Madu River
A Ramsar-listed inland wetland system of 900 hectares near Balapitiya on the southwest coast – a network of calm waterways, mangrove tunnels, and small islands best explored by small motorboat in a safari experience of extraordinary intimacy and natural beauty. The Madu River system includes a working cinnamon island, a Buddhist temple island, and natural […]
Ritigala Forest Monastery
One of the most atmospheric and least-visited ancient sites in Sri Lanka – a ruined forest monastery built by ascetic monks in the 1st century BCE on a granite mountain shrouded in dense medicinal forest, its stone pathways, bathing ponds, and meditation platforms still visible beneath the encroaching jungle in a way that feels genuinely […]
Kalpitiya
Sri Lanka’s most dramatic kitesurfing destination and one of the Indian Ocean’s finest spots for encountering enormous spinner dolphin super-pods – a rugged peninsula on the northwest coast where the lagoon and the deep sea meet in conditions that attract world-class kite surfers from October to April and massive dolphin aggregations year-round. Kalpitiya’s deserted sand […]
Kitulgala
Sri Lanka’s adventure heartland – a lush, jungle-clad river town on the Kelani Ganga where the island’s best white-water rafting runs through Grade 2 and 3 rapids in a setting of extraordinary tropical forest beauty. The river here was famously used as the filming location for the original Bridge on the River Kwai, and beyond […]
Knuckles Mountain Range
A UNESCO Biosphere Reserve of dramatic cloud-forest ridges, endemic wildlife, traditional mountain villages, and trail systems offering some of the finest trekking in Sri Lanka – named for the knuckle-like silhouette of its peaks when viewed from the lowlands, and home to dozens of endemic species and rural farming communities whose lifestyles have remained largely […]
Horton Plains
A UNESCO World Heritage highland plateau at nearly 2,200 metres – a landscape of open montane grassland, cloud forest, and endemic wildlife that culminates in the sheer cliff edge of World’s End, where the plateau drops 880 metres to the lowland plains in the most dramatic natural viewpoint in Sri Lanka. Visited at dawn before […]
Ella
The hill country’s most beloved small town – perched in a natural gap in the southern highlands where the landscape drops dramatically away in views across the coastal plains, surrounded by tea estates, jungle trails, and the colonial-era Nine Arch Bridge that has become one of Sri Lanka’s most iconic architectural images. Ella rewards time […]