With its rainbow-coloured palette of markets, mountains and monuments, India may be the stuff of travel dreams. Tens of millions of tourists visit every year, and numbers are climbing fast as more and more people fall for India's temples and tigers, forts and forests, monasteries and megacities. But what goes on whenever you tire from the Taj, grow jaded with Jodhpur or lose the love for Ladakh?
The great news is the fact that India is nearly infinite in its variety. For each tourist town around the traveller trail, there is a nearby backwater with only as many monuments but none of them of the crowds. It would have a lifetime to understand more about this continent-sized country, however for off-the-beaten track adventures, point your compass in the following spots-
If this is your maiden voyage to the Indian subcontinent, make sure you also check out our top tips for India first-timers.
For mountain lovers…
Travellers flock to Ladakh every summer for a few relaxing months of yoga, yak-cheese and yomping up mountain trails, but the road linking Leh and Manali is the gateway to a different mountain playground where you can amble for days without spotting a fellow traveller. Hop off the Manali-Leh bus at Keylong and the thud of tourist-brandished bongo drums and slap of Birkenstocks will fade into the distance while you drift west in to the green-and-ochre valleys of Lahaul, where tourists are greeted with a surprised smile and Hinduism and Buddhism share centre stage.
A string of tiny temple towns marks the path from Keylong to the Kashmir valley; as the road becomes ever more treacherous and gravity-defying, you may feel you've wandered right off the map. For the ultimate Lahaul experience, test out your courage from the stretch of road from Killar to Kishtwar, often described (with simply slight exaggeration) as the world's most dangerous highway. At points, the road is a barely-visible score scratched right into a mountain wall, balanced above a thousand-foot drop. Only daredevils need apply.
For families-
Going from the beaten track in India does not have to mean risking life and limb. For Goa-style sand and sun without the package-tour hordes, drift south to Karnataka, where resorts catering to Indian families dot a gorgeous strip of palm-backed coastline. You'll lose out on Goa's Portuguese influence, but find a richly Indian experience: sacred temple towns, sleepy fishing villages, and port-cities famed for his or her highly-spiced seafood curries.
Gokarna may be the favourite stop for all those in the know – part temple-town and part laid-back beach retreat. Om Beach is easily the most stunning strip of sand, but there's a calmer vibe at Kudle Beach and Half Moon Bay, where you'll find a low-key version of the Goa beach scene – so yes to beach-cafes and yoga, no to all-night full-moon parties. A short detour inland is Jog Falls, India's next to the highest cascade, and strung out across the coastal plain are intriguing pilgrim towns for example Udupi and Murudeshwar, home to India's largest Shiva statue.
For vivid colour-
India's northern plains are painted inside a kaleidoscope of colors by rainbow saris and busy bazaars – and, it should be said, by backpacks. Swap the crammed sights of India's Golden Triangle for the dry badlands of Gujarat, where the colour comes from lavishly embroidered tribal costumes and fighting kites that fill the sky over every town and village.
Reds and yellows flare from the muted tones from the landscape in every corner from the state, from the historic capital, Ahmedabad, towards the backwater villages of the Rann of Kachchh and the beaches sprinkled along India's longest stretch of coastline.
There are a large number of ways to go off the beaten track in Gujarat, depending on what lights your travel fire. History buffs can trace the footsteps of Mahatma Gandhi from his birthplace at Porbandar to the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad and also the end of the empire-defying Salt March at Dandi. For spiritual sustenance, trade Varanasi for templetastic Palitana, in which the spires of 863 Jain temples produce a porcupine skyline within the Shatrunjaya Hills, or find Islamic India with no Agra crush at Champaner-Pavagadh, one-time capital from the Gujarati sultans.
For adventurers-
When you are looking at escaping the tourist trail, you cannot wander much further off the map than Northeast India. Squeezed between Bangladesh, Myanmar and Tibet, the 'Seven Sisters' – Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura – are a little-known wonderland of jungle-cloaked hills, wildlife-crammed nature and tribal villages, culturally closer to Southeast Asia than the rest of India.
Meghalaya isn't most remote of the Northeast States, but it's perhaps the most intriguing. This soaring limestone plateau was largely off-limits before the 1990s, and its rain-drenched hills are filled with tribal villages, plunging waterfalls and living bridges woven from the roots of jungle trees. The state is usually referred to as the wettest place on earth, but locals defy the climate with tartan shawls and turtle-shaped banana-pith rain shields. A good option to begin your explorations is Cherrapunjee, an easy leaping-off point for dramatic cascades and Khasi villages.
For Rajasthan with no crowds-
Few would deny Rajasthan's myriad tourism treasures: colour-coded Brahmin towns, tiger-stalked nature, wildly romantic desert forts. And few would deny these wonders would be that tiny bit more wonderful if you did not have to share them with an audience. Enter Shekhawati, Rajasthan's quietest quarter, in which the grand mansions of Marwari traders bring the imagine Rajasthan to life in vivid colour.
From Nawalgarh, a tangle of single-track roads and railway lines fan to the sleepy towns where Rajasthan's wealthy merchants built their extravagant cribs. Shekhawati's havelis (mansions) would be the end result of an epic battle of keeping-up-with-the-Joneses that took place between rival clans of merchants within the 18th and 19th centuries. Their mural-covered walls tell a pictorial history of Rajasthan, from Hindu mythology towards the rise of the Mughal Empire and the arrival of the Europeans, with their trains, airplanes, motor cars and gramophones.
For real culture in Kerala-
Many travellers rate Kerala as their favourite place in all of India, but drifting from Kochi to Kovalam towards the backwaters of Alappuzha, you'll spot the same faces on every train, boat and bus. Even Kerala's famous kathakali dance – a mix of sacred art, oral history, and psychedelic expression – can feel a little commoditised while you sit having a teapot of 'special tea' (beer) consuming a show that has been shortened to some traveller-friendly 60-minutes in the original 14 hours.
Leave the trodden path behind by heading north to Kannur, gateway to Kerala's unspoiled northern coast, in which the culture on display may be the real deal. Theyyam takes the thought of ritual theatre and turns the volume as much as eleven, dressing performers in vividly-coloured costumes and headdresses that can reach 7m tall. From November to April, performers and pilgrims gather at countless kavus (sacred groves) for rituals which include frenzied drumming, ceremonial dance and emotional devotees being sent into spiritual trances. Respectful visitors can sit in and fasten with the powerful rhythms that drive life in southern India.
For wildlife encounters-
Everyone really wants to spot an outrageous elephant or perhaps a tiger burning bright within the Indian jungle, but the experience can seem to be a bit less dramatic when you're sharing it with a coachload of fellow wildlife spotters. India's top national parks are mobbed in season, and animals often lie low until the commotion passes. The subcontinent's most rewarding natural encounters involve a little more effort, in exchange for much less company to disturb the wildlife.
To track down the elusive snow leopard, you will need to trek high into the Himalaya, far from the maddening crowds. Accessible from Leh, Hemis National Park in Ladakh has been said to be among the easiest places to identify snow leopards, but the so-called 'ghost from the mountains' may also be seen on treks through Himachal Pradesh's Great Himalayan National Park and remote Namdapha National Park in Arunachal Pradesh.
