Somaliland or Abkhazia, anyone?

This is be­cause they are not tech­ni­cally coun­tries.

So­ma­liland is an au­ton­o­mous re­gion in So­ma­lia; Western Sa­hara is a dis­puted ter­ri­tory in North­ern Africa be­tween Mau­ri­ta­nia and Mo­rocco, and Abk­hazia is a re­gion within Ge­or­gia that has its own gov­ern­ment yet lacks in­ter­na­tional recog­ni­tion.

But you can still visit these un­recog­nised na­tions on a trip with Young Pi­o­neer Tours, which runs tours to coun­tries so far off the beaten track, you will be for­given for not hav­ing heard of them be­fore.

These in­clude Mar­shall Is­lands, Solomon Is­lands and Kiri­bati, which are all among the 15 least vis­ited coun­tries in the world.

Mr John McGovern, the com­pany's in­ter­na­tional tours man­ager, says: 'The more we vis­ited these places, the more we re­alised there is a lack of fac­tual in­for­ma­tion as well as gen­uine per­son-top­er­son re­la­tion­ships with these coun­tries, so even if they lack the tourist fa­cil­i­ties of more de­vel­oped coun­tries, they give the trav­eller a more re­ward­ing ex­pe­ri­ence.'

Mr John McGovern, the com­pany's in­ter­na­tional tours man­ager, says: 'The more we vis­ited these places, the more we re­alised there is a lack of fac­tual in­for­ma­tion as well as gen­uine per­son-top­er­son re­la­tion­ships with these coun­tries, so even if they lack the tourist fa­cil­i­ties of more de­vel­oped coun­tries, they give the trav­eller a more re­ward­ing ex­pe­ri­ence.'

Mr John McGovern, the com­pany's in­ter­na­tional tours man­ager, says: 'The more we vis­ited these places, the more we re­alised there is a lack of fac­tual in­for­ma­tion as well as gen­uine per­son-top­er­son re­la­tion­ships with these coun­tries, so even if they lack the tourist fa­cil­i­ties of more de­vel­oped coun­tries, they give the trav­eller a more re­ward­ing ex­pe­ri­ence.'

In So­ma­liland, for in­stance, trav­ellers can view 10,000-year-old cave paint­ings, swim in the Gulf of Aden and ex­plore a mix of Ot­toman, Per­sian and Bri­tish ar­chi­tec­ture in the cities of Ber­bera and Hargeisa.

They will also visit a Syr­ian restau­rant run by refugees from Da­m­as­cus and have lunch at a So­ma­l­iYe­meni restau­rant with So­ma­liland in­tel­lec­tual icons, who can give a po­lit­i­cal, so­cial, his­tor­i­cal and cul­tural in­tro­duc­tion of the re­gion.

To Mr McGovern, these lo­cal in­ter­ac­tions are the most mem­o­rable part of the tour.

He says: 'Best of all for me is sit­ting down for chai (tea), or chew chat (plant con­tain­ing a mild stim­u­lant) with the lo­cals, who are among the friendli­est peo­ple I have met.'

He adds that while So­ma­liland is not recog­nised as a coun­try, it has its own bor­ders and a sep­a­rate gov­ern- ment from So­ma­lia, mak­ing it safe from the threats of piracy and ter­ror­ism that the lat­ter is known for.

Guests should dress con­ser­va­tively, as So­ma­liland is an Is­lamic re­gion. For in­stance, fe­male guests must cover their bod­ies if they wish to swim in the Gulf of Aden, which is part of the tour itin­er­ary.

De­spite the 'young' in their name, the com­pany at­tracts guests from their 20s to 70s with one thing in com­mon – they en­joy trips to farflung des­ti­na­tions.

One of them is Sin­ga­porean Siti Ai­gah Jemy, 34, who has trav­elled with the com­pany to 15 coun­tries, in­clud­ing North Korea, Turk­menistan and Haiti.

Most re­cently, the civil ser­vant rang in the new year on a five-day trip to Nauru, the least vis­ited coun­try in the world and an is­land lo­cated about 2,900km off Aus­tralia.

It is also the world's small­est repub­lic, with a land area of just 21 sq km In com­par­i­son, Sin­ga­pore mea­sures 721.5 sq km.

There, she vis­ited the par­lia­ment build­ing, saw World War II re­mains and in­ter­acted with refugees hop­ing to seek asy­lum in Aus­tralia.

It was a fas­ci­nat­ing glimpse into a for­got­ten cor­ner of the world.

Ms Siti says: 'It is sat­is­fy­ing to go to places that no­body else I know has gone. I like be­ing able to en­joy unique ex­pe­ri­ences.'