Hills, Temples & Colombo

We meet you at the airport and head east through coconut country. At Pinnawala we stop to watch the elephants bathe in the river, if the flight allows; it is a captive herd, and we tell you honestly what it is and is not. By evening we are at the lake in Kandy, with dinner in town or at the hotel. Flights landing after about 3pm sleep near the airport instead and we adjust the first two days.

The Temple of the Tooth in the morning before the crowds, shoulders and knees covered. Then the Royal Botanical Gardens at Peradeniya, the giant Buddha above the town at Bahirawakanda for the view, and the market for spices. Late afternoon we watch the Kandyan dancers and the fire-walkers, and the evening is yours by the lake.

The road from Kandy climbs through tea estates past Ramboda Falls. We stop at the Sri Bhakta Hanuman temple at Ramboda, where tradition says Hanuman searched for Sita, and at a working tea factory for the walk through and a tasting. Nuwara Eliya is at about 1,900 metres and the evenings are cold; the hotel lights a fire. Those who prefer the hill train can ride Peradeniya to Nanu Oya instead, with the bags in the car.

A quiet morning at the Seetha Amman temple by the stream at Sita Eliya, then the gardens at Hakgala, which tradition names as Ashok Vatika, where Sita was held. Back in town there is the Gayathri Peedam, the pink post office, Victoria Park and a boat or a walk at Gregory Lake. Guests who want Divurumpola, the place linked with Sita's trial by fire, add about an hour each way towards Welimada; walkers can swap the morning for Horton Plains at dawn.

We leave the hills by Hatton and the Ginigathhena pass, the tea giving way to rubber and rainforest. At Kitulgala on the Kelani river we stop for lunch; the keen can raft the gentle rapids for a couple of hours, the rest can swim or walk. We reach Colombo for the evening and end the day with the crowds at Galle Face Green as the sun drops into the sea.

We start at the Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihara, with its painted halls and the shrine to Vibhishana, then Gangaramaya by Beira Lake and the colonial arcade at Independence Square. The afternoon is for shopping: Pettah's streets, the handloom and design shops, the department stores. Dinner is anywhere from a seafood table on the sea front to a south Indian thali; we book what you like. From December to April this day can be spent on the beach at Bentota instead.

A last breakfast and, for afternoon or evening flights, a free morning for the shops or a swim. We drive you to the airport in time for your flight home or on to the Maldives.