petra – 460 kilometres away in Jordan. Nevertheless, it is a surreal monument to a civilisation about which little is known. 

Although it’s called ‘The Lonely Castle’, the tomb is one of many ancient rock-cut constructions in Hegra, part of the AlUla archaeological site in Saudi Arabia. With the country recently opening its doors to tourism, you can now explore these miraculous relics yourself.

Recommended 

Saudi Arabian Discovery

Tailor-made holiday | 7 nights | From £6,595 per person

Venture into the desert kingdom of Saudi Arabia, visiting glittering capital Riyadh, Jeddah on the Red Sea coast, and the AlUla archaeological area – including the rock carved ‘Lonely Castle’.

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Egypt - First steps

You could recognise it from the silhouette alone: Giza’s Great Pyramid, the last standing of the Seven Ancient Wonders. But it wasn’t the first pyramid in Egypt. 

Follow the Nile south of Cairo. The groves of date palms drop away, replaced by empty desert and the sprawling necropolis of Sakkara. Here, under the bleaching sun, rises the Pyramid of Djoser. 

This is Egypt’s oldest pyramid, commissioned by Pharaoh Djoser decades before its iconic counterpart in about 2670 BC. The stepped construction might remind you more of a Mayan temple, and the route into its complex is just as unusual: an almost art-deco bastion and colonnaded corridor, without any of the hieroglyphics that tattoo the walls of most Egyptian tombs. 

After a 14-year restoration, the historic pyramid re-opened in 2020, and new tombs continue to be discovered across Sakkara each year, revealing more about Egypt’s mysterious first dynasties.

Recommended 

Splendours of Egypt

Tailor-made holiday | 8 nights | From £3,995 per person

Cruise the Nile visiting Egypt’s greatest treasures, with excursions to Giza’s pyramids, the Pyramid of Djoser, the Valley of the Kings and the Temple of Karnak.

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