Waves & Wonders: Coastal Escape in Sri Lanka

Start early at the lellama, the beach market where the night boats land their catch. Then breakfast, and the drive north into the dry zone.

You stop for lunch on the road and reach Anuradhapura in the afternoon, staying out among the paddy and the tanks rather than in town.

Anuradhapura was the capital for more than a thousand years and the site is enormous, which is why it gets a full day. You walk the main group with your guide: the Sri Maha Bodhi, grown from a cutting of the tree the Buddha sat under, and the great brick stupas including Ruwanwelisaya.

Mihintale in the afternoon is where Buddhism arrived on the island in the third century BC. It is 1,840 steps to the summit and the view over the plain is the reward.

Sigiriya in the morning. The climb passes the frescoes cut into the rock face and the lion paws at the terrace, and the top is a fifth century citadel with the whole plain laid out below.

Pidurangala stands opposite and is the other way round: a rough scramble at the end, and the best place to see Sigiriya whole. In the afternoon you cross to Polonnaruwa, the capital from the eleventh to the thirteenth century, and walk the ruins.

A long drive today, broken at Matale for a spice garden, where the cinnamon, pepper, cardamom and the rest are grown and processed in front of you.

The road then climbs steadily to Hatton, deep in the tea country, where you stay two nights in a planter's bungalow above Castlereigh lake. The afternoon is for the fire and the view.

A tea day. You walk the estate with someone who works it, watch the pluckers take two leaves and a bud, and follow the leaf into the factory to see it withered, rolled, oxidised and fired.

The tasting at the end is the part that makes sense of the rest. The afternoon is free, and at this altitude that usually means a walk and an early fire.

You drive across to Ella, stopping at Ravana falls and the Nine Arch Bridge at Demodara, a stone viaduct still in daily use.

Diyaluma comes next, a main drop of about 220 metres and the second highest in the country. Then the road falls away into the dry scrub around Yala, which after two days in the hills feels like another country.

Safari day. Yala is scrub, open plain and lagoon and holds one of the highest leopard densities recorded anywhere, though nothing is guaranteed on any single drive. Elephant, sloth bear, sambar, crocodile and a long bird list are all regular.

Bundala is the alternative, a chain of lagoons and dunes that is quieter and far better for birds, with flamingo in season. Your tracker will say which is worth the time that week.

You head west along the coast, stopping at the Hummanaya blowhole, where the swell pushes up through a gap in the rock.

Galle is the main stop. The fort is a lived-in Dutch walled town on Portuguese foundations, with ramparts, churches, warehouses, cafes and shops in the same few streets. After lunch you carry on to Bentota for the last two nights.

Nothing scheduled. Bentota has a wide beach and a quiet end, and the water sports are on the lagoon if you want them.

Lunuganga is fifteen minutes away, the garden Geoffrey Bawa spent fifty years making, and it does a good lunch on the terrace. The turtle hatchery up the coast is the other easy half hour.

Your driver-guide takes you to the airport. From Bentota it is about two hours on the expressway, and we leave enough margin for the queues.