Sightseeing

This is a starting point, not a fixed product. Eight days is the shortest comfortable length for a proper island circuit, and the route below is the one we would suggest if you gave us no other information: Cultural Triangle, Kandy, tea country, the train to Ella, a safari in Yala. Almost every guest who books it changes something.

The Lion Rock and the cave temples in one long, very worthwhile day from Colombo – a 4:30 am start, two UNESCO World Heritage sites and back at your hotel by early evening.

Our signature journey is the complete Sri Lanka experience in two unhurried weeks. You will climb the Sigiriya rock fortress, cycle among the ruins of Polonnaruwa, watch wild elephants gather in Minneriya and attend the evening ceremony at Kandy's Temple of the Tooth.

A private tour built around a slower rhythm. No transfer day involves more than about four and a half hours in the car and most are under three, every hotel is chosen for lift access and ground-floor rooms where possible, and every site has a step-free or short-walk alternative so nothing has to be skipped for the sake of stairs.

Up into the tea country and back in a day: a working factory from leaf to cup, the waterfalls on the Ramboda road, and the odd Englishness of Nuwara Eliya at 1,900 metres.

One of the most photographed train journeys in Asia, done properly: a reserved seat booked 30 days out, your guide and vehicle meeting you at the other end, and your luggage travelling by road.

Sri Lanka's first capital, a city of monasteries and enormous brick stupas that was the centre of the Buddhist world for more than a thousand years – and the hill where Buddhism arrived on the island.

The best-preserved ancient city in Sri Lanka, seen the way it should be – on a bicycle, on flat shaded lanes between the monuments, at your own pace.

Colombo makes far more sense from the back of a tuk-tuk than through a car window – the lanes of Pettah, the sea breeze on Galle Face, the smell of the fish market, and a driver who can actually stop anywhere.

A long gap between flights at Bandaranaike International, turned into something. Four hours, eight hours or twelve – we size the tour to the time you actually have, and we get you back with margin.