15 Countries you should visit before you turn 30

India

Why to go when you're young: Budget travel (constant haggling, sniffing out scams, sleeping in shitholes) can be exhausting once you wave buh-bye to your 20s. Might as well go to mind-bending places where the price of one Manhattan cocktail can finance an entire night out.
Where to head first: Chaotic Old Delhi is a great place to start. Then enjoy the star attractions in neighboring Uttar Pradesh, the fourth-largest of India's 29 states.
India's ethnic, linguistic, and geographical diversity spans from the Himalayas to the tropics, and seeing it all takes years. But focus your first trip on the Ganges, at sunrise. There, your world will shrink to waterfront rituals: prayer, bathing, tooth-brushing, laundry, and outdoor wood-fired cremations. The bodies inside the burning pyres are recycled into the Vedic elements of their origin (earth, ether, fire, water, wind), fueled by logs that arrive by boat stacked into towers; the fire-tending morticians later recover jewelry and gold tooth fillings. Witnessing a cremation makes you realize that your time is short, so find your passions and migrate toward them fearlessly. It's valuable to get this dose of mortal reality when you're still young. It also gives you time to return to India's unforgettable wildness. Once bitten, you'll be back. -- Bruce Northam,American Detour

Colombia

Why to go when you're young: It's cheap, yo. Flights are a cinch, and dollars spend big. And it's close: Even from New York, Bogota’s a shorter direct flight than London. You'll arrive in the same time zone, sans jet lag, ready dive into jungle adventures.
Where to head first: Medellín, the hot springs of Santa Rosa de Cabal, and Cocora Valley
It's not a coincidence that Gabriel García Márquez was Colombian: The country truly is a land of magical realism, where the past blends with the present and daydreams merge with reality. Where else but at the top of South America do you get the Andes coming right up to meet Caribbean beaches? Or will you dance all-night salsa at clubs in Cali, a town famous just for its dancing?

If you're going for just one moment to capture the whole rigmarole, though, I’ve got two and a half words for you: Carnaval de Barranquilla. The four-day festival on the north coast is Colombia's Mardis Gras, the final blowout before the heavily Catholic country succumbs to Lent. Each day the entire town, plus several thousand tourists, gather for raucous, technicolor parades that last most of the day. Everyone dresses up, in racy and bizarre fashion. Among the more notorious costumes is la marimonda, which looks like a mosquito but, locals explain, is actually a caricature of male genitalia meant to depict the corruption of local politicians.

At night, the streets become discos as salsa dancers overrun intersections. Vendors roam hawking cheap beers and juice boxes filled with aguardiente, the local anise liquor. The passions rise as time wanders away and strangers trade dance partners as easily as passing a bottle. Just before the sun rises, people stagger home for a few hours' shut-eye. Then they do it all again, as they do every February. Which is coming soon. So book your lodging pronto. -- Ezra Kaplan, Thrillist contributor

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