Destinations
Where we can take you
Sri Lanka is small enough to cross in a day and varied enough that each region feels like a different country. Here is what we build journeys from.
Hill Country & Tea
Uva Province
Ella
A hill village in a gap in the mountains, known for the Nine Arches Bridge, walkable peaks and long views to the southern plains.
Suggested: 2 days
Central Province
Nuwara Eliya
Tea country at 1,900 metres, where the British built a hill station and the cool air still smells of eucalyptus and woodsmoke.
Suggested: 2 days
Uva Province
Haputale
A ridge town balanced on the southern escarpment, where Lipton’s Seat looks out over five provinces on a clear morning.
Suggested: 1 day
Central Province
Horton Plains
High montane grassland at 2,100 metres, where the plateau ends abruptly at World’s End — a sheer 870-metre drop.
Suggested: 1 day
Wildlife & Safari
Southern Province
Yala National Park
The best odds of seeing a wild leopard anywhere on earth, alongside elephants, sloth bears and crocodiles in dry scrub and lagoon.
Suggested: 2 days
Sabaragamuwa Province
Udawalawe National Park
Open grassland around a reservoir with roughly 600 resident elephants — the most reliable elephant viewing in Sri Lanka, all year round.
Suggested: 1 day
North Western Province
Wilpattu
The island's largest and oldest national park, built around natural sand-rimmed lakes — and the best chance of a leopard without the crowd at Yala.
Suggested: 1 day
North Central Province
Minneriya National Park
Host to The Gathering, when up to 300 elephants converge on the receding reservoir bed — the largest wild elephant congregation in Asia.
Suggested: 1 day
Sabaragamuwa Province
Sinharaja Forest Reserve
The last major stretch of primary lowland rainforest on the island, and a UNESCO site holding most of Sri Lanka’s endemic birds.
Suggested: 1 day
Ancient Cities & Heritage
Central Province
Sigiriya
A 200-metre granite monolith with a fifth-century royal citadel on its summit, reached by a staircase through the paws of a carved lion.
Suggested: 1 day
Central Province
Dambulla Cave Temple
Five caves under an overhanging rock, holding 153 Buddha statues and painted ceilings that follow the contours of the stone.
Suggested: 1 day
North Central Province
Anuradhapura
The first capital: a sprawl of dagobas, monasteries and reservoirs that functioned as a working city for over a thousand years.
Suggested: 2 days
North Central Province
Polonnaruwa
The second capital, compact enough to cycle in a day, with four colossal Buddhas at Gal Vihara carved from a single granite face.
Suggested: 1 day
North Central Province
Mihintale
The hill where Buddhism arrived in Sri Lanka in 247 BCE, reached by 1,840 granite steps beneath frangipani trees.
Suggested: 1 day
Beaches & Coast
Southern Province
Mirissa
A crescent bay on the south coast and the launch point for blue whale watching, with palm-topped headlands at either end.
Suggested: 3 days
Southern Province
Galle
A southern harbour town built around a Dutch walled fort that is still lived in — ramparts you can walk right round, and beaches a few minutes either side.
Suggested: 1 day
Southern Province
Bentota
A long west-coast beach where the Bentota river meets the sea, with calm water, watersports and easy access from the airport.
Suggested: 2 days
Southern Province
Polhena & Matara
A reef-protected lagoon at the island’s southern tip, shallow and calm enough to snorkel straight off the beach.
Suggested: 1 day
Western Province
Negombo
A fishing town twenty-five minutes from the airport, which is the whole point of it on the first and last night of a tour.
Suggested: 1 day
Eastern Province
Trincomalee
One of the finest natural harbours in the world, with Koneswaram standing on the cliff a hundred metres above the sea.
Suggested: 2 days
Eastern Province
Pasikudah
A wide shallow bay on the east coast where the water stays waist-deep a long way out and there is nothing at all to do.
Suggested: 1 day
Eastern Province
Arugam Bay
A surf town on the south-east corner, and the gateway to Kumana and the lagoons behind the dunes.
Suggested: 2 days
Culture & Living Traditions
Central Province
Kandy
The last royal capital, built round a lake, and home to the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic — the most venerated site in Sri Lankan Buddhism.
Suggested: 2 days
Western Province
Colombo
The commercial capital — a working port city of Dutch warehouses, Buddhist and Hindu temples, food streets and new towers.
Suggested: 1 day
Western Province
Kelaniya
A riverside temple just outside Colombo, said to have been visited by the Buddha, with some of the finest modern murals in the country.
Suggested: 1 day
Northern Province
Mannar
An island of baobabs, wild donkeys and Portuguese ramparts, where the sandbanks of Rama Setu run out towards India.
Suggested: 1 day
Northern Province
Jaffna
The Tamil capital of the north, with its own food, its own architecture and a peninsula of islands, springs and kovils.
Suggested: 3 days