Sri Lanka holidays

An island of national parks, venerated temples, tea plantations and rose-gold beaches: Sri Lanka packs in plenty of experiences. As the country’s popularity grows, our specialists visit regularly to keep abreast of what’s new. Using this knowledge, they can help you plan a Sri Lanka holiday that encompasses your interests and shows you lesser-visited corners of the island.

The Cultural Triangle is Sri Lanka’s historic heartland, a concentration of extravagant ancient cities and cave frescoes with the rock fortress of Sigiriya in its middle. To the south is the pilgrimage city of Kandy, built around the Temple of the Tooth. From here you can ride the train up into the cooler climes of the central highlands, where neatly tended tea estates sit between colonial cottages and swathes of forest. The hills drop sharply down to the national parks and rainforest below, which shelter elephants, sloth bears and, more elusively, leopards. Along the coast you find the Dutch fortress of Galle and palm-fringed coves.