With one foot swathed in ancient traditions and the other striding into the entrepreneurial e-age, few countries on earth embrace diversity as passionately as India.

With a population of one billion people and growing, India is as vast as it is crowded and as sublime as it is squalid. The plains are as flat and featureless as the Himalaya are towering and spectacular, the religious texts as perplexing as their underlying message is simple, and the people as easy-going as they are tenacious. Perhaps the one thing that encapsulates India is that it is a place to expect the unexpected.

India, it is often said, is not a country but a continent. From north to south and east to west, the people are different, the languages are different, the customs are different, the country is different. In a nutshell, India's landmass is roughly an upside-down triangle with the top formed by the mighty Himalayan mountain chain. Here you will find the intriguing Tibetan-influenced region of Ladakh and the awesome mountainous areas of Himachal Pradesh, Garhwal and the Darjeeling and Sikkim regions. South of this is the flat Ganges plain, crossing east from the colorful and comparatively affluent Punjab in the north-west, past the capital city Delhi and buzzing tourist attractions such as Agra (with the Taj Mahal), Khajuraho, Varanasi and the holy Ganges to the northern part of the Bay of Bengal, where you find frenetic Kolkata (Calcutta), which has long been acknowledged as India's cultural capital.

South of this northern plain the Deccan plateau rises. Here you will find cities that mirror the rise and fall of the Hindu and Muslim kingdoms, and the modern metropolis that their successors, the British, built at Mumbai (Bombay). India's story is one of many different kingdoms fiercely competing with each other, and this is clearly evident in places such as Bijapur, Mandu, Golconda and other central Indian centers. Finally, there is the steamy south, India's Dravidian heartland, which is just as extraordinarily diverse in terms of its landscapes, people, arts, traditions and culture as is North India.

India's glorious diversity can make it a veritable quagmire when planning itineraries. If you want to see places of worship, there is an astonishing array of sacred sites, from immaculately kept Jain temples to weathered Buddhist stupas. If it's history you're after, India is bursting with it; the battle-scarred forts, breathtaking palaces, abandoned cities, ancient ruins and monuments all have their tales to tell. If you want some time out to simply splash around, there are beaches to satiate the most avid sun worshipper. Lovers of the great outdoors have no dearth of scenic walks; these include the Himalayan trekking routes, some of which are the most beautiful and sequestered in the country.

Ultimately, India is going to be exactly what you make of it. This is certainly not a place you simply and clinically 'see'; it's an assault on all the senses, a journey that's impossible to define because it's so different for everyone. But there's one thing for sure - no matter where you go or what you do, it's a place you'll never forget.