Mark was in India in October last year and spent a week exploring the sights of the famous 'Golden Triangle' of the North, and a few days discovering the charms of laid-back Kerala in the South. Here's why it was his somewhat unexpected top trip of 2016 . . . . Exploring India's Historic North I visited two sides of India in October in two different ways, combined in to one trip. The first part of my trip was a group tour of the classic sights of the 'Golden Triangle ' - Delhi, Agra and Jaipur - which was arranged by our friends at G Adventures, who run amazing escorted tours with an adventurous streak. I then said goodbye to my group of fellow G Adventurers and headed to Kerala to spend a few days exploring the beaches, backwaters and history of this charming area, in the company of the fabulous folks at Kerala Travel Centre. Being an independent company ourselves we love working with other independent companies around the world. In all honesty ...

We're celebrating our 10th birthday at  Escape Worldwide , and looking back at 10 years of globetrotting in the name of bringing you great holidays - at least that's our excuse! We're having a look at our personal top 10 favourite travel experiences of the last 10 years. Karen gets a little teary at the Taj Mahal  "There are some places that you feel you know even if you haven't been, and the Taj Mahal is one of them - it's such an iconic building that everyone knows what it looks like, but when you actually visit you're really blown away with quite how beautiful this place really is. I was part way through a trip to the highlights of Northern India when I visited the Taj Mahal - it was my first trip to India, and a real eye-opener to this fantastically diverse country. I'd started with a few days in Delhi, which acts as the main gateway to Northern India and is a good place to get started, both geographically and also historically and cultu...