Not one for maps?
Read it as a list.
The same island in three collections — places to go, things worth doing, and beds worth sleeping in. Every card is one of the 33 pinned on the chart.
Sigiriya
A 200-metre monolith crowned by a fifth-century sky-palace. Climb it at first light, before the heat and the crowds.
Weligama
A wide, forgiving bay where a lot of people catch their first wave — soft beach breaks, board hire on the sand, and lessons every morning.
Pasikuda
A flat, waist-deep crescent you can wade a long way out into — the calmest swimming water on the island, and the best sunrises.
Hatton
Tea trains, estate bungalows and waterfalls — and the overnight climb up Adam's Peak from the Nallathanni side.
Arugam Bay
One of Asia's great right-hand point breaks and a town that runs entirely on flip-flops and slow mornings.
Hikkaduwa
Green turtles feeding in the shallows, a coral sanctuary to snorkel, and a beach strip that stays up later than the rest of the coast.
Hiriketiya
One small bay with a beginner's break on one side and a reef break on the other, ringed by yoga sheds and good coffee.
Tangalle
Long, near-empty beaches with a serious undertow, turtles nesting after dark, and very little to do — which is rather the point.
Kithulgala
The Kelani runs fast through rainforest here — rafting, canyoning, and the valley where Bridge on the River Kwai was filmed.
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Ella
Waterfalls, the Nine Arches bridge, and ridge walks that end in cloud. The photogenic end of tea country.
Unawatuna
A sheltered curve seven kilometres from Galle Fort — swimmable for most of the season, and busy with people who know it.
Tissamaharama (Yala)
The highest density of leopards on earth, plus elephants, sloth bears and lagoons thick with birds.
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Negombo
Twenty minutes from the airport: a lagoon full of birds, a working fish market at dawn, and somewhere to sleep off the flight.
Bentota
A river mouth and a long beach on the same strip — mangrove boat trips on one side, water sports on the other.
Jaffna
Hindu temples, a Dutch fort, island ferries and a fierce, distinct cuisine. The Sri Lanka few travellers reach.
Trincomalee
One of the world's finest deep-water harbours, hot springs, and the calm reef-fringed beaches of Uppuveli and Nilaveli.
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Mirissa
A palm-fringed crescent that launches the island's best whale watching — blue whales pass just offshore.
Anuradhapura
Sri Lanka's ancient capital — sacred bo-trees and dagobas the size of cathedrals, best cycled between at dawn.
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Galle
A walled seventeenth-century port, ramparts to walk at dusk, and a warren of galleries, cafés and old churches.
Nuwara Eliya
Cool air, colonial bones and the country's finest tea, picked on the slopes you can see from your window.
Polonnaruwa
A compact, walkable ruined city — royal baths, standing Buddhas carved from living granite, and grazing deer.
Dambulla
Five caves cut into the rock, ceilings crowded with 2,000 years of Buddhas and murals. Cool, quiet, extraordinary.
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Kandy
The island's cultural heart, wrapped around a lake. Home to the Temple of the Tooth and the start of the hill line.
Colombo
A humid, humming port capital — colonial arcades, sea-front kottu stalls and the best street food on the island.
Pigeon Island
A protected coral island off Nilaveli — reef sharks, turtles and clouds of fish in bath-warm water.
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Nine Arches Bridge
A colonial-era stone viaduct in the jungle. Time it for the train crossing and the low afternoon light.
Yala National Park
Out at first light with a naturalist who reads the bush — leopard, elephant and sloth bear before breakfast.
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Galle Fort
A slow loop of the sea walls as the light goes — lighthouse, mosque, and cricket on the green below.
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Horton Plains National Park
A nine-kilometre loop across cold grassland to a cliff that drops away to the plain. Clear at dawn, under cloud by half nine.
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Minneriya National Park
As the reservoir drops, hundreds of wild elephants come down to the grass — the largest gathering of Asian elephants anywhere.
Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage
A long-running state orphanage and its river bathing. Popular, crowded, and genuinely argued over on welfare grounds.
Sigiriya Lion Rock Fortress
Beat the heat and the tour buses. Frescoes, the mirror wall, the lion's paws, and the whole plain from the summit.
Temple of the Tooth Relic
Sri Lanka's holiest Buddhist site, home to a relic of the Buddha. Come for the drumming at the evening ceremony.
Ceylon Tea Trails
Five restored colonial bungalows above a tea valley, walked between by day, butler and fireplace by night.
Jetwing Jaffna
The comfortable, modern base for the north, with a rooftop restaurant serving proper Jaffna crab curry.
