Sri Lanka Family Adventure

From kite flying and watching the sunset on Galle Face Green to exploring the relics and statues of Gangaramaya Temple, Sri Lanka’s capital offers moments of serenity to contrast with its busy thoroughfares and bartering culture in Pettah Bazaar. Witness the country’s colonial past jostling up against shiny new high-rises and chic boutiques, all while the scents from street food stalls and spice markets perfume the air.  

A lively tropical city set around a tranquil lake, Kandy is woven through with the sumptuous religious relics of an independent kingdom that thrived here between the 15th and early 19th centuries. The cultural heart of this metropolis, today enshrined as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the Sacred Temple of the Tooth, where votive Buddhist offerings take place to the rhythmical sound of drums and the heady scent of lotus.  

Sri Lanka is the fourth largest tea producer in the world, its undulating Central Highlands draped with verdant tea estates first formed under British rule in the 19th century. Pocket-sized villages such as Dick oya and Hatton are dotted among mist-shrouded, forest-covered hills, where activities include mountain biking along scenic tea trails, birdwatching walks and sampling different flavored brews on plantation tours.  

A hill country village turned traveler honeypot, Ella has evolved over recent years to offer a lively artery of boutique shops, restaurants and leafy yoga shalas, but its main attractions remain timeless: enjoy slow strolls through working tea estates, climb Little Adam’s Peak or Ella Rock for breathtaking valley views, and visit the Nine Arch Bridge, an engineering marvel of the colonial era built to cross a 100ft gorge, still in use by trains today

Heading out on a safari in Yala, one of the country’s oldest and largest national parks, will yield far more than its headlining herds of elephants: wild peacocks, sloth bears and mongoose can be seen by the keen-eyed. It also has one of the highest leopard populations in the world, making game drives here among the most rewarding and exciting on the island.  

A low-key coastal destination with sweeping, sanding bays backed by swaying palm trees, Tangalle offers one of the south coast’s most blissful retreats. Sheltered coves offer calm waters for snorkeling and swimming, while a wealth of attractions – from the Hummanaya blow hole and the rock temples of Mulkirigala to the turtle-nesting beach at Rekawa – make for diverse day trips.