Kalpitiya
A remote northwestern lagoon peninsula with 35 kilometres of flat water consistent wind conditions creating some of Asia’s finest kitesurfing, spinner dolphin pods of several hundred in the channels and genuinely dark skies for stargazing far from coastal light pollution. Best May to October for kiting; October to April for dolphins.
Kithulgala
Grade 2-3 white water rafting through a rainforest river gorge alongside one of Sri Lanka’s best birding sites for Serendib scops owl and endemic species in the valley where David Lean filmed Bridge on the River Kwai in 1957. Best May to October for white water.
Nuwara Eliya
Sri Lanka’s highest city at 1,868 metres, deliberately engineered by the British colonial administration to resemble England, where stone churches and a racecourse sit alongside the island’s most productive high grown tea estates in 15 degree mountain air. Best January to April.
Knuckles Mountain Range
A UNESCO Man and Biosphere Reserve of cloud forest, river gorges, isolated highland villages and endemic wildlife including the elusive fishing cat and the Sri Lanka whistling thrush with trekking options ranging from half day walks to serious multi day wilderness expeditions. Best January to April.
Horton Plains
A montane plateau where Sri Lanka’s southern edge drops 870 metres in a single escarpment called World’s End on clear mornings before 9am the view extends 50 kilometres to the southern coast, and when cloud fills the valley below it the sensation of standing at the edge of the world is not entirely metaphorical. Best […]
Ella
A mountain town at 1,041 metres where the valley panoramas, tea estate trails, nine arch colonial viaduct and relaxed café culture all deliver at the level of their reputation and the Nine Arches Bridge at 7am before tour buses arrive gives you the image most people only see in photographs. Best December to April.