Birdwatching

Home of 'The Gathering' - the largest meeting of wild Asian elephants on Earth.

Sri Lanka's last great lowland rainforest - a UNESCO World Heritage Site bursting with endemic species.

Sri Lanka's bird paradise - lagoons and mangroves alive with nesting waterbirds, plus uncrowded leopard country.

An ancient lake-side temple town of great white dagobas - the classic base for Yala and Kataragama.

Sri Lanka's largest national park - a wilderness of natural lakes, leopards, and sloth bears without the crowds.

A Ramsar wetland of lagoons and dunes where greater flamingos winter alongside crocodiles and elephants.

A sleepy fishing town flanked by some of the south's longest, emptiest beaches and rocky coves.

The most reliable place in Sri Lanka to see wild elephants - hundreds live around the great Udawalawe reservoir.

The 'Sea of Parakrama' - a 12th-century reservoir so vast it made a king's boast literal, lapping at Polonnaruwa's ruins.

Arugam Bay's wild backyard - dawn canoe safaris among mangroves, elephants, and crocodiles.

A majestic 12-metre standing Buddha carved from a single granite cliff in the 5th century.

A breezy mountain-foot village of streams, hikes, and reservoirs - the adventurous back door to the highlands.

Sri Lanka's only boat safari park, where elephants swim between islands on a vast jungle-ringed reservoir.

Remote peninsula famous for dolphin and whale watching in pristine lagoons.

A Ramsar-protected river-lagoon of 64 islands, mangrove tunnels, and cinnamon islands near Balapitiya.

A pristine, sheltered bay near Trincomalee whose glittering sand gave it its name - run by the Air Force and spotlessly kept.

Colombo's secret wilderness - a vast marsh of crocodiles, otters, and birdlife minutes from the airport.

Seven colossal figures carved into a jungle cliff - including Sri Lanka's tallest standing Buddha.

King Dhatusena's 5th-century inland sea, whose canal to Anuradhapura falls just one foot every mile.

A coastal lagoon teeming with waterbirds - Sri Lanka's oldest sanctuary, explored by silent canoe.

A vast ancient tank with birdlife, crocodiles, and water buffalo herds.

A tiny park with a big spectacle - elephant herds feeding on tank grass beside the Arugam Bay road.

A remote park of reservoirs, rock outcrops, and elephants - the wild heartland of the Vedda people.

A far-flung island of baobab trees, wild donkeys, colonial forts, and world-class birdwatching.

Sri Lanka's most important sea-turtle nesting beach, where five species come ashore at night.

A mysterious mountain of ruined forest monasteries, rising abruptly from the dry-zone plains near Habarana.

A relic stupa on the wild Mahaweli floodplain, where pilgrims and wild elephants share the sacred ground.

Colombo's birding secret - an ancient tank and paddy wetland where jacanas and kingfishers commute past the suburbs.

A historic royal forest rising behind Kandy's Temple of the Tooth, laced with shady walking trails.

An eerie red-earth plateau above the sea, tied to Ramayana legend and unlike anywhere else on the island.

Boardwalks through the old capital's marshes - the wildest corner of Ramsar-listed wetland Colombo.

Sri Lanka's largest natural freshwater lake - boat safaris, birdlife, and lakeside ease an hour from Colombo.

The southern gateway to Sinharaja - a tea town with rainforest trails, river pools, and none of the crowds.

An ancient pool the size of six Olympic pools - the industrial-scale waterworks of the Abhayagiri monks.

The 'black water pond' - serene monastery ruins around a dark forest pool near Dambulla, with wildlife for company.

A 116-metre plunge in the gem country near Pelmadulla - among the tallest waterfalls in Sri Lanka.

A vast bird-sanctuary lagoon on the wild north-east coast - flamingos, pelicans, and fishing villages between the waters.

The last beach before the wilderness - dunes, lagoons, and empty surf where the east-coast road ends.

Geoffrey Bawa's island parliament floating on the Diyawanna - the modern capital's defining view.

A jungle mountain of a thousand ruins near Ampara - believed to hold the ashes of Mahinda, who brought Buddhism to the island.

The waterfall you can walk behind - a twin cascade with a hidden cave passage, in the wilds below Riverston.

The gold standard of elephant care - orphaned calves raised wild and released, watched from a distance at feeding time.

'Little England's' formal park - flower terraces, cool air, and some of Asia's best urban birdwatching.

A remote riverside park famed for large elephant herds and one of the island's healthiest sloth bear populations.

A Ramsar wetland of ancient cascade tanks between Chilaw and Puttalam - heronries, mangroves, and morning bird clouds.

Colombo's beloved suburban temple - a sacred Bo tree of ancient lineage and one of the city's grandest peraheras.

A lagoon village hiding Buddhist history - the island monastery where Western monasticism in Asia began.

A 7th-century tank with sunset views, toque macaques, and the quiet back door to Polonnaruwa.

A UNESCO biosphere reserve near Habarana offering reliable year-round elephant safaris.

The quiet elephant corridor between Yala and Udawalawe - big herds, big reservoir, almost no jeeps.

A 2,300-year-old stupa enshrining the Buddha's forehead relic, deep in the paddy country south of Trincomalee.