19-Day Sri Lanka Ancient Kingdoms, Highlands & Southern Beach Escape

Day 1 · Negombo

A night to land

Met at the airport and driven twenty minutes up the coast. Nothing is scheduled. The point of this night is that day two starts properly rather than at half strength.

Days 2–4 · Anuradhapura · three nights

The forest monastery, then the sacred city

North with a stop at Arankele - a forest monastery where the meditation paths have been walked continuously since the sixth century, and where the ruins are still half in the trees. Three nights at Anuradhapura: the great stupas and the Sri Maha Bodhi on the second day, Mihintale’s stairway where Buddhism arrived on the island, and on the third a morning in Wilpattu, which is larger than Yala, older, and has a fraction of the vehicles.

Days 5–6 · Dambulla · two nights

A village, and the rock at sunset

East to the Cultural Triangle. The morning is a village - a boat across the tank, a walk through the paddy, and lunch cooked in someone’s kitchen. Then Sigiriya in the late afternoon: the water gardens, the frescoes and mirror wall halfway up, and the plain going gold from the summit. The next day is Dambulla’s painted caves and Polonnaruwa, which is flat enough to ride around and better for it.

Day 7 · Kandy

The relic, and the drums

South into the hills to Kandy. The viewpoint above the town first, then the Temple of the Sacred Tooth, and the Kandyan dancers in the evening - drums, fire, and a great deal of noise.

Days 8–9 · Nuwara Eliya · two nights

Up into the tea

Ramboda Falls on the climb, then the Bluefield factory and a tasting at the bench. Two nights at Nuwara Eliya, with the second day loose: Seetha Amman, Victoria Park, the old red post office, and Gregory Lake. It is six thousand feet up and genuinely cold after dark.

Days 10–12 · Ella · three nights

Three days in Ella

The train from Nanu Oya first - hours through tea slopes and cloud forest with the doors open, and it is the day rather than a transfer. Then Ella properly: Little Adam’s Peak at sunrise, Nine Arches, a cooking class in the afternoon, and a third day with nothing in it at all.

Day 13 · Udawalawe

Down to the elephants

Ravana Falls on the road out, then Udawalawe. The Transit Home first, where rescued calves are bottle-fed before being returned to the wild rather than kept, and the park itself in the afternoon - more elephants and fewer vehicles than Yala.

Days 14–18 · Bentota · five nights

Five nights on the coast

West through Koggala for the stilt fishermen and the fort at Galle, then Bentota for the rest of it. There is the turtle hatchery at Ahungalla, which we run, and the Madu River by boat through the mangrove tunnels with a stop at Kothduwa temple on its island. After that, four days of nothing much - which after two and a half weeks is exactly right.