Where to go in March

Maldives

An archipelago of around 1,200 low-lying coral islands scattered across the Indian Ocean, grouped into 26 atolls. Known for over-water villas, clear shallow lagoons, and some of the richest reef diving anywhere.

Mexico

The altitude hits first, 2,240 metres, then the smell of corn tortillas on a comal somewhere just around the corner. Mexico City is a capital that operates at full intensity from 7am until 3am: baroque churches sinking into soft lakebed, street tacos that cost less than a newspaper, a metro system carrying five million people daily, and contemporary art museums that would embarrass most European cities.

Egypt

The last surviving wonder of the ancient world, three monumental pyramids and the Great Sphinx on the Giza plateau, built over 4,500 years ago on the edge of Cairo and the Western Desert.

Japan

Japan's ancient imperial capital is a city of extraordinary temples, traditional wooden machiya townhouses, and meticulously maintained Zen gardens. With over 1,600 Buddhist temples and 400 Shinto shrines, Kyoto is the spiritual heart of Japan.

Morocco

A former imperial city at the foot of Morocco's Atlas Mountains, built around a walled medieval medina of souks, palaces, and gardens. The main square, Jemaa el-Fnaa, shifts from market to open-air food court each evening.

Colombia

The heat hits you the moment you step out of the airport, thick and salt-edged from the Caribbean. Inside the walled city, the walls themselves are the colour of ochre and rust, and every balcony has something spilling over it: bougainvillea, laundry, a cat. Street vendors carry baskets of fruit on their heads and call out prices you'll negotiate badly the first time.

India

You walk through a red sandstone gateway, past hawkers and security checks, and then it's just there, white marble framed by dark cypress trees, reflected in a long pool that never seems to ripple. It's smaller than you expect from the photos but the detail is overwhelming: semi-precious stones inlaid petal by petal, calligraphy carved so fine it looks printed. The colour shifts through the day, pinkish at dawn, blazing white at noon, golden at sunset. Agra around it is chaotic and charmless, which somehow makes the Taj more startling. One building, built for grief, that stops traffic 400 years later.

Guatemala

The cobblestones are uneven enough to turn an ankle if you're looking at your phone instead of your feet, which is understandable because Volcán Agua sits at the end of nearly every street like someone placed it there deliberately. Antigua is a colonial city kept intact by earthquakes that destroyed it and a preservation law that keeps it that way: yellow and ochre facades, bougainvillea spilling over ruined convents, and a central park where shoe shiners and schoolchildren occupy the same benches.

Canada

The water really is that colour, an impossible turquoise that looks photoshopped until you're standing at the edge of Lake Louise watching glacial silt catch the morning light. Banff is the Canadian Rockies compressed into a national park: valleys that dead-end at blue-white glaciers, elk wandering through town like they pay rent, and a two-lane highway (the Icefields Parkway) that might be the best drive on the continent. The town itself is touristy and expensive, $9 craft beers, souvenir shops selling moose plush toys, but step onto any trailhead and within 20 minutes you're alone with mountains that make you feel appropriately small.

Australia

The air is cold and smells like rain and eucalyptus even in summer. Tasmania is an island that didn't get the memo about tourist infrastructure: roads narrow to single lanes through ancient rainforest, dolerite columns rise out of sea mist on the southwest coast, and the silence in the interior is the kind that makes city people uncomfortable at first. Give it a day. Then you won't want to leave.

India

The walls really are pink, a warm terracotta that deepens at dusk until the whole old city glows like an ember. Auto-rickshaws horn their way past camel carts on roads that predate traffic lights, and somewhere inside the bazaars of Johari Bazar, a tailor is threading a needle while negotiating a price without looking up. The palaces are enormous, the crowds are real, and the chai is non-negotiable.

Argentina / Brazil

The mist hits you before the sound does, then the sound hits you before you see anything, and then you round a corner on the Argentine side and 275 waterfalls are just there, spread across nearly 3km of jungle-lined horseshoe. A coati will try to steal your lunch while you stand there getting soaked. The Devil's Throat drops 82 metres straight down and the noise makes conversation impossible.