India beyond the Triangle

South

Kerala is the other India — backwaters, spice plantations, a coastline and a food culture with almost nothing in common with the north. Goa is Portuguese colonial layered onto the Konkan coast. Mumbai is the commercial capital, and the best single city in India for architecture from the last two hundred years.

The high Himalaya

Ladakh is high-altitude desert with Tibetan Buddhist monasteries on the ridgelines, reachable roughly June to September. Kashmir is the valley everybody has heard of, and it is as beautiful as claimed. Both need proper acclimatisation time built into the plan, which is the part most itineraries get wrong.

Wildlife

Ranthambore is the practical tiger park for anyone already doing the Golden Triangle — two nights from Jaipur. Sightings are never guaranteed, and anyone who guarantees them is lying to you.