Mongolia

Mongolia is the antidote to everything crowded. Three million people in a country six times the size of Britain, most of the land still open steppe where herds move like cloud shadows. You will stay in gers, the round felt tents Mongolians have called home for millennia, upgraded now with proper beds and hot showers at the best camps. Days are riding across grasslands with nomad herders, watching golden eagle hunters work their birds in the Altai, or crossing the Gobi's dunes and dinosaur cliffs. The Naadam festival in July turns the whole country into a celebration of wrestling, archery and horse racing. Hospitality here is ancient law: every ger door is open. If your soul needs stretching, this is the widest sky we know.