There’s so much to see and do in Sri Lanka, you’ll need to visit here on holiday several times to enjoy everything. Here’s our list to start you off.

1.         Watch the sunset from Galle Face Green

Galle Face Green is the lung of Colombo, an open stretch of grass beside the sea that links the old Colombo Fort area with the metropolis developed to its south. The Galle Face Green faces west and is the perfect place to watch the sun, as a huge golden orb, setting into the Indian Ocean.

It’s fun (and free) to stroll along the waterfront, as the citizens of Colombo do, enjoying the breeze, the camaraderie, the evening hawker snacks, and even buying a kite and having a go at flying it, as the sun sets.

2. Swim in the Indian Ocean

Head 60km south to the gorgeous beaches in the coves and bays along the west coast at Beruwala & Bentota and Hikkaduwa (98km)from October to April when the sea is invitingly calm.

From April to October, plunge into the Indian Ocean from the beaches along the East Coast, especially at Uppuveli just north of Trincomalee (257km from Colombo) or go south east to sport in the shallow waters at Passikudah (273km from Colombo).

3. Sample Sri Lanka’s rice & curry

Rice and curry is Sri Lankans’ staple and you’ll be offered it for lunch, dinner and even breakfast. It’s amazing what canbe served as a curry; not just meat or fish but vegetables,roots and even flowers too.

A good place to experiment is a hotel’s buffet which will usually have a rice and curry corner where you can sample the items you fancy. Once you have the taste for it, angle for an invitation to lunch at a village homestead where the curries will be rich in flavour and smoky from being cooked over a wood fire.

4. Stroll around the Galle Fort ramparts

Galle Fort (116km by road from Colombo) in the island’s southwest corner is the best preserved colonial sea fortress in the whole of Asia. It’s also a thriving residential community with 470 houses, ranging in style from Dutch colonial mansions with columns and deep stoeps to nifty, art deco town houses.

It’s Number 200 on UNESCO’s World Heritage List and there’s no fee to enter and stroll its cobbled streets, popping into the trendy gift shops and cafés, and mounting the ramparts to walk right around the top of the fort’s walls.

5. Tour a tea factory and drink fresh tea

Sri Lanka is the home of Pure Ceylon Tea and there are tea factories near Kandy and higher in the hill country that welcome visitors to see how tea is processed and to taste a cup near the garden where it was grown. In Colombo, sip serendipity in the tea house run by the Sri Lanka Tea Board in the restored Grand Stand of the old Colombo Race Course.

6. Visit the Temple of the Tooth

Not only is the journey to Kandy, 116km from Colombo by road, train or air taxi, spectacular and the former medieval kingdom city endlessly interesting, the visit to Kandy’s revered Tooth Temple (Sri Dalada Maligawa) becomes a unique spiritual experience.

The tooth, taken from the ashes after the cremation of Gauthama Buddha, is an object of veneration to Buddhists and of curiosity to visitors. You don’t actually see it, but can join locals in paying respects at the shrine.

7. Ride a hill country train from Nanu Oya to Bandarawela

One of the world’s great train trips. From Nanu Oya by train on the single broad gauge track that climbs to the rail summit at Pattipola 1,911m above sea level, and then wends its way through clouds with hill top views of rushing waterfalls and plunging valleys on a unique two hour journey to the hill sanatorium town of Bandarawela., 197km from Colombo.

8. Climb Sigiriya Rock Fortress

Like a mushroom of golden-hued granite protruding 183m into the searing blue sky from a hot, flat wilderness of scrub land (transformed in the rainy season to a water garden) the Lion Rock at Sigiriya (168km from Colombo), is a formidable sight. Seeing the ruins of a palace built in the 5^th century (and awesome views) as well as ancient, voluptuous frescoes are a fitting reward for the climb.

9.  Experience Elephants

Elephants can be seen in National Parks, in the Dehiwela Zoo (10km south of Colombo) and thrillingly in the elephant orphanage at Pinnawela (on the way to Kandy) where visitors can watch elephants bathe and even help feed orphaned baby ones. Elephant riding in a howdah can be arranged at Habarana, 197km from Colombo near Sigiriya.

10.   Look for Leopards at Yala National Park

Leopards come out to play at Yala National Park (283km from Colombo) and, as well as elephants, sloth bears and crocodiles, can be seen during dawn or dusk jeep safaris of a few hours. Lots of chances to photograph wild life in the raw before enjoying a hearty breakfast or sundowner cocktails at your hotel. (The park is closed from 1 September to 16 October every year.)

The perfect beach awaits you in Sri Lanka. Whether you like broad strands of sand to jog along at the sea’s edge, soaring waves to surf as they splash on the shore, intimate coves for private sunbathing, or beaches lined with seafood cafés and bars, you’ll find the beach of your desires here.

Negombo (30km from Colombo) has the closest beach to the airport, a mere 5km distance. It is lined by the first hotels to open in Sri Lanka and is a cross between two popular beaches further south, being livelier than Bentota but not as laidback as Hikkaduwa. Tourists share the beach with fishermen where they park boats that later sail off with red sails into the sunset. The after-beach life is sophisticated with vibrant cocktail bars and sleek restaurants.

The closest dedicated beach strip to Colombo is at Mount Lavinia, 12km from the city centre. North of the headland, with its view of Colombo, the beach is the preserve of residents who flock there at weekends and on holidays. There are cabanas for picnics and beachside meals as well as some lively bars. The beach south of the headland is for the more genteel.

The best beaches begin at Beruwala and Bentota, roughly halfway between Colombo and the southern tip of Galle. Beruwala (58km from Colombo) was known to ancient mariners as Barberyn and it has a lighthouse on an island off the shore and a flourishing dawn fish market. The beach stretch is long with shallow waves washing it in the West Coast holiday season months of October to April.

The beach at Bentota (64km from Colombo) is vast; it can take an hour to walk along it from one headland to another. This is pure beach with gloriously golden sand and welcoming seas. There’s not much to do, even in the season from October to April, and that’s how regular visitors like it.

There are palm-fringed coves with sandy strips all the way down the West Coast, one with a natural swimming pool embraced by rock is at Induruwa (68km from Colombo). For convivial beach action, head for Hikkaduwa, 97km from Colombo, with hotels and guesthouses to suit every pocket. The beach, naturally structured in coves, is popular with the young and young at heart and the action often continues into the late evening.

Acclaimed as one of the best beaches in the world many years ago, Unawatuna (125km from Colombo) has changed because of tidal flows reducing the once broad beach to a slim version of its former self. However, it is still the best beach in Sri Lanka for day and night time action where people from around the world congregate in the sun. It’s just a 10 minute ride from Galle, the closest town.

The beach at Mirissa (150km from Colombo)attracts surfers at one end, and tourists eager to head out to sea and watch for whales. There are quieter beaches further along the southern coast, close to Tangalle. Nicknamed Turtle Bay, the beach at Kalametiya, by the 214km post on the Colombo to Hambantota coastal road, awaits discovery with its long rollers, windswept dunes…and turtles.

The best time to visit the beaches on the East Coast is from April to October when the sea is calmer and the beaches broader. But with their swimming pools and gardens for relaxing, and beachside seafood restaurants, the hotels on the East Coast are enjoyable year round.

From Trincomalee (257 km northeast of Colombo) the beach stretches northwards for miles but it’s best at Uppuveli, about 5km further north. On this golden shore, fishermen toil at one end while tourists laze at the other in perfect harmony. The sea, in season, invigorates and the area has preserved its sense of isolation, creating a peaceful ambience for beachcombing.

 Some 80km down the East Coast from Trinco on the way to Batticaloa (303km from Colombo) are the newly developed beaches of Passikudah Bay and its neighbour Kalkudah Bay. They were renowned as potential beach playgrounds before a cyclone in 1978 blew the dreams away and then came 25 years of civil war, keeping the area off limits to tourists. That’s changed now with smart new hotels with glittering facilities opening up along the coast. The sea there, in season, is shallow far off-shore, so it’s delightful for swimming.

The bold and carefree flock to Arugam Bay (325 from Colombo) for laidback after-beach action following days spent in the sun surfing some tremendous waves. The sand there is not for building castles but suits the do-it-yourself community of surfers, adding to the diversity of Sri Lanka’s incredible beaches.

 If you are planning your first visit to Sri Lanka, this is a sensible question because this is a country with so many diverse attractions.

Obviously a lot will depend on whether you are young and fit and want to try something extreme like white water rafting (that’s at Kitulgala, 100km east of Colombo) or you’re more mature and relish great cuisine as well as a chance to unwind as you enjoy a carefree holiday.

Beaches

The island’s lush beauty is a result of generous rainfall so if you want to avoid the bliss of daily cooling rain showers, try a holiday on the West Coast beaches from October to April, and on the East Coast ones from April to October. For sunbathing, swimming, snorkelling, scuba diving and boat trips, base yourself in one of those coastal resorts on the West Coast, like Beruwala (58km south of Colombo), Bentota (62km), and Hikkaduwa (97km), or Trincomalee (257km from Colombo) on the East Coast in their seasonal months.

Take a Tour

Our tip for getting the best out of Sri Lanka is to combine a few days of relaxation at a beach resort and then move to the interior to see some of Sri Lanka’s varied attractions.

A stay in Kandy (116km from Colombo) would enable you to visit the revered Temple of the Tooth, enjoy a day at the nearby Peradeniya Botanical Gardens, and to make day tours to the surrounding tea country and colonial highlights of Nuwara Eliya.

By moving on to Habarana (100 km from Kandy) as your next base, you are within easy distance of some fascinating places to visit on day trips. There is Anuradhapura (60 km from Habarana), with its Bodhi tree, the oldest living tree in documented history being descended from the tree under which Buddha attained enlightenment.

There are ancient ruins at Polonnaruwa (just 45km from Habarna) and The Lion Rock at Sigiriya (30km from Habarana), a 5^th century Royal Citadel, that can be climbed by the hardy. At Dambulla (25km from Habarana) a rock temple dating from the 1^st century BC with 150 life-size images of Buddha, is an inspiring cultural experience.

Wild Life

Wild life enthusiasts have treats in store by visiting the island’s many National Parks, with the one at Yala (265km southeast of Colombo) being especially rewarding (but closed September to mid-October). Near Haputale (181km from Colombo via Ratnapura) in the hills, there is an unusual reserve alive with butterflies next door to a granite colonial mansion now a Novitiate, called Adisham.

It’s trees rather than animals that you want to see, near Habarana, you can visit Sri Lanka’s only dry-zone arboretum, savaged land returned to its natural state (Kandalama Road, Dambulla) or make a trip to the Sinharaja Forest while staying in the beach resorts of Hikkaduwa, Bentota or Beruwala and to the nearby, ornate but charming, private gardens of Brief and Lunuganga.

City Excitement

Perhaps the best destination, if this is your first visit to Sri Lanka, is Colombo. With the widening of boulevards, the tearing down of walls, the opening up of parks and playing fields, and the restoration of Victorian and Edwardian edifices to become leisure centres and shopping malls, Colombo is returning to its glorious reputation as “The Garden City.”

With top notch hotels offering super wining and dining, as well as swimming pools gymnasiums and spas, the city also has everything the shopaholic or night owl wants. There are casinos with modest stakes and free food and drink, sensational cocktail bars, lively pubs, independent restaurants and cafés offering cuisine of every ethnicity and shopping malls with the latest fashions at bargain prices, and irresistible souvenirs.

For the culture vulture there are several different museums as well as art galleries, and a street where local artists hang their painting on the railings. For the active, there are parks, jogging tracks, the Royal Colombo Golf Club, and for spectators, frequent cricket and even rugby matches to watch.

Day Trips

Colombo comes into its own as the ideal destination to use as a base because day trips from the city, either by train or hired vehicle, can easily be arranged. The Dehiwela Zoo (10km from the city centre) can be visited by bus, as can the suburban beach resort of Mount Lavinia (12km from Colombo). Further south, the beaches at Bentota (62km from Colombo) and Hikkaduwa (97km) beckon for a day in the sun, while it’s also possible to explore Galle Fort (116km) on day’s outing from Colombo.

The West Coast resort of Negombo, an hour’s drive north of Colombo via the new expressway and near to the airport, is a fun town, either to visit for the day, or to make your base for a beach holiday in a town that warms up at sunset with lively evening action.

Whether you are in search of solitude in the sun, a cultural high, an eco-experience, or relentless action among the madding crowd, Sri Lanka is the destination.