The A to Z of world travel ...

The country that is a continent is a fantastic place to visit, offering 20 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation-declared World Heritage Sites and some of the world’s most epic road trips, like one to see the gorgeous ochre cliffs and sea stacks off the Great Ocean Road.

Barbados is as colourful as its national flower, Pride of Barbados – there are botanical gardens, wetlands, museums, galleries and historical landmarks to explore on this Caribbean island. The country’s economy was originally built on slavery, which was abolished in 1834. Today, its main industries are tourism and financial services.

From the 21 100km Great Wall of China to the jaw-dropping, jagged quartzite sandstone columns of Zhangjiajie – thousands of them – in Hunan province, the army of life-size terracotta warriors excavated at Xian and the cuteness of pandas, China cannot be described in one sentence. Best you go and see its marvels for yourself!

Copenhagen is beautiful, but Denmark has so much more to offer, like gorgeous North Sea beaches (if you surf, hit the waves at places like Løkken and gain some brag points), or Jutland’s 1 000-year-old Aalborg, where Viking culture is on show at the Lindholm Hoje open-air museum.

There’s almost too much to see and do in Ethiopia – from 1 000-year-old churches carved straight into rock at Lalibela to the 3.2-million-year-old skull of our human ancestor “Lucy” (Australopithecus afarensis) in the National Museum of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa. Also expect heavenly hiking on several different mountain ranges, and spotting up to 850 bird species and distinctive animal species such as the grass-eating gelada monkey. See the effect natural acid has on the planet’s crust in the otherworldly scenes of the Danakil Depression.

When you visit the world’s largest archipelago, you need to decide whether you are going to go in summer and experience the Land of the Midnight Sun, or in winter, for kaamos, the sunless months, when one of the best experiences on offer is cross-country skiing under the glorious Northern Lights.

Ghana’s history is as complex as its music scene is energetic. It was a major post during the reprehensible Atlantic slave trade, yet was also the first African country to gain independence from its colonialists (in 1957). From gorgeous marshlands full of wildlife to fascinating history and culture, Ghana’s offerings make for a great holiday destination.

This is where east meets west in Central Europe, and the resultant cultural melange makes for a vibrant country that offers piquant traditional dishes, intriguing architecture, Europe’s largest semi-natural grassland (in Hortobágy National Park) and more than 1 000 hot springs.

India is a kaleidoscope of colour, sound, culture and ways of living that cannot but change its visitors forever. Visit one of the world’s greatest paeans to romance, the Taj Mahal; a holy river, the Ganges; the world’s highest mountains, the Himalayas, and see some of the biggest cities and most gorgeous wildlife around the globe.

Jordan may be famous for its archaeological city of Petra, but there is so much more to explore: Crusader architecture such as Kerak Castle (later a Mamluk fortress), the plants and wildlife of the Dana Biosphere Reserve, the “moonscapes” of Wadi Rum (made famous by the 2015 film The Martian) and the art and culture of its capital, Amman.

Did you know Kenya has a game reserve called Hell’s Gate National Park? Also, apart from being the place where you can witness the greatest annual migration on earth, this East African country offers fabulous wildlife, colourful cultures, the warm Indian Ocean’s turquoise waters offset by white sand beaches, and distinctive corals – plus ancient ruins at Watamu.

Lesotho is an adventurer’s paradise, offering water sports, mountain biking, skiing and snowboarding, hiking, white-water rafting and more. Finish it all off with a drink at “the highest pub in Africa” at Sani Mountain Lodge (2 874m above sea level), at the top of the spectacular Sani Pass.

Morocco is more than Instagram friendly – from the cool blue walls of the city of Chefchaouen in the Rif Mountains to the Sahara’s swirling sands. Explore ancient souks, glorious architecture, clear-water beaches and snaggle-toothed mountains and enjoy delicious cuisine.

There are few places in the world where the sky is so big, or the landscape so breathtaking, as Namibia, the south-west African country that seamlessly marries adventure, culture and minute-by-minute lessons in the awe-inspiring power of nature.

The first thing you notice in Oman is the people – hospitality is an integral part of this ancient culture; and then there is the natural beauty, especially during the monsoon season when the stark desert transforms into a lush green mega-oasis.

Steeped in history, Portugal is a festival of delicious food (pastel de nata, anyone?), great weather, friendly faces, evocative music, jaw-dropping landscapes and even, in Porto, the Livraria Lello, a bookshop believed to have inspired Harry Potter author JK Rowling’s Hogwarts library.

When you visit Qatar, be sure to sign up for a dune-bashing adventure, as well as visiting the architectural wonder that is the Museum of Islamic Art. Don’t forget to haggle for whatever strikes your fancy in the traditional Souk Waqif.

Moscow’s imposing splendour is just the first taste of the hundreds of unique experiences offered by the world’s largest country, which spans most of the northern hemisphere. Tour Lake Onega, north of glorious St Petersburg, to see well-preserved examples of 18th-century Russian architecture; see how the citizens of Dargavs village near the Georgian border buried their dead in bygone times; or combine a visit to the site of the assassination of the last tsar, Nicholas II, with a trip to see the psychedelic walls of Yekaterinburg’s salt mines.

From hiking and rock climbing to taking a selfie with the only giant tortoises to be found outside the Galapagos, there’s a lot to do in the Seychelles beyond the scuba diving, snorkelling and beach lounging the Indian Ocean island republic is famous for.

The Serengeti’s wildlife-filled plains and Mount Kilimanjaro are what Tanzania is most famous for, but this is also the country where Mary and Louis Leakey made several startling discoveries about our human ancestry in the Olduvai Gorge in the 1960s, where Jane Goodall got started as a world authority on primates (in Gombe Stream National Park) and where flocks of flamingoes stalk the shallow, alkaline waters of Lake Manyara. Then there are the cobbled streets of Zanzibar’s Stone Town to explore before tucking into a delicious fish curry and planning tomorrow’s scuba diving or snorkelling.

This East African country packs several punches – trek to see mountain gorillas in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, laugh at the antics of chimpanzees in Kibale National Park, ride white water on the Nile or pick one of the many awe-inspiring safaris available. Plus, there are Kampala’s foot-stomping nightlife and colourful open-air markets to indulge in.

Around 20 000 artefacts, among them some of the world’s greatest treasures, are on display in the Vatican Museums, and then there is the jaw-dropping St Peter’s Basilica – Michaelangelo’s masterpiece – to visit, along with the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican gardens. You could spend a year and not see everything there is to see in the world’s smallest sovereign country.

If its castles you’re after, you’d better go to Wales – the small country has more than 600 of them, all swirling in the mist, wreathed in legend and myth. If that’s not your thing, Wales is also an adventure-sport enthusiast’s dream: you could even combine hiking, cliff jumping and swimming by trying out “coasteering”.

Yes, a bit of a cheat, but we need an X and to the Catalans, Cyprus is known as Xipre. Step beyond this Mediterranean island’s dazzling nightlife, white-sand beaches and delicious food and explore its 10 000-year-old history, so steeped in myth it’s difficult to draw clear lines between the two. Besides, you can see where the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite, was born!