Kandy

Sri Lanka’s second city and home of the sacred ‘Temple of the Tooth’. The temple houses a tooth relic of the Buddha and bustles at night with pilgrims attending a lively puja (prayer) ceremony. A visit to a colourful and acrobatic Kandyan performance offers a more rowdy spectacle with bright costumes and demonic masks.

Galle

A colonial gem and the best example of a fortified city built by Europeans in South and Southeast Asia. The fort area of Sri Lanka’s southern town of Galle is a colonial treasure and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It owes its existence to the influences of successive waves of traders. In the last 500 years it has been inhabited by the Portuguese, Dutch and British, all of which left their distinctive marks. The sleepy streets are dotted with interesting colonial buildings including churches, warehouses, a lighthouse and a former governor’s house.

Yala

One of the largest and best known national parks in the country, this park is home to the shy sloth bear and Asia’s densest population of the elusive leopard. Elephant can be easily seen by the water’s edge between October and May, while water birds pick their way through the shallows and crocodiles bask in the sun.

Perahera Festival

Held every summer in accordance with the lunar calendar, the 10 day Kandy Esala Perahera is Sri Lanka’s most vibrant festival, famous for the colourfully adorned elephants, energetic Kandyan dancers and musicians, whipcrackers and fireball acrobats, who all join the procession through the streets of Kandy.

Tea Country

As a country that is famous for tea, it is no surprise that tea plantations enrich Sri Lanka’s already diverse landscape. Concentrated in the highlands of central Sri Lanka, the area offers a gentle break from the heat. Lush tea plantations dotted by the colourful saris of the women working in them are a wonderful place to explore on foot. Explore one of the many local tea factories and stay in one of the wonderfully restored tea planter’s bungalows.