Colombo - The Trade Capital

Colombo, sitting on the west coast of Sri Lanka is a bustling commercial centre, a blend of East and West.  Holidays in Sri Lanka are ideal for experiencing the old and the new: quaint old shops vie for trade with oriental bazaars and, more recently, a number of modern shopping malls have opened.

Kandy is the Hill Capital of Sri Lanka.  It is situated in Sri Lanka’s misty foothills, in the central part of the island.  Kandy was the last capital of the Sinhalese Kings and here, the sacred tooth relic of the Buddha is preserved for veneration at the Dalada Maligawa Temple of the Tooth.
Each year, the Esala Perahera festival is held and the cask containing this venerated relic is paraded around the streets in one of the most colourful pageants in Asia.

Sri Lanka's picturesque hill resort over 1800 metres above sea level is renowned for its perennial spring-like climate with stunning waterfalls and rolling hills carpeted by tea plantations. A green carpet of tea plantations covers many slopes .The hill country’s lovely temperate climate gives you a wonderful feeling.

Pinnawela - The Elephant Orphanage

The elephant orphanage at Pinnawela is perhaps the only one of its kind in the world.  Many tourists include a visit here as part of their Sri Lanka holiday.  Here, young and abandoned elephants are cared for before they are released back into the wild.
The herd usually numbers no less than fifty elephants ranging from babies to mature adults.

Elephants

Sri Lanka is home to an estimated 3,000 wild elephants, the problem of diminishing habitat is even more acute. The island has been stripped of 50 per cent of its forest land in the last three decades, dramatically affecting the elephant herds. "They want to roam, and they overlap with the people," said curator Wijepala Ranbanda of the Pinnewela Elephant Orphanage. 

They say an elephant never forgets, but what happens when an elephant is forgotten? In Sri Lanka, abandoned elephants who cannot survive in the wild find refuge at the Elephant Orphanage at Pinnewela (near Ram bukkana), which was created In 1975 by government officials worried about habitat encroachment.. People feed, groom and care for more than 46 elephants on the farm. The babies drink milk warmed to body temperature from super-size bottles, seven per feeding. Maybe at first they can't find their own food. So we bring it to them here," said ldris Salley, a caretaker at the elephant orphanage.

The Orphanage supports itself in part through tourists, who come for a rare close-up view of the animals. The orphans arrive from across the country, rescued from remote villages where they have lost their mothers to quarry accidents, shootings or lynch mobs. At the Elephant Orphanage, deep in the tropical hill country of central Sri Lanka, the motherless calves are raised by human foster parents who ply them with bottled milk five times a day and give them an occasional swig of beer in an effort to help preserve Asia's dwindling wild-elephant population.
"Without the orphanage, most of them would be left to die or be killed," said Wijepala Ranbanda, curator of the elephant orphanage.
Some of the orphans raised in the sanctuary of palm groves and rolling grassland are now rearing their own babies at the orphanage. The orphanage's newest arrival weighed 60 kilograms (132 pounds) when she was born nearly two months ago. She will drink about 25 litres of milk a day until she's weaned after 4 1/2 years.

Close by to Pinnewela is the Millennium Elephant conservation centre where tourists can also have elephant rides.

Sigiriya is the lion rock fortress where King Kashyapa built a fortified palace atop a rocky outcrop in the 5th century.
Sigiriya is best known for its wonderful frescoes of beautiful women. The paintings form part of this world heritage site.

Dating back to the 1st century BC, this world heritage site is made up of five caves with in excess of 2000 square metres of hand painted walls and ceilings with numerous life size images of the Buddha and other gods.
The most impressive is the statue of Buddha which is over 140 feet long. Together it is the largest area of cave paintings to be found anywhere in the world.

Polonnaruwa rose to prominence and remained a capital from the 10th to the 12th century AD and boasts many ancient ruins and sites.  This includes the gal vihare complex with its three fine sculptures of a seated, standing and recumbent Buddha.

The Fortress City of Galle

The Fort at Galle is a living world heritage site and provides a glimpse of Sri Lanka's Dutch heritage.
This Sri Lanka resort ensures two different experiences.  As the town of Galle outside the Fort jostles with life, the imposing walls of the Fort offers a much calmer atmosphere and takes you a few centuries back to the Dutch colonial era. Based nearby is the excellent Lighthouse hotel & Spa ideal for a base during your visit.

Ambalangoda

A half hour's drive from Bentota would take you to Ambalangoda, home of devil dancing and mask making. Also nearby is the Turtle hatchery.

Holidays in Sri Lanka should not exclude a visit to Ratnapura, the most famous gem mining area in Sri Lanka situated in the foothills of Adams Peak.
Precious stones such as Rubies, Sapphires, Cat's Eyes, Amethysts and Topaz are all mined locally.

The Sinharaja forest is the only remaining rain forest on Sri Lanka and is recognised by Unesco as part of its International Network of Bio-sphere reserves. The forest has the highest level of bio-diversity in the entire world and is included in the list of world heritage sites. Most of Sri Lanka's endemic bird species, mammals and flora are found in the forest.

Bird Sanctuaries

The sanctuaries at Kumana 312 km. from Colombo, Wirawila 261 km. Bundala 259 km. and Kalametiya 224 km. are all lagoon locations in Sri Lanka's extreme south eastern coast. The Giant's Tank in the north western corner of the island is a huge ancient irrigation reservoir of 3,800 hectares. The coastal sanctuaries are exotically picturesque with combinations of lagoon, swamp, river, jungle, lake and plain. Large flocks can be found here of both resident and migrant aquatic birds. The highland sanctuaries at Udawattakele 118 km. from Colombo and the Peak Wilderness 141 km. are quieter but equally picturesque with wooded hills and secluded streams and have the added bonus of rare flora such as our unique Wesak Orchid as well as numerous species of rare butterflies. The Udawattakele Sanctuary is in the suburbs of Kandy, our picturesque and fascinating hill capital. The Peak Wilderness is situated on the slopes of Adam's Peak (Sri Pada), Sri Lanka's sacred mountain.

Wasgamuwa National Park
Situated approximately 200 km. away from Colombo, the Wasgamuwa National Park lies within the Polonnaruwa and Matale Districts and have the Mahaweli river and Amban river as its eastern and western boundaries. Tropical intermediate dry mixed evergreen forest predominates its environment.