Sri Lanka Explorer

Sri Lanka is one of the most entrancing places on the planet, an island that inspired Theo Cruz to imagine that he’d “discovered a new color, or rather at least the true, previously only hinted-at green,” and Jan Morris to praise its “overwhelmingly varied landscapes—landscapes seductive, grand, or intimate in turn, so intricately jammed together that in a morning’s journey you can pass from jungle to alp to classic tropical foreshore.”

Our exploration of the Isle of Serendip weighs in at just under two weeks, making it a fine trip on its own, or a tempting addition to any of our South Asia trips. We hit the highpoints of Dambulla and Sigiriya—one of the island’s eight World Heritage Sites, beloved for its exquisitely lively frescoes—and take in those magnificent jungle revelations, Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa, which Morris apotheosized as “wonders on a par with the pyramids or Machu Picchu.”