1 Cool Colombia
Just saying “trek to the Lost City” sounds alluring, but after hiking along jungle paths for several days it is good to know that there’s somewhere swanky to stay at the end. The Cuidad Perdia gets about as many visitors a year as Machu Picchu does a day, so you won’t be battling for the perfect selfie. On the three-night trek you will sleep in hammocks and tents, and at the end you’ll enjoy a wonderful sense of achievement as you put your feet up at the Gitana del Mar hotel, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain range.
Details Amankuna (020 7193 7582, amakuna.com) has a seven-night trip from £2,200pp, including accommodation, most meals and guiding. Flights cost extra
2 The Inca trail by luxury lodge
This is the trek for flashpackers — a hike to Machu Picchu, yet not a canvas tent in sight. The tour starts in Cuzco, but the action begins at Mollepata — the start of the Salkantay Trek. The route passes through traditional villages and stops at ancient Inca ruins, before climaxing at Machu Picchu. The hike is hard going, especially on the fourth day, when the path reaches 4,638m. However, your gear is carried for you, and there is the daily reward of checking into the charming mountain lodges (a world away from the Inca Trek campgrounds). Expect goose-down bedding, hot showers, gourmet meals and outdoor hot tubs. And for aching muscles? Book a massage.
Details Eight nights cost from £3,119pp, including most meals, transfers, guides and entry to Machu Picchu (0800 8048435, tucantravel.com)
3 Rajasthan in style
Ah, those heady memories of arriving in Delhi at midnight, sleeping in a pound-a-night hostel and setting off on a 36-hour train ride. Preserve the spirit of those carefree days, but sleep in more salubrious surroundings. Bring out your inner backpacker with some time volunteering with villagers at Araveli, perhaps on a building project. Then, after ticking off the Taj Mahal, enjoy Rajasthan in style, staying in swish hotels such as the luxurious Leela Palace in Udaipur, beside Lake Pichola.
Details A 14-day trip costs from £4,080pp, including flights, transport, some meals, guiding and excursions (01993 838330, audleytravel.com)
4 First-class interrailing around Europe
Interrailing around Europe is a rite of passage for many young people — happy memories of sleeping on the beach in Nice and trying to chat up that Swedish girl on the night train to Salzburg, eh? Giving up your student pass doesn’t mean not being able to enjoy a jaunt by train from eastern Turkey to northern Norway. Yes, you’ll get a cheaper deal if you are under 28, but those over that age can still buy Interrail passes. If you really want to flashpack your way to Sicily and back via Helsinki, you can go first class for £735. Keep an upmarket hotel booking site such as Mr and Mrs Smith on speed-dial and you can book places to stay as you tootle round . . . perhaps Cap Estel on the Côte d’Azur (room-only doubles from £360) or Capo la Gala on the Amalfi Coast (B&B doubles from £272).
Details Travel for seven (£277), ten (£329) or 15 days (£408) in a month, or take a monthly pass for £550 (interrail.eu). For hotels, see mrandmrssmith.com
5 Luxury mountain hotel in India
The scenery you’ll see from the stunning Leti 360 mountain hotel at 2,200m in the foothills of the Himalayas is normally reserved for hardened trekkers. It’s remote, with a capital R, and reaching it is no mean feat. Guests must take a day or overnight train from Delhi to Kathgodam, from where there is a two-day trek between villages. En route spend two nights at comfortable village houses, before arriving at Leti 360. Once you are at the Relais & Châteaux property you will be able to enjoy incredible views down the Ramganga Valley, and gorgeous rooms with pashmina blankets and stoves.
Details Five nights’ all-inclusive costs from £3,500pp, including two nights in village inns and three at Leti 360, guides, transfers and train travel from Delhi (020 3808 6383,wixsquared.com). International flights cost extra
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6 VIP beach bum
Cramped Ryanair flight, cheap booze, all-night raves and pile ’em high accommodation — Ibiza is the ultimate backpackers’ summer haunt. Give the trip an A-list shine by hopping on a private jet to get there. Websites such as Jetpartner allow travellers to book a spot on a jet’s empty leg, at a fraction of the cost. It is still expensive, but not much more than business class fares in peak season. For example, an Embraer Phenom 300 light aircraft, which carries seven passengers, will cost about £5,990 — about £856pp (although sadly only one way). Once on the island, stay in style at the five-star Nobu Hotel, which opens on June 30. With 125 designer rooms, Six Senses spa and four restaurants, the hotel is set to become one of the island’s hottest digs.
Details Private jet flights can be booked though jetpartner.net. Nobu Hotel doubles cost from £425 (slh.com)
7 Opulence in the Andes
Forget rickety local trains and instead board one of the world’s highest and most luxurious trains on a slow-travel journey across the Peruvian Andes. Reaching 3,600m, and with a top speed of 20mph, the new Belmond Andean Explorer is a seriously opulent train that meanders the 456 miles from Lake Titicaca to Cusco, the gateway to Machu Picchu. The 24 guest cabins range from snug, pleasant rooms with bunks or fold-down sofas to luxuriant suites with full double beds and private window nooks. There’s also a bar and open-sided observation car, as well as two restaurant carriages, overseen by the celebrated Peruvian chef Diego Muñoz, who serves local flavours with modern twists.
Details The nine-day Grand Peruvian Adventure, which includes one night in Lima, one night in Cusco, one night in Arequipa, two nights in Colca Canyon, two nights aboard the Andean Explorer sleeper train, some meals and guided excursions, costs from $4,465pp (£3,473pp); 0845 0772222, belmond.com. International and domestic flights cost extra
8 Homestay and chic hotel in Vietnam
First, earn your luxury with a four-night homestay in the Sapa Valley of Vietnam, which allows you to see a different side to the country, sharing meals cooked by your guide and trekking on routes suggested by your hosts. Top and tail it with an overnight train, trips on a junk in Halong Bay and some R&R at a lovely hotel in Hanoi before you fly home.
Details Bushbaby Travel (0845 1244455, bushbaby.travel) offers seven nights with most meals and guiding from £790pp (two sharing). Vietnam Airlines (vietnamairlines.com) flies nonstop from Heathrow to Hanoi from £469
9 Greek island-hopping by private yacht
Didn’t you go island hopping as a student? Ditch the ferry and hostel, replacing them with a luxury yacht that can take you from island to island. Argentous is a 20m yacht that feels like a floating boutique hotel, with three double cabins and a smaller fourth one. Expect breakfast and lunch on board, sundowner drinks, and then hop in the boat’s tender for a taverna dinner on shore. Guests with sailing experience can get involved with sailing the boat, or simply catch some rays on the deck.
Details Three nights cost from £560pp, including breakfast and lunch. Dinner costs £20 a head for three courses (020 7112 0019, fleewinter.com)
10 Luxury rafting trip
Even Mary Berry couldn’t avoid a soggy bottom on a week-long whitewater rafting trip in Chile, but she could dry out in a luxury lodge afterwards. This journey is pretty hardcore, with rafting in northern Patagonia on the Futaleufu River for four days, camping in tents by the banks or in treehouses each evening. The compensation is fantastic wilderness scenery and the knowledge that at the end you can relax for three nights at Uman Lodge, where you can enjoy some fly-fishing, horse riding or being massaged in the spa.
Details Seven nights’ full board costs from £5,040pp, including internal flights from Santiago, rafting, guiding and accommodation at Uman (020 7993 6930, plansouthamerica.com). British Airways (ba.com) flies nonstop from Heathrow to Santiago from £860 return
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11 Hip Mongolian yurts
This is the kind of adventure cash-poor backpackers would only dream of: taking in the cultural and scenic highlights of off-the-beaten track Mongolia on a ten-day trip. Visit Terelj National Park and fly to the Gobi desert to explore the sand dunes, ancient rock paintings, grassy steppe and flaming red cliffs — without pitching a tent. Instead, spend six nights in luxury yurt camps, and be guided around the region by a private guide and driver.
Details Six nights cost from £2,997pp, including most meals, guided excursions and transfers (020 8741 7390, wildfrontierstravel.com)
12 Himalayas by chartered helicopter
If you are a time-poor adrenaline junkie, take a privately chartered helicopter high (5,400m high) into the mountains of Nepal near Annapurna for a descent by mountain bike on miles of untouched terrain. You’ll have at least three days in the saddle before heading back to Kathmandu, where you can gently pummel aching limbs in the spa of Dwarika’s Hotel.
Details A seven-day heli-biking tour costs from £5,000pp, including most meals, internal flights and heli-biking, plus guiding and support staff (01904 500094, lostearthadventures.co.uk). Dwarika’s Hotel (dwarikas.com) has room-only doubles from £193
13 Round-the-world ticket with posh hotels
You don’t need a gap year to go round the world. If you’ve only got about three weeks, the good news is that round-the-world flights really haven’t increased in price since your backpacking days. For example, last month Round the World Flights offered London, Siem Reap (for Angkor Wat), Bali, Sydney, Auckland, Tahiti, London from about £1,500. If you want more legroom, you could do London, Hanoi, Melbourne, Christchurch, San Francisco, London from about £3,000 in premium economy. Flashpackers fill in the accommodation gaps with websites such as One Fine Stay (onefinestay.com). With a bit of creative searching you could move from a 1920s cottage built by Charlie Chaplin in Los Angeles to a cool loft in Bangkok.
Details For flights, try roundtheworldflights.com or trailfinders.com, which can also arrange accommodation
14 Trek and luxury eco-hotel in Patagonia
Shared between Chile and Argentina, Patagonia is one of the great wildernesses. For that sense of achievement, tackle one of the world’s top ten treks, the Paine Circuit, which follows a route at the heart of the Torres del Paine National Park, a Unesco world heritage site. Taking in the John Garner Pass, the dramatic Frances Valley and the lake shore of Lake Nordenskjold, the seven-day trek is hard going, but luxury awaits at the end. As for that backpack? Fear not, everything apart from a small daypack is transported for you. Check into the first EcoCamp hotel, which has bedrooms with clear ceilings, so you can stargaze without leaving your bed.
Details Ten nights cost from £3,955pp, including flights, accommodation with most meals, guides and transfers (01768 773966, keadventure.com)
15 Cycling in style in central Asia
If you still like seeking out the spots that more mainstream travellers might not consider, but can now afford to do it in more style, take a look at Georgia. This summer cricket-mad Brit Oli Broom (he pedalled from London to Australia for the Ashes and helped to set up Rwanda’s national cricket stadium) is launching slow cycling and hiking holidays to the Caucasus, where the emphasis is more on superb local food, wine and interacting with the locals than donning Lycra to unleash your inner cycling champ. Start in the capital, Tbilisi, then head east on relatively flat ground, apart from the 3,000m Abano Pass. The scenery is stunning. A hot shower or thermal bath with a sundowner or three are always waiting after a day in the saddle, as well as nightly feasts.
Details Ten-day trips start at £1,795pp, including full board, guiding and bike hire (07540 441485, theslowcyclist.co.uk). Flights cost extra; Air Baltic (airbaltic.com) flies to Tbilisi
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16 Designer Thailand and Burma by balloon
You can still reminisce along Khao San Road when you are in Bangkok, but then it is nice to hop in a tuk-tuk and retreat to a designer pad, such as the Muse Hotel (cocktail at the rooftop Speakeasy bar?). Head into Burma and enjoy a dawn hot-air balloon ride above the temples at Bagan, a cruise down the Irrawaddy River from Mandalay, downtime on the beach at Ngapali, before a stay at the super-cool Strand Hotel, Yangon.
Details A 12-day trip costs from £2,463pp, including B&B, activities and transport, but not international flights (01273 670001, selectiveasia.com). Emirates (emirates.com) flies from six UK airports into Bangkok and out of Yangon (via Dubai) from £488
17 A month off in Africa
Who says overland truck trips are just for 18-year-old Aussies? Saga has launched a trip for its more mature market: 25 nights across South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, covering about 3,200 miles and travelling by coach. There will be game spotting in Etosha National Park, exploration of the Okavango Delta and Chobe National Park, and cruising on the Zambezi. Why not finish with a bungee jump at Victoria Falls?
Details Saga (0800 0960074, saga.co.uk) has this Africa’s Southern Soul trip from £4,699pp, including accommodation, with most meals, transport and guiding. Flights cost extra
18 Cool hotels on a tour of New Zealand
New Zealand may be the country of the Hobbit and the student traveller, but with both islands chock-full of designer hotels and lodges it is most definitely one for the more stylish holidaymaker too. Even if you have only a couple of weeks to spare, you could visit Auckland (including a sail in the harbour on an America’s Cup yacht), go hiking at Tongariro National Park, chill with a flat white in Wellington, heli-hike at the Franz Josef Glacier, and explore Queenstown and Milford Sound before flopping for a few nights at a beach resort in Fiji.
Details A 15-night trip with flights, accommodation, activities and car hire costs from £3,699pp (020 7368 1200, trailfinders.com)
19 Trans Siberia the flashpackers’ way
The Trans-Siberian Railway is towards the top of many people’s bucket list . . . just not all the faffing about that can go with getting a ticket. As a student you may have queued at Moscow’s Yaroslavskaya railway station for a place in a four-berth sleeper; now you can let an expert do the planning to avoid snorers from Vladivostok disrupting your trip. Russia Experience organises crossings from Moscow to Beijing, for example, that let travellers remain independent, but with support along the way. There is plenty of time to stare thoughtfully out of the window at taiga and steppe, stop in Irkutsk for a picnic at Lake Baikal and pause in the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar for a couple of days.
Details A 15-day package, including transfers, B&B in Moscow, Irkutsk and Ulaanbaatar, excursions and train berths, costs from £2,345pp (0345 5212910, trans-siberian.co.uk). Flights and visas cost extra. BA flies to Moscow and out of Beijing from £334
20 Australia by train (champagne included)
Ah, the bargain stopping service on Garuda airlines to the surf, flip-flops and barbecues in Oz — those were the days. Now you’ll be able to afford the pricier direct Qantas flights to Perth, starting next March. Where previously you may have taken a bus ride across the seemingly endless Nullabor Plain to get to Sydney, now you can sit back on a luxury rail trip. The Indian Pacific railway is one of the world’s longest train journeys, trundling 4,352km in four days. There are a number of off-train excursions, but the main draw is to kick back, champagne in hand, and admire the scenery.
Details Twelve nights’ B&B costs from £3,665pp, including flights. Three nights are spent on the Indian Pacific, all-inclusive (020 7838 5892, wexas.com)
