Take off with Natarajan

You’ve already hiked up to Machu Picchu and climbed up and down the thousands of stairs of the Great Wall of China. We bet you’ve also stood awestruck before the Hagia Sofia and the Taj Majal.

You’re a regular Tony Wheeler, who co-founded the Lonely Planet travel company more than 40 years ago. Like you, he’s visited most of the world’s major wonders of the world and almost everything else worth seeing.

Wheeler and fellow world explorer Vince Michael, head of the Global Heritage FUND, are always looking for hidden places to discover. By all means, they say, visit Angkor Wat and the Hagia Sophia. Go there and check them off your bucket list.

But don’t you want to explore places everyone hasn’t already seen? That’s why CNNasked Michael and Wheeler, a Global Heritage FUND board member, to pick some hidden gems to explore. These are spots where we hope you won’t always share your trip with thousands of other travellers.

“Who hasn’t seen pictures and read about Angkor Wat in Cambodia?” Wheeler said. “But Banteay Chhmar? It’s an unknown, and discovering an unknown is always a delight.

“Ditto for the Taj Mahal in India. Nobody’s disappointed when they see the Taj for the first time, but they’ve seen pictures of it. It’s popped up in TV programs and movies so often, that actually seeing it is no surprise. Hampi, however, is going to be totally unexpected.”

Let the crowds swarm the world’s best-known marvels. The lesser-known Global Heritage FUND sites below can be found in the same countries — without the crowds. And two spots are still on Wheeler’s bucket list.

That’s right. Even the co-founder of Lonely Planet hasn’t yet been to these picks in India and Peru. Maybe you can beat him there.

Some of the more undiscovered spots require long and bumpy bus rides through the mountains, while others are located near LUXURY HOTELS. No matter which you choose, they will knock your (hiking) boots off.

Hampi, India

One of the most well-known and admired structures and examples of Indo-Islamic architecture in the world, the Taj Mahal is a marble mausoleum built in the 17th century by the Mughal emperor in memory of a beloved wife.

A site of equal interest lies in the south of India at Hampi, the last capital of the last Hindu Kingdom of Vijayanagar. A six-hour drive from Goa or Bangalore, Hampi was conquered by the Deccan Muslim confederacy in 1565 and plundered before it was abandoned.

Still standing are several temples, including the Krishna temple complex, the Chandramauleshwar Temple and the temples of Ramachandra and Hazara Rama. There are also hundreds of other remains on the site, including stables, water structures, shrines and royal complexes.

“Hampi is a stunning complex of magnificent temples and other structures set along a dramatic riverine site,” says Michael, calling it “a dramatic testament to one of the earth’s oldest civilisations.”