Sri Lanka Travel Guide

10 Best Things to Do in Sri Lanka

By Ceylon Hunt 8 min read Beaches · Heritage · Wildlife · Food

Green hill country, blue water, golden shores, two thousand years of history and food that stays with you long after the flight home. Sri Lanka packs an enormous amount into an island you can cross in a day, which is exactly why first-time visitors struggle to decide what to fit in.

This guide covers the ten experiences we send travellers to most often, along with the specific places worth your time in each. Use it to shape a route, or send us the ones you like best and we’ll build the itinerary around them.

01

Explore the blue water and the golden shores

The island is ringed by beaches, and each coast has its own character. The west and south are calm and swimmable from November to April; the east comes into its own from May to September. Pick your beach around your travel month and you will always find good sea somewhere.

Beaches worth building a day around

  • Negombo
  • Hikkaduwa
  • Mirissa
  • Galle
  • Weligama
  • Nilaveli
  • Arugam Bay
Local tip: Negombo sits 15 minutes from Bandaranaike International Airport, so it makes an easy first or last night rather than driving straight into traffic after a long flight.

02

Discover Sri Lankan history and legacy

Eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites sit within a few hours of each other. Rock fortresses, cave temples, royal capitals abandoned to the jungle and a Dutch fort still lived in today — the Cultural Triangle alone is worth two or three days.

Heritage stops

  • Sigiriya Rock Fortress
  • Kandy
  • Polonnaruwa
  • Anuradhapura
  • Dambulla
  • Galle Fort
  • Yapahuwa
Local tip: Start the Sigiriya climb by 7am. It is 1,200 steps, and by mid-morning both the heat and the queues on the staircase are working against you.

03

Jeep safaris and wildlife excursions

Sri Lanka has one of the highest leopard densities anywhere, plus wild elephants, sloth bears, crocodiles and peacocks. A morning safari means earlier starts and better sightings; afternoon drives are gentler if you are travelling with children.

National parks

  • Udawalawe
  • Yala
  • Minneriya
  • Horton Plains
  • Wasgamuwa
  • Gal Oya
Local tip: Udawalawe is the reliable choice for elephants year-round. Between July and October, the Minneriya Gathering brings hundreds of them to one reservoir — the largest wild elephant gathering in Asia.

04

Mountains to hike

The hill country is cool, misty and green, and the walks range from a 40-minute scramble to a night-long pilgrimage. Most are best attempted at sunrise, before the cloud rolls in and closes the view.

Climbs and viewpoints

  • Adam’s Peak
  • Ella Rock
  • Knuckles Range
  • Pidurutalagala
  • World’s End
  • Ramboda Hills
Local tip: Reach World’s End at Horton Plains before 9am. After that the drop is usually buried in cloud and you have walked three hours for a wall of white.

Not sure how to fit it all into one trip?

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05

Taste the food

Rice and curry here means a plate surrounded by five or six side dishes, all cooked differently. Spice levels are negotiable, and vegetarian eating is easy across the whole island — most Sri Lankan curries are plant-based to begin with.

Eat and drink this

  • A cup of Ceylon tea
  • Kottu roti
  • Egg hoppers
  • Green jackfruit curry
  • Fish ambul thiyal
  • Dhal curry
  • Wood apple juice
  • Helapa
Local tip: Every Ceylon Hunt tour includes daily breakfast and dinner, with vegetarian and non-vegetarian options arranged in advance — including Jain and no-onion-no-garlic meals when you tell us ahead of time.

06

Take a train through the hills

The hill country railway is one of the great train journeys anywhere: tea estates, tunnels, waterfalls and open doorways. It is slow, and that is the point.

Routes worth riding

  • Kandy to Ella
  • Colombo to Kandy
  • Anuradhapura to Jaffna
  • Colombo to Galle
Local tip: Nuwara Eliya to Ella is the most scenic stretch and the shortest sit at roughly three hours. Reserved seats open 30 days out and sell fast — we book them for you and your driver meets you at the arrival station with the luggage.

07

Bird watching

Over 400 recorded species, 30-odd of them found nowhere else on earth. Even a casual morning walk turns up hornbills, bee-eaters and kingfishers, and the migratory season from December to March brings the wetlands alive.

Where to look

  • Kumana Bird Sanctuary
  • Sinharaja Forest Reserve
  • Kalametiya
  • Bundala National Park

08

Water sports and adventure

Warm water year-round, reliable surf and some of the best whale watching in the world. Mirissa sits close to a deep-water trench where blue whales pass within a few kilometres of shore.

Get in the water

  • Snorkelling in Mirissa
  • White water rafting in Kitulgala
  • Surfing
  • Scuba diving in Hikkaduwa
  • Whale watching
  • Water skiing
  • Seaplane rides
Local tip: Whale watching from Mirissa runs from November to April, with boats leaving around 6am. Take motion sickness tablets an hour before boarding — the swell past the harbour is real.

09

Chase the waterfalls

The hill country has hundreds of falls, several of them right beside the road between Kandy and Ella. A few have natural pools at the base that are safe to swim in outside the monsoon months.

The best-known falls

  • St Clair’s Falls
  • Ravana Falls
  • Devon Falls
  • Baker’s Falls
  • Diyaluma Falls
  • Lover’s Leap

10

Shop for things you can only get here

From air-conditioned malls in Colombo to roadside spice gardens and gem workshops in Ratnapura, shopping here covers every budget. Leave space in the suitcase.

Worth taking home

  • Ceylon tea
  • Cashews
  • Spices and herbs
  • Wooden carvings
  • Pottery
  • Gemstones
Local tip: Buy gems only from a dealer with a National Gem and Jewellery Authority certificate, and ask for the certificate before paying, not after.

Tours that cover most of this list

All packages include an A/C vehicle, an SLTDA-approved guide, accommodation, and daily breakfast and dinner.

This is a starting point rather than the full picture — we’ll go deeper into each of these in upcoming posts. In the meantime, browse our Sri Lanka tour packages or tell us what you want to see and we’ll build the trip around it.

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