One of the most beautiful islands in the world.
The best island of its size in all the world.
A tropical island with extraordinary cultural depth.
Where every mile brings a wholly new landscape.
One of the most beautiful islands in the world.
The best island of its size in all the world.
A tropical island with extraordinary cultural depth.
Where every mile brings a wholly new landscape.
Explore the island
From colonial coastlines and surf-swept bays to tea-country trails, ancient kingdoms and sacred cities. Pick a way in and start planning your journey.
Galle
Rampart walls and Dutch-era lanes, and the sun going down behind the lighthouse on the south coast.
Ella
The slow train up through cloud forest and tea terraces, and the bridge everyone comes to photograph.
Sigiriya
Climb past fifteen-hundred-year-old frescoes and the mirror wall to the palace on top of the rock.
Arugam Bay
The east coast's long right-hand point break, one sandy street, and no particular reason to hurry.
Kandy
The Temple of the Tooth beside the lake, and ten nights of drums and fire dancers each August.
Nine island-defining things to do, coast to hill country to the cultural triangle. Twenty-nine more in the full guide, each with the season it needs and what it typically costs.
Mirissa · Southern Province☀ 30°C
See the world's largest animal at sunrise, one of the best whale-watching spots on Earth.
Yala · Southern Province☀ 33°C
The best place in the world to spot wild leopards in a single safari.
Minneriya · North Central☀ 32°C
Watch hundreds of wild elephants gather around one reservoir during the dry season.
Nanu Oya → Ella · Central Highlands⛅ 22°C
One of the world's most beautiful train journeys through Sri Lanka's misty highlands.
Nuwara Eliya · Central Highlands⛅ 18°C
Walk through working tea estates and taste Ceylon tea at its source.
Arugam Bay · Eastern Province☀ 30°C
Perfect waves for every level at one of Asia's best surf destinations.
Sigiriya · Central Province☀ 31°C
Climb Sri Lanka's iconic ancient fortress before the crowds arrive.
Galle · Southern Province☀ 29°C
Learn to cook Sri Lanka's iconic rice and curry, fireside.
Kandy · Central Province⛅ 26°C
Sri Lanka's most sacred Buddhist temple and home of the spectacular annual Perahera festival.
Artists, chefs, surfers, architects, dancers. The people shaping Sri Lanka right now.
No. 35 on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants, in a 400-year-old Dutch hospital. Dharshan Munidasa has served lagoon crab here since 2011.
Keeper of tropical modernism. Number 11, Lunuganga, and the buildings that taught Asia to design for its own climate.
Colour and happiness since 1964. Barbara Sansoni built it to employ women weavers; five centres are still run by the weavers themselves.
South Asia’s premier fashion platform since 2003, and where most Sri Lankan labels are first seen.
No. 14 in Asia and the only Sri Lankan-owned bar ever to reach the World’s 50 Best. Built in a coconut grove at Hiriketiya.
The first gallery to represent Sri Lankan contemporary art abroad, showing in London, Singapore, Dubai and Delhi.
Left advertising in 2014 to walk people through Galle Fort. Condé Nast called him your quirky Sri Lankan BFF.
Est. 1987. Shanth Fernando’s design world — the flagship on Galle Road, the Gallery Café and Tintagel.
The island’s first museum of modern and contemporary art, and its first trilingual public venue. Free to enter, at Crescat.
Chairperson of the Bawa Trust and an architect in his own right. He worked with Bawa, and now keeps the buildings standing.
Presented by the Academy of Design, and now the umbrella for Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week and the Design Dialogues.
Since 1998, in Geoffrey Bawa’s old town office. Restaurant, bar and gallery, and still the place to be seen.
Photographer, and the son who now runs Barefoot. “I take snaps, like a turtle. No art here.”
Est. 1864, among the oldest hotels east of Suez. It brought afternoon tea to the island and still keeps a historian.
A 1930s mansion in Cinnamon Gardens, once home to a prime minister. Ten suites, no colonial kitsch.
Latest on the island
A curated cultural calendar of the island, festivals, seasons and the moments worth planning a journey around, drawn from trusted local sources and updated as they unfold.