Grand Tour of Sri Lanka

Fly overnight from London Heathrow to Colombo.

On arrival, transfer to the city centre, with its cosmopolitan tempo and an earth-and-water topography, for an overnight stay at the 4-star Mövenpick Colombo Hotel.
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A panoramic city tour this morning highlights the capital’s colonial heritage, including the Fort business district, formerly the British administrative centre; and, in the Pettah neighbourhood, the 16th-century Portuguese Kayman’s Gate bell tower; and 18th-century ‘Wolvendaal’ Dutch church, the oldest Protestant church on the island. Leave Colombo this afternoon and visit a turtle hatchery enroute to Galle, a gorgeous 17th century step-back-in-time. Visit the Dutch Fort, first a small fortress foothold for the Portuguese, and later captured by the Dutch, who extended the ramparts to encircle the whole promontory. Overnight at the 4-star Le Grand Hotel.
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Travel (4hrs) to Yala National Park for a jeep safari in its 130,000 hectares of scrub, grassland, forestry, dunes, and lagoons. This is leopard country, with a high concentration of these prowling predators, joined by elephants, jackals and lizards, crocodiles, sloth bears and spotted deer. Overnight at the 4-star Jetwing Yala Hotel, within the park.
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 Venture into Sri Lanka’s scenic heartlands, visiting the remote rock temple of Buduruwagala, a thousand years old and boasting a huge standing Buddha among its seven statues; and enjoy the rich biodiversity of scenic landscapes around the hillside town of Ella, as you travel to Nuwara Eliya. Built as a hill retreat for British civil servants, with its red phone boxes, Victorian post office, manicured golf course, and boating lake, its ‘Little England’ epithet comes as no surprise. Overnight at the 4-star Grand Hotel.
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Travel by train from nearby Nanu Oya to Peradeniya, close to Kandy (subject to local conditions and schedule amendments). Surrounded by rain forest and tea-terraced mountains, and centred on the parks, palaces, and street markets around the ornamental lake, Kandy’s unmissable monument is the island’s most sacred Buddhist relic, the splendid Temple of the Tooth, open from dawn to dusk and brilliantly lit at night. Enjoy a visit to the temple and an evening cultural show. Stay for two nights at the 4-star Golden Crown Hotel.
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After a morning at leisure for independent exploration, visit the Royal Botanical Gardens, a 60-hectare enclave set on a curve of the Mahaweli River, where lawns, pavilions and avenues frame bursts of colour in 4,000 species of flora, from palm trees to spices, medicinal plants, and the fabulous orchid collection for which the gardens are renowned.
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 Learn about the production of tea as you follow the tea leaves from plantation to factory; head north for the Habarana area, where dusty rural roads lead to some of Sri Lanka’s most amazing ancient monuments. Stop for a special event at a spice garden, with a lesson and lunch using local spices; visit the astonishing Dambulla Cave Temple, a pilgrimage site for two thousand years, with countless murals and 157 Buddha statues; and continue to the 4-star Jetwing Lake Hotel for a three-night stay, in a peaceful setting near Dambulla.
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Perhaps join an optional excursion this morning, to the iconic 5th-century Rock Fortress of Sigiriya (bookable locally, approx. $60). Described by locals as the ‘eighth wonder of the world’, the citadel covers a massive, flat-topped rock, 200m above the surrounding landscape, with remnants of a ruined palace, ponds, canals, and alleyways. An afternoon tour takes you to the monumental ruins of ancient Polonnaruwa, the second of Sri Lanka’s kingdoms, a 12th-century garden city, sprinkled with shrines, temples, and stone statuary, and centred on the remains of a huge palace.
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Visit the ‘sacred city’ of Anuradhapura, flourishing for 1,300 years, abandoned in 993AD, and hidden in dense jungle greenery until it was rediscovered in the 19th century. Now a Buddhist place of pilgrimage, it reveals a millennium of history in stupas, monasteries, and temples. Afternoon at leisure.
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Travel (4hrs) to Chilaw, a colourful, characterful town on Sri Lanka’s western shore, with Buddhist and Hindu temples, a Catholic cathedral, and countless coconut palms hemming the sands. Afternoon at leisure and overnight stay at the 4-star Anantaya Resort & Spa Hotel, set between the beach and the lagoon.
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Transfer to Colombo airport for the return flight to London Heathrow, arriving later the same day.
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