Australia

Classic Diving at the Great Barrier Reef; surfing the Gold Coast; Uluru; climbing Sydney Harbour Bridge; coffee shops in Melbourne; sailing to the Whitsundays; 4WD on Fraser Island.

New Snorkelling with 200 giant saltwater crocs at Crocosaurus Cove, which just got a lot scarier, with a new clear cylindrical Cage of Death for visitors to dive in at feeding time.
Australia's newest wreck dive site is HMAS Adelaide, purposely scuttled in 2011 off Avoca beach in New South Wales' Central Coast. The 138m-long former warship can be explored inside and out, so divers can meet the ship's budding new crew of gropers, octopus and giant cuttlefish. Available with Terrigal Dive Centre. Centre Bush Bus Tours is offering a new wildlife experience to a kangaroo sanctuary.

Thailand

Classic Bangkok night out drinking from buckets on Khao San Road; diving and swimming in Koh Phi Phi, Koh Tao, Ko Lanta; rockclimbing at Railay beach near Krabi; chilling out in Chiang Mai; full-moon parties on Koh Phangan.

New Bangkok's royal suburb of Dusit, a laid-back neighbourhood beside Thewet pier on the tranquil Chao Phraya river, is set to become the new Khao San Road (which is well past its prime). Superb street food, a hassle-free local vibe, and easy access via local ferries are the big draws for budget travellers. Atmospheric, affordable family-run guesthouses on quiet lanes off Sri Ayutthaya Road include vintage-style Pra Nakorn Norn Len. Authentic Thai food is good at waterfront Steve Café and Bangkok's hipsters play at jazz and blues spots such as Adhere 13th Blues Bar on Samsen Road. Elsewhere in Thailand, Phrae and Lampang, with their historic teak-wood mansions, charming streets and vibrant arts scenes, and Khon Kaen, with its university-town vibe, lakeside markets and streetfood stalls are emerging as low-key alternatives to Chiang Mai. Beach bums should make a beeline for the laid-back stretches of sand of car-free Koh Lipe and the clean sea and excellent snorkelling in the Surin Islands, near the Burmese border.

Vietnam

Classic Motorbiking in Hoh Chi Minh; beach bars of Nha Trang and Mui Ne; boat cruises in Halong Bay.

New Homestays and hiking around SaPa to see Hmong and Dao tribes, or in Ba Hon. Insider tours of Hanoi, such as Backyard Travel's street food walks, cooking classes, and art-themed tours to art galleries and artist's homes and studios. Travellers feast on home-style food as they work their way through various rice wines on a new Rice Wine Tour offered by passionate local couple Thuy and Sidney. Or there's a bia hoi hop to Hanoi's fresh beer bars in old American army jeeps and on Russian motorbikes with Explore Indochina. Or try swinging in a hammock beneath palm trees on the white sand beaches of Phu Quoc island, still relatively undiscovered despite its obvious draws.

Cambodia

Classic Angkor Wat by night, by bike, by tuk tuk, by the back route etc; drinking at the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Phnom Penh; the open-top bamboo train in Battambang.

New Exploring the furthest, least developed islands. Stunning Koh Rong, a backpacker secret a few years ago and still just fruit stalls and beach huts for now, is rumoured to be on the cusp of big Koh Samui-style development by the investment company and banking group that owns it, part of the boom in Cambodian tourism development. Backpackers are increasingly heading to the smaller uninhabited islands, including nearby Koh Rong Samloem.
A new "affordable luxury" bus service, Giant Ibis (giantibis.com ), with onboard Wi-Fi and food, has routes from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, Kampot or Sihanoukville for $8-13.

Laos

Classic Drunken river tubing in Vang Vieng; Luang Prabang temples; Mekong river cruise; Plain of Jars; museums and monasteries of Vientiane.

New Chilled out, much quieter river tubing in Vang Vieng now most bars have been shut down. The Gibbon Experience ziplines with accommodation in treehouses, also accessed by zipline, an eco project and gibbon spotting.

More Asia

Classic Orang-utans in Borneo; snorkelling at the Perhentian islands and walking the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia; sun-worshipping on Boracay island in the Philippines; Komodo dragon-spotting and arty Ubud in Indonesia.

New Burma, now back on the list, to see Bagan by hot-air ballon, Mandalay and off-the-beaten-track beaches or motorbiking in the mountains.
Seeing sunrise at Falealupo, Samoa in the South Pacific. Until 30 December 2011, it was all about going to the last place on the planet to see sunset. But then Samoa jumped over to the other side of the dateline, so the village is now one of the first to see the sunrise instead. Visitors can celebrate New Year's Eve in Samoa, then fly one hour to American Samoa and do it again the next day, or go for a birthday to celebrate twice.

India and Nepal

Classic Beach raves in Goa; Kerala houseboats; yoga and getting stoned in Rishikesh; Rajasthan; Varanasi; teahouse trek of the Annapurna circuit.

New Instead of Goa, Gokarna, further south, is the seaside region for quieter, lovelier sands, at Kudlee Beach, Om Beach, Half Moon Beach and Paradise Beach. Sarangkot, Pokhara, in Nepal offers parahawking, which is a new paragliding experience with birds of prey as guides. Trained hawks lead the tandem divers into thermals and land on backpackers' arms to be fed, all while swooping through the sky.

Guatemala

Classic Volcanoes and relaxation at Lake Atitlán; ruins at Tikal; swimming in warm waterfalls at Rio Dulce; craft markets at Chichicastenango.

New Bamba Experience last year launched cultural homestays with Mayan families who live in the small, traditional communities that circle Lake Atitlán. Guests play with the kids, eat dinner with the family, learn the indigenous lingo, get shown around the village and see a weaving demonstration, all for $31. Viaventure is offering a new guided streetfood tour of Guatemala's colonial poster-boy city, Antigua, to try sipping atol or chowing down on rellenitos. Book through Steppes Travel (from $144 pp).

Nicaragua

Classic Chilling on the Corn Islands; volcano climbing on Isla de Ometepe; colonial plazas of Granada.

New It's not for the faint of heart, but Nicaragua Asi Tours runs weekly trips to local cock fights, offering a fascinating insight into one of Central America's less savoury cultural institutions. For $12, travellers get to mix with the local Nicaraguans as they enjoy their Sunday afternoon blood sports, taste traditional food and rum, try their luck with the gambling or simply look on in horror as the contenders suck the blood from their prizefighters' battered bodies.
This company offers several other activities of interest, such as a $24 half-day cooking course, which includes buying, killing and cooking an iguana!

Colombia

Classic Trekking to the Ciudad Perdida (lost city of the Tayrona); Parque Nacional Tayrona beaches; art galleries of Cartagena; coffee region lodges.

New Formerly out of bounds because of Farc activity, the Puracé national park is becoming popular for hiking, on account of its volcano, waterfalls and nearby hot springs – the Termales de San Juan. Near the Pilimbalá ranger station are accommodation options including cabins and camping. Reservations can be made in Popayán at PNN de Colombia Surandina (+57 (2) 8231212, email: purace@parquesnacionales.gov.co). Also partying in Bogotá (not scary any more) in lively Zona Rosa or edgier, alternative La Candelaria.

Bolivia

Classic Cycling the "world's most dangerous road"; cholita wrestling in La Paz; photos on the salt flats; the silver mines in Potosí to give miners coca leaves and dynamite.

New At Urban Rush, travellers dress up as Spider-Man, Captain America or Catwoman and step off a 50m-high ledge in central La Paz, to abseil, face first, and then freefall, from the 17th floor, for 140 Bolivianos (£13). New Air Europa flights into Bolivia touch down in Santa Cruz, a city low on backpackers' lists. But more and more are discovering nearby Samaipata, with its excellent hiking, ancient ceremonial site and condor-spotting opportunities. It's also the gateway to Parque Nacional Amboró, which has more species of birdlife than any protected area in the world, so could become the new Rurrenabaque (the base town for trips into the Bolivian Amazon). Ben Verhoef Tours has trips.

Europe, Central Asia and Russia

Classic Interrailing across Europe; Trans-Siberian express; campervan the surf coasts of France and Portugal.

New Mongolia, including multi-day trips by van into the Gobi Desert, surprisingly full of delicate purple flowers (book with popular hostel the UB Guesthouse. Clubbing in Hvar, Croatia; foreign festivals; hitching using car-share and lift-share apps and websites (BlaBlaCar.com, festivalBUDI.com, etc).

• Compiled by Gemma Bowes, with tips from backpackers Andrew Westbrook; Lisa Niver Rajna; Paul Fowler; travel writer Lara Dunston; Neil McQuillian, author of The Rough Guide to South America on a Budget (Bolivia chapter)