Land at Bandaranaike International, sleep in Negombo the first night, and run the loop anticlockwise. North to the Cultural Triangle: Sigiriya and Dambulla in a day, Polonnaruwa by bicycle. Then the hills: Kandy, the estates, Nuwara Eliya and Ella, with at least one leg by train. Down to Yala for leopards, then west along the beaches to Galle. Ten days does that without driving tired. Fourteen adds the east coast from May to September, or Jaffna, the most different place on the island.
5 Sri Lanka city guides
Fun fact
The hill-country railway climbs from sea level at Colombo Fort to Pattipola, at 1,897 metres the network’s highest station, in 227 kilometres. It was built to bring coffee, then tea, down to the port. Sri Lanka is still the fourth-largest tea exporter, and the line is its most photographed ride.
Stereotypes, sorted out
The realityThe beaches are real, and the interior is why people come back. Five of the island’s six cultural World Heritage sites sit inland, the hill country runs above 1,800 metres, and the two biggest wildlife draws are national parks. A trip that never leaves the coast sees a fraction of it.
The realityThe shared history is obvious and the differences run deep. Sri Lanka is majority Sinhala and Theravada Buddhist, with a Tamil and Hindu north and east, Muslim and Christian communities on both coasts, and a kitchen built on coconut, goraka and Maldive fish. The pace is nothing alike either.
The realityThere are two, on opposite coasts at opposite times. The southwest monsoon wets the west, south and hills from roughly May to September, when Trincomalee and Arugam Bay are at their best. The northeast monsoon reverses it from about October to January. Pick your coast to match the month.
The realityThe civil war ended in 2009 and the north has been open to visitors for years. The 2022 economic crisis brought fuel queues and power cuts, and tourism recovered strongly. Check your government’s current advice before booking. The practical risks are road traffic and the sea.
The realityA week sees a third of it. Roads are slow enough that a 150 kilometre transfer takes four hours, and the loop people picture runs the Cultural Triangle, the hill country and the south coast in sequence. Ten days is the honest minimum. A week means choosing two of the three.
Cultural notes worth knowing
- Shoes and hats come off at every temple, and shoulders and knees stay covered. Carry socks: midday stone at Anuradhapura is too hot to stand on.
- Never pose with your back to a Buddha image. Images of the Buddha are sacred, and visitors with visible Buddha tattoos have been refused entry and deported.
- Every full moon is a Poya day and a public holiday. Alcohol sales stop across the island, meat can be hard to find, and temple towns fill with pilgrims. Buy the day before if it matters to you.
- Eating with the right hand is normal and eating with the left is not. Cutlery is always available if you would rather, and nobody minds a visitor being clumsy about it.
- Both Sinhala and Tamil are official, and which one is spoken changes as you drive. English works in hotels, on signs and in most tourist-facing business, and a word or two of the local language is received warmly.
- The sea is the real hazard. Rip currents kill swimmers every year, most beaches are unpatrolled, and the safe swimming coast changes with the monsoon along with everything else.
Famous Sri Lankan faces
Muttiah Muralitharan
Sirimavo Bandaranaike
Susanthika Jayasinghe
Shehan Karunatilaka
Mahela Jayawardene
Lasith Malinga
D. S. Senanayake
Romesh Gunesekera
Anuk Arudpragasam
Martin Wickramasinghe
Lester James Peries
W. D. Amaradeva
Jacqueline Fernandez
Duncan White
Kumar Sangakkara
Michael Ondaatje
Arthur C. Clarke
M.I.A.
Sanath Jayasuriya
Arjuna Ranatunga
Chamari Athapaththu
Chandrika Kumaratunga
Anura Kumara Dissanayake
Must-try Sri Lankan food
Rice and curry
Rice with three to a dozen curries around it. The skill is in combining them on the plate.
Lamprais
Rice, curries and frikkadel baked in banana leaf. Burgher cooking, Dutch via Batavia.
Pol sambol
Coconut pounded with chilli, lime, onion and Maldive fish. The benchmark condiment.
Kiribath
Rice cooked in thick coconut milk, cut into diamonds. Eaten at new year and beginnings.
Kottu roti
Godamba roti chopped on a hot plate with egg, vegetables and meat. You hear it first.
Polos
Young jackfruit stewed in dark spice until it pulls apart like meat. It converts people.
Fish ambul thiyal
Tuna dry-cooked with goraka, a sour fruit that preserves it. A pre-refrigeration recipe.
Parippu
Red lentils in coconut milk, mild and slightly sweet. On almost every plate.
Wambatu moju
Fried aubergine pickled with mustard and vinegar, sweet and sharp at once.
Egg hopper
A bowl of fermented rice batter with an egg cooked into the middle. Breakfast or supper.
String hoppers
Idiyappam: steamed rice-noodle nests, eaten by hand with dhal and sambol.
Pittu
Rice flour and coconut steamed in bamboo, with coconut milk and curry.
Isso wade
Lentil cakes with a whole prawn on top, fried at carts on Galle Face Green.
Short eats
Cutlets, rolls and patties set down before you order. You pay for what you take.
Achcharu
Green mango or pineapple with chilli, salt and vinegar, sold at bus halts and on beaches.
Jaffna crab curry
Northern, hotter and Tamil, on a dark roasted spice mix. Worth the drive alone.
Devilled prawns
Prawns fried hard with onion, capsicum and chilli paste. Chinese method, local heat.
Ambul thiyal fish bun
South-coast bakery bun, sold from vans that play Für Elise through the villages.
Watalappan
Steamed pudding of jaggery, coconut milk and egg. Malay in origin, national by adoption.
Curd and treacle
Buffalo curd in a clay pot under kithul palm treacle. The right end to a big lunch.
Ceylon tea
In the hills it is ordered by estate and elevation, and served far sweeter than export.
