The Winter Grand Circle

Your chauffeur-guide meets you in the arrivals hall and drives you the short way to Negombo. There is nothing planned. Swim, walk the beach, eat early and sleep off the flight.

We leave after breakfast and follow the coast road north past the fishing villages and salt pans. After lunch at the lodge we go into Wilpattu by jeep for the afternoon. It is the largest park on the island and one of the quietest, a place of sandy tracks and natural lakes called villus.

A 5.30am start for the best light and the best chance of leopard, sloth bear and elephant at the villus. We never promise a sighting; we do promise a good tracker. Back for a late breakfast and a free afternoon at the lodge.

A short drive to the sacred city that ruled the island for more than a thousand years. In the afternoon light we walk the great stupas, the Sri Maha Bodhi tree and the monastery ruins, then climb Mihintale for sunset, where Buddhism is said to have arrived in Sri Lanka.

Early, before the heat, we cycle the quieter corners of Anuradhapura: the Abhayagiri monastery, the twin ponds and the moonstones. After lunch we drive east to Sigiriya and settle in for three nights.

We climb Sigiriya when the gates open, before the heat and the crowds: about 1,200 steps past the frescoes and the lion's paws to the palace on top. In the afternoon we cross the village tank by catamaran and eat a lunch cooked over a wood fire in a farming home near Hiriwadunna.

Your choice of a morning at Polonnaruwa, the medieval capital, by bicycle, or a free morning by the pool. In the late afternoon we take a jeep to whichever park the elephant herds are using that month, Minneriya, Kaudulla or Hurulu, and watch them come down to water.

We stop first at the Dambulla cave temples, five painted caves full of Buddhas cut into a granite hill, then pause at a spice garden in Matale. Kandy by mid-afternoon, and in the evening the drumming and the ceremony at the Temple of the Tooth.

The Royal Botanic Gardens at Peradeniya in the morning, when it is cool and the giant bamboo is at its best. An afternoon that is yours: the market, the lake, a cooking lesson in a Kandyan home, or nothing at all. Traditional dance in the evening for anyone who wants it.

The road climbs through Gampola and Ginigathena into the tea country around Hatton. Your home for two nights is a planter's bungalow among the estates. In the afternoon we walk the tea with the estate's own people and learn what a pluck is.

No car today unless you want one. A tea factory in the morning, a long lunch, a boat on the Castlereagh reservoir or a book on the lawn. Between December and May the pilgrim season on Adam's Peak is open: the night climb is about 5,000 steps and we arrange it for anyone who wants it.

A morning in the old hill station: the lake, the red-brick post office, lunch in a colonial hotel. Then the most beautiful stretch of the hill railway to Ella, with the bags in the car, where the line is open; otherwise the road follows the same valley past tea and waterfalls.

Little Adam's Peak at first light, an easy hour's walk with the whole gap in front of you. Then the Nine Arch Bridge, a long lunch, and a swim at the Ravana pools if the afternoon is warm.

The road drops out of the hills past the Ravana falls to the dry plains. We stop at the Buduruwagala Buddhas, cut into a rock face in the forest, and reach Tissamaharama for lunch. The first Yala safari is this afternoon.

Another 5.30am start. Yala is a good place to look for leopard, and February and March are among the best months, but it is a park, not a zoo. The middle of the day is for the pool. Sunset at the Kirinda temple on its rock above the sea.

A short drive west, with a stop at the Bundala wetlands for flamingos and storks if you want it. Tangalle is a string of quiet bays. The afternoon is for the water.

The Mulkirigala rock temple in the morning for those who want one more climb, with painted caves and a view over the coconut country. Otherwise nothing. After dark, the turtle project at Rekawa, where the big females still come ashore; sightings are their choice, not ours.

We take the old coast road through Dikwella, Weligama and Koggala, stopping where it is pretty. Galle Fort is a walking town; the afternoon is for its lanes and the ramparts at sunset.

A 6.30am boat from Mirissa, three to four hours at sea, for blue whales, sperm whales and dolphins between December and April. We use boats that keep their distance and we do not promise. Back for lunch, a swim at Unawatuna or Jungle Beach, and a farewell dinner in the Fort.

The expressway to the airport, timed to your flight. For a flight before 10am we suggest moving the last night to Negombo.