Lesotho

Lesotho calls itself the Kingdom in the Sky, and it earns the name. The entire country sits above 1,000 metres — the only country on Earth to do so — and its highest peaks top 3,400 metres. Completely enclosed by South Africa, Lesotho is a world apart: a compact mountain kingdom where the highland Basotho culture is still visibly intact, where shepherds ride horseback in wool blankets against the cold, and where you can trek for days between villages that see almost no foreign visitors.

The country's tourism centres on its mountains, and the mountains reward effort. Sani Pass — the only road crossing between Lesotho and the KwaZulu-Natal side of South Africa — is one of the most spectacular drives in Southern Africa, a series of hairpin bends climbing 2,876 metres into the Drakensberg escarpment. At the top, Sani Mountain Lodge holds the title of Africa's highest pub. Afriski, the only commercial ski resort in Southern Africa, operates in winter (June to August) with a short but genuinely snowy slope. Maletsunyane Falls — a 192-metre plunge into a basalt gorge — is home to the world's longest commercial single-drop abseil. Ts'ehlanyane National Park preserves one of the last significant stands of indigenous highland forest in a country where the trees are mostly gone.

Beyond the landmarks, Lesotho's real draw is its people and their country's honest remoteness. Pony trekking for a few days between rural villages, staying in traditional Basotho huts, is the way many travellers remember their trip. It is not a luxury destination — the infrastructure is thin and the weather is extreme — but for travellers who want something genuinely different and genuinely unspoiled, Lesotho is unlike anywhere else in Africa.