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.
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.
Lion Rock Fortress, Sigiriya (Shutterstock.com)
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.
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.
Elephant in the wilds of Sri Lanka (Shutterstock.com)
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.
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.
Picking tea in Sri Lanka (Shutterstock.com)
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.
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.
Sunrise in Arugam Bay (Shutterstock.com)
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