Almost every Sri Lanka itinerary runs along the coast or climbs into the tea highlands. The interior lowlands of Sabaragamuwa Province, sitting between the two, are passed over almost entirely. There are no famous beaches here, no hill-country viewpoints, no Instagram...
The Ampara district sits in the eastern lowlands of Sri Lanka, bounded by the Gal Oya river system to the north and the dry zone scrub forest to the south, in a landscape that looks, from a moving vehicle on the main road, like undifferentiated agricultural flatness....
The east coast of Sri Lanka has two speeds. Arugam Bay runs at the faster one, surf schools and beach bars and the particular energy of a place that has recently discovered it is fashionable. Passekudah runs at the other speed entirely. The bay here is a horseshoe of...
Arugam Bay has, in recent years, become one of the more talked-about destinations on Sri Lanka's east coast, its surf breaks and beachfront cafes drawing a steady stream of visitors during the season. But drive south past Okanda, where the coast road effectively gives...
Negombo's beach road is well documented. The fish market, the colonial churches, the lagoon boat trips, all of it has been written about and photographed and included in enough travel guides that the town has developed a fairly clear identity in the minds of visitors...
The Knuckles Mountain Range sits between the central highlands and the dry zone like a world apart. Named by British surveyors who thought the peaks, seen from a distance, resembled a clenched fist, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that receives a fraction of the...
Ella has a queue for the sunrise. Not a metaphorical queue but a literal one, a line of people with phone cameras extended, waiting at the Little Adam's Peak viewpoint for the light to arrive in the right direction. It is a lovely sunrise. But it is a sunrise you...
The road north of Anuradhapura passes through a landscape that most Sri Lanka itineraries treat as a gap between the cultural triangle and Jaffna. The towns along this road, Vavuniya, Mankulam, Mullaitivu, appear on the map as waypoints rather than destinations, their...
Hikkaduwa has a reputation, and that reputation is accurate as far as it goes. The coral reef is real. The surf is good. The beach road on a busy December weekend is exactly as loud and colourful as everyone says it is. But the coast on either side of the main strip,...
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