Dharamsala to Leh, The Himalayas India

Beneath the crystalline Himalayan skies of India’s northernmost lands is Ladakh, a high-altitude desert region where crumbling Buddhist monasteries perch improbably on mountain sides and villages pop out of nowhere – bright green oases amid the bleached landscape. On this tour you travel with a private guide and driver across some of the highest mountain passes in the world, giving you total freedom to explore without the stress of having to negotiate the difficult conditions; dizzyingly steep, perilous mountain turns and of course, the change in altitude. From 250m in Delhi, where you fly into, you’ll climb to 3,500m at Leh – which leaves you (but thankfully not your driver, who is from the region and thus acclimatised) breathless, lightheaded and in no fit state to drive.

Your first stop after Delhi is Dharamsala in the Himalayan foothills, where a visit to the HQ of the Dalai Lama is a must, before setting off through the pine and rhododendron forests for the rolling hillsides of the tea gardens at Palampur estate. You’ll stop at Manali, a hill station where traders in ancient times began their journey to Ladakh carrying silk, pearls, spices and tea; wool and salt; opium, carpets and gold. It’s here that your trans-Himalayan journey really begins, up to Keylong and across the Rohtang Pass at 3,978m. There’s no need to worry, though – your driver will keep a cool head as you gain even more height, crossing the Bara-lacha La Pass (4,890m) before spending a night under canvas at Sarchu tented camp. And if you get thirsty, he will always be happy to stop the car near a good view point and rustle up a cup of tea on the camping stove.

The Rupshu plains are home to rare wildlife – snow leopard, kiang (Tibetan wild ass), and ibex. As you look out for them, the driver negotiates the spectacularly high Taglang La Pass (it’s 5,359m) to the ancient town of Leh, which was the hub of the caravan trade in the 17th century. Beneath a towering, now dilapidated palace rising out of the rock you’ll find bazaars and curio shops; women selling baskets of fresh vegetables and a maze of antique streets. Try the Tibetan-inspired thukpa, or noodle soup, and tsampa, made of roasted barley flour – good energy food while you’re trekking. Skyu is a Ladakhi speciality, made of pasta and root vegetables.

Surrounding Leh is the Indus Valley; its river gorges, lush meadows and barley fields (barley is fermented into chang, an alcoholic drink for festive occasions) are punctuated with Buddhist monasteries. It’s the place to trek, but take your guide with you – local knowledge and a couple of ponies to carry your gear are essential in this terrain.

Manaus to Novo Airão The Brazilian Amazon

You can’t visit the Amazon properly without a guide. This immense river is impossible to navigate without a boat, and with more than 500 mammals, 175 lizards and 2,700 species of bromeliads (not to mention one third of the world’s birds and around 30 million insect species), it’s useful to have someone to explain them all. Besides, if you want to see a pink dolphin – the beautiful rose-coloured freshwater species that is only found in the Amazon – you need an expert navigator like Carlos ‘The Jaguar’, a local guide who runs regular seven-night riverboat tours along the river.

The expedition begins in Manaus, a tropical outpost in the middle of the jungle and the Amazon’s largest city. You’ll float downstream on a two-deck boat to Caraipé Lake, where enormous kapok trees surround the water spread with six-foot-wide water lilies and inhabited by black piranhas; your guide will show you how to catch them. Once the sun has set you’ll be taken on a canoe ride to spot alligators hidden in the floating grass, before falling asleep back on board to the sound of a chorus of tree frogs.

Sailing upriver on the Rio Negro, you’ll progress ever farther from civilisation through the exotic Anavilhanas archipelago – look out for turtles, piranhas, manatees, electric eels and a remarkable, giant airbreathing fish called the pirarucu. You’ll spend the night at the mouth of the Apuau river, where macaws screech in the rainforest and the river gradually becomes narrower and narrower until it reaches the wild region of Terra do Jaguar, deep in the heart of the jungle.

As you float through the tropical forest on canoes, Carlos will point out blue, purple, red and orange bromeliads inhabited by tiny frogs, salamanders and snails; medicinal herbs and a multitude of vines, orchids, butterflies, snakes and iguanas. Look up to the jungle canopy and you might spot sloths, howler monkeys, kinkajous (honey bears) and harpy eagles. You’ll spend two days exploring this region by traditional wooden canoe, sampling jungle beer – which is made by Indian tribes out of mashed, fermented yucca – and at night, eating barbecued Amazon fish on river beaches.

Floating back towards Manaus, you’ll cross the other side of the Anavilhanas to visit the town of Novo Airão, famous for its snake zoo and its pink dolphins. Later, you’ll canoe around the islands with Carlos in search of nocturnal creatures, and after breakfast the following day it’s time to visit an Indian settlement along the river before returning to Manaus.

Beijing, via Xi’an, to Shanghai China

China can be overwhelming – its capital city is bigger than a small country (with an area of 16,800 square km, Beijing is roughly the size of Belgium); motorways are eight-lane affairs and as for understanding the restaurant menus – the profusion of dumplings, noodles and omelettes served in Beijing’s Wangfujing quarter alone is enough to confound the most determined tourist.

Which is why, for the first-time traveller to China, engaging a local guide and driver is both informative and infinitely less time-consuming than trying to work it all out on your own. Travel Indochina provides Chinese and English guides who are exceptionally knowledgeable, with personal stories that give you a fascinating insight into life here.

Starting in Beijing, this journey encompasses the major sights but also reveals hidden aspects of China’s multi-layered culture. So you’ll see the Forbidden City, built in 1417 and the palace of the royal family during the Ming Dynasty; Tiananmen Square and the mausoleum containing the embalmed body of Chairman Mao. But you’ll also visit Wangfujing night market, where housewives shop for meat and mooncakes. And you’ll ride a rickshaw through the hutongs, a series of labyrinthine alleyways lined with siheyuan – the compound of rooms around a courtyard where most Beijing residents used to live – where old men hunch over chess boards and barrow-boys sell long kebabs of sugar-coated crab apples. Temple of Heaven Park is another surprise; every morning men and women come here to waltz, sing in choirs, play instruments and practise tai chi.

The Great Wall of China snakes majestically through 7,200km of Chinese countryside, but you’ll go to Mutianyu, a quiet spot two hours north of Beijing, where you can scramble along the timeworn stones of this ancient structure without being bothered by hordes of other tourists. From Beijing you’ll travel with your guide by sleeper train to Xi’an, once the end of the Silk Road and until the early 10th century, home to politicians, poets, emperors and courtesans. Explore the warren-like streets of the Muslim quarter, where you’ll find delicious huashenggao (peanut cakes) and shibing (dried persimmons). Then travel east to see the famous Terracotta Army, life-size sculptures of thousands of soldiers that guard the tomb of former ruler Qin Shi Huang. A local farmer discovered the figures in 1974.

Finally, you’ll fly to Shanghai, with its landmark district the Bund, where space-age buildings glitter by the banks of the Huangpu river as if they have dropped in from another galaxy. In contrast, the artdeco streets behind blend the old China of cricket fights and egg sellers with funky bars and spas. Get your guide to take you to the Urban Planning Museum – its exhibitions charting the growth of this vibrant city over the past 20 years are truly gripping.

Panama City to Bocas del Toro Panama

There’s nothing like being shown a city by a local. The Latin melting pot that is Panama City, set on a bay overlooking the Pacific Ocean, is home not only to half the population of Panama, but also to people from all over Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and North America. The guide will drive you around in a 4x4 vehicle, exploring places such as the Casco Viejo, the old city, where, among the crumbling French, Italian and Spanish buildings, he’ll show you the secret spots to eat and drink. Gastronomy wise, this area has much to offer. You can dine on Panamanian ceviche one night, sushi the next – or there’s tikka masala, chicken kebabs, or perhaps a freshly caught red snapper smothered in coconut curry sauce.

Your driver will then take you to the Canal Zone, the reason many visitors come to Panama in the first place. You’ll be able to watch the huge ocean liners navigate through the locks and join a boat tour travelling the entire length of the canal – these operate once or twice a month and the trip takes about eight hours. There are two sides to the canal; the Pacific and the Caribbean side; on the latter you’ll find the ruined forts of Portobelo and San Lorenzo, which during the early days of Spanish rule were repeatedly ransacked by the notorious pirates of the region, who targeted the Inca gold from Peru that was being shipped back to Spain.

Finally, you’ll fly down to the Bocas del Toro archipelago, six jungle islands encircled by white sand beaches and azure sea, where a sailing boat will take you on guided snorkelling tours of the coral reefs. At night you’ll return to the eco-friendly, entirely solar-powered Acqua Lodge, where chefs in the palm-roofed restaurant cook up delicious silk snapper in virgin olive oil and rock salt with rice and guandu (a type of pea), lobster stew or seafood paella.

Livingstone, Zambia, via Namibia, to Cape Town Southern Africa

Hiring a guide and driver in Africa is the only way to explore properly. You can wait days for a bus and even if it doesn’t break down on the way, it might not always go where you think it’s going. If you have limited time, engaging your own private, safe transport and a good guide with local knowledge is an absolute must.

The people at Acacia Africa have years of experience on the ground, and are sure hands at navigating the rugged, potholed terrain while telling you tales of local life and customs. You’ll travel in a sturdy 4x4 safari vehicle fully equipped with filtered water, spare tyres and all the other kit necessary for a long journey along the red, dusty roads of southern Africa – leaving you to relax and enjoy the scenery, with the added benefit that you can stop to take photos whenever you want.

The trip begins in Livingstone, Zambia, where the guide will escort you along the banks of the great Zambezi river to see mist-swirled views of Victoria Falls, before driving you south to spend two days at Chobe National Park. Elephants stomp their way through the bush here and, on an afternoon game-viewing cruise on the Chobe river, you might see hippos wallowing and kingfishers feeding as the great African sun slips below the horizon.

The drive downstream, where the river fans out into the Okavango Delta, takes you past clusters of acacia trees as you cross the fringes of the Kalahari Desert. At this point it’s time to swap the car for a mokoro, or dugout canoe; the Okavango is the largest inland river delta in the world and there’s a network of waterways populated with hippo, crocodile, buffalo and elephant. You’ll be poled along the waters by skilled Botswanian guides who grew up near the Delta and know its every twist and turn – they might even sing you local folk songs. When evening falls, you’ll set up camp on one of the islands dotted amid the swaying wetland grasses and stoke up the fire to cook hearty goat stew.

Heading across the border to Namibia, you’ll travel to the 22,000 square km Etosha National Park. It surrounds a central salt pan and you might spot leopards or lions before camping beneath the stars in Spitzkoppe, a moonscape-like area of ancient granite peaks in the Namib Desert known as the Matterhorn of Africa, as your guide lights up the traditional African braai.

Hitting the coast just north of Swakopmund, you start heading north to the Cape Cross seal colony; one of the largest seal colonies in the world. Then it’s across the desert into Sesriem in the Namib-Naukluft National Park. Climb up the spine of some of the world’s highest sand dunes and watch the sunrise behind the undulating landscape, while your guide prepares a hearty breakfast of eggs, bacon and sausages – with an optional bottle of champagne.

Pushing on south, you’ll drive through the fertile wine region of Cape Province before arriving at Namaqua National Park, visiting local wine producer Dewald van der Westhuizen (namaquawines.com) on the banks of the Olifants River. The final destination is Cape Town’s townships; when it comes to learning about how apartheid shaped the daily lives of some of the poorest people in South Africa, a guided tour to these areas of the city is a real eye-opener.