Climb a sacred mountain. Lounge on a deserted beach. A enjoy a cuppa on a picture-perfect plantation. All this and more awaits on this most serendipitous of islands
1. Climb Sigiriya
One of Sri Lanka's seven World Heritage Sites, this rock-top fortress dates back to the 5th century AD. The atmosphere is more spiritual than militant: in its time it has acted as a royal palace and Buddhist monastery.
Lion Rock Fortress, Sigiriya (Shutterstock.com)Lion Rock Fortress, Sigiriya (Shutterstock.com)
The site is also regarded as one of the most important urban planning projects of the first millennium, and is home to some of the oldest landscaped gardens in the world. Look out too for the mirror wall, a masonry wall that was so well-polished that the king could see his reflection in it.
2. Walk with elephants
You’ll see elephants everywhere you go in Sri Lanka: working on the streets of Colombo, running wild in national parks, and leading the Esala Peraha parade in Kandy in all their bejewelled and sequined glory.
Elephant in the wilds of Sri Lanka (Shutterstock.com)Elephant in the wilds of Sri Lanka (Shutterstock.com)
Uda Walawe National Park offers you your best chance of seeing elephants roaming free. Created to protect the watershed of the enormous Uda Walawe Reservoir, this park is home to over 500 pachyderms and has extensive stretches of grassland as well as scrub jungle and riverine forest. It is one of the best places to go birdwatching in Sri Lanka too.
3. Take Tea in Nurweya Eliya
At the heart of Sri Lanka's tea industry, this charming throwback to the country's colonial years is rich with the heritage of home-county England. Tour neatly-terraced tea estates, watch pickers at work, and buy your own samples to take home.
Picking tea in Sri Lanka (Shutterstock.com)Picking tea in Sri Lanka (Shutterstock.com)
Tea lovers will want to visit the Hill Country’s Haputale Mountains. This is where Sir Thomas Lipton launched his tea empire. To see where it all began, organise transport to Lipton’s Seat, Mr Lipton’s favorite spot to sit and watch over his enormous estate. It is possible (and, maybe a bit more comfortable) to take a car up, but an open air tuk-tuk ride is much more fun.
Head out early before the afternoon fog cloaks the surrounding mountains, clouding the awe-inspiring views.
4. Discover Arugam Bay
The beach at Arugam Bay is the stuff of Bounty ads: sugar-soft sands, coconut palms and utter solitude but for the whoops of the surfers riding the point.
Sunrise in Arugam Bay (Shutterstock.com)Sunrise in Arugam Bay (Shutterstock.com)
Before the Boxing Day Tsunami, the bay was rapidly becoming one of the world’s top surf destinations. For the moment, you’ll have the double curve of beach and its coconut palm-covered point to yourself.
5. Spot Leopard in Yala
Sri Lanka's alpha predator is protected in a number of national parks, but is most easily sighted in Yala, on the island's southern coast, where you can cool off in the ocean after a day on safari.
Lounging leopard in Sri Lanka (Shutterstock.com)Lounging leopard in Sri Lanka (Shutterstock.com)
Yala National Park is Sri Lanka’s number one leopard sanctuary. The big cats are thriving here in territories of little more than a kilometre each – “the highest density in the world” – making seeing one almost a certainty.
If you want to see a leopard up close, make it’s way down the tree and casually saunter through clearing to the cover of the bushes, this is the place to come.
6. Seafood and eat it
Sri Lankan food is not dissimilar to that served in India to the north. But with the sea never far away, the emphasis is on seafood, fresh and delicious, caught that very day.
Devilled tuna: seafood from Sri LankaDevilled tuna: seafood from Sri Lanka
Jaffna Crab Curry is regarded as the best in the world, especially when sampled at the source where chefs take their time to grind the coconut, making the paste toasty and rich. In the south, seek out Squid Curry, cooked quickly in coconut cream and lime juice.
7. Discover the untouched islands
Intrepid travellers looking to get off the beaten track will head to the handful of islands trailing off Sri Lanka’s northernmost tip. The biggest of these is sleepy Neduntivu (named Delft by the Dutch), home to just 3,819 people and herds of wild horses.
Sri Lankan fishing boat (Shutterstock.com)
The crossing is short but rough, and once you arrive on the islands you won’t find much there. There are no hotels – you need to find a local renting a room – and fish is the only dish on the menu. But the pace of life is slow and the locals are friendly.
Once you’ve ticked off the Dutch fort built from coral and the giant baobab tree, rumoured to be over 1,000 years old, there is nothing left to do except relax.
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