For most international visitors, this is India. Delhi, Agra and Jaipur form the ‘Golden Triangle’, beyond which many don't venture. But while this small area contains some of the world’s wonders, northern India has much, much more to offer.

Rajasthan is crammed with the remnants of former princely states, its cities palimpsests formed over centuries of Muslim Mughal and Hindu Rajput empires. Forts and palaces are everywhere: squatting on hilltops, crowded in by jungle and floating on lakes. In the Thar desert, camels still wander mediaeval towns straight out of Arabian Nights, while across the Aravalli hills there’s lush, laid-back, lakeside Udaipur. In between is mile upon mile of pastoral countryside, where you can stay in palaces-turned-boutique hotels and rub shoulders with the descendants of Rajput royalty.

Uttar Pradesh is where you really begin to go off-piste. Beyond Agra and Varanasi there’s Chambal, with its river safaris and dramatic ravines echoing with the stories of bandits and outlaws — and Lucknow, one of the most charming and overlooked cities in India. Further north still is where the Indo-Gangetic plain begins to transition into the Himalayan foothills, where you’ll find the Sikh city of Amritsar and Brutalist Chandigarh.

If you want to combine India’s big-hitters with some of its most spectacular little-known wonders, the North is a brilliant place to start.