8 Days / 7 Nights
The full sweep, properly told. Sigiriya before the heat, Dambulla's painted caves, the Temple of the Tooth, the scenic train to tea country, and a last night inside Galle Fort.
The full sweep of the island, properly told. The Lion Rock at Sigiriya before the heat, the cave temples of Dambulla, the Temple of the Tooth at Kandy, the climb to tea country on the world's finest train ride, and a last night within the walls of Galle Fort. A naturalist-historian travels with you the whole way.
From USD 2,450 per person, two sharing. USD 4,900 for two travellers. Half board · twin/double.
Colombo › Sigiriya · ≈ 4 hours
You are met on the arrivals concourse by your naturalist-historian and driven north into the Cultural Triangle, through the dry zone of paddy and tank country. Settle into a boutique stay among the rice fields. Nothing is asked of you tonight but rest before an early start.
Overnight: Aliya Resort & Spa · Sigiriya · Half Board
Sigiriya / Polonnaruwa
Climb Sigiriya before the heat and the crowds arrive. The fifth-century fortress rises nearly two hundred metres from the plain, past the mirror wall and the frescoes to the palace on the summit. After lunch, the ancient ruins of the Polonnaruwa kingdom. The evening is yours.
Overnight: Aliya Resort & Spa · Sigiriya · Half Board
Sigiriya › Kandy · ≈ 3 hours
Drive south into the hills. Visit the cave temples at Dambulla: five chambers of reclining Buddhas, painted and repainted across two thousand years. Stop at a working spice garden, where cinnamon, cardamom and vanilla grow in the same plot, then on to Kandy, the last royal capital to fall.
Overnight: Jetwing Kandy Gallery · Half Board
Kandy
Morning at the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, the most venerated Buddhist site on the island, where the relic is shown behind layered doors at the hour of offering. After lunch, the Royal Botanic Gardens at Peradeniya: the avenue of royal palms, the orchid house, and a Javan fig whose canopy you can sit beneath. In the evening, a Kandyan dance, drums and fire, in the old style.
Overnight: Jetwing Kandy Gallery · Half Board
Kandy › Nuwara Eliya · ≈ 4 hours by rail + transfer
Board the Kandy line for the climb to Nanu Oya, widely held to be the finest train journey there is. Windows down, tea estates for hours, the air cooling as the track rises. Your driver meets the train and takes you up to Nuwara Eliya, 'Little England', at 1,868 metres.
Overnight: The Grand Hotel · Nuwara Eliya · Half Board
Nuwara Eliya
The morning on a working estate. Walk the rows with a plucker, then follow the leaf into a colonial-era factory, green to black, withering to grading, and taste it at the end. The afternoon is free, for the Hill Club, Lake Gregory, or the fire and a book.
Overnight: The Grand Hotel · Nuwara Eliya · Half Board
Nuwara Eliya › Galle · ≈ 5 hours
A long descent through the hills to the southern coast, the temperature climbing as the tea gives way to coconut and sea. Check in within Galle Fort, a seventeenth-century Dutch citadel still lived in, washing strung between the ramparts. A sunset walk on the walls, dinner in a restored merchant's house.
Overnight: Landesi · Galle Fort · Half Board
Galle › Colombo · ≈ 3 hours
A free morning in the fort's lanes, the boutiques and the cafés inside the walls, before the drive to the airport. The island, we hope, stays with you a while.