A country · 170 places · 9 regions

Sri Lanka, all of it.

170 curated places across 9 regions — photographed, mapped, and noted with the season each is best in.

Ella, Sri Lanka · via Wikimedia Commons

The 4 biggest regions — Central Province, Western Province, Southern Province and North Central Province — read below as chapters, with 5 more waiting past them.

Chapter I · Central Province · 35 places

Central Province

Horton Plains National Park is a high-altitude plateau in central Sri Lanka at roughly 2,100 metres, the island's largest montane ecosystem and a UNESCO World Heritage property as part of the Central Highlands designation. World's End, the park's principal feature, is a sheer escarpment dropping nearly 900 metres to the southern plains below, and on clear mornings before the cloud rises the view extends to the southern coastline. The plateau's cloud forest and grasslands support endemic species including the sambar deer, purple-faced langur, and Sri Lankan leopard.

Horton Plains National Park

Central Province, Sri Lanka

✦ January to March · $$

Nuwara Eliya

Central Province, Sri Lanka

✦ January to April · $$

Dambulla

Central Province, Sri Lanka

✦ May to September, December to April · $

All 35 places in Central Province →

via Wikimedia Commons

Chapter II · Western Province · 29 places

Western Province

A revered Buddhist temple on the banks of the Kelani River, famed for its vividly painted murals and reliefs by the artist Solias Mendis. Tradition holds the Buddha visited this spot, making it a major pilgrimage destination near Colombo.

✦ January to March · $

Meet Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihara All 29 places in Western Province →

Chapter III · Southern Province · 27 places

Southern Province

Mirissa is a small beach town on Sri Lanka's southern coast, its crescent bay sheltered by a headland topped with a large sitting Buddha statue. The town serves as the primary base for blue whale and sperm whale watching in the Indian Ocean, with sightings most reliable between December and April when the whales feed in waters 10 to 20 kilometres offshore. Coconut palm groves backing the beach provide the foreground for the classic southern-coast beach photograph.

Mirissa

Southern Province, Sri Lanka

✦ November to April · $

Yala National Park

Southern Province, Sri Lanka

✦ February to July · $$

Galle

Southern Province, Sri Lanka

✦ November to April · $$

All 27 places in Southern Province →

via Wikimedia Commons

Chapter IV · North Central Province · 14 places

North Central Province

Polonnaruwa served as the medieval capital of Sri Lanka between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries and contains an extensive ruined city spread across a jungle-edged park accessible by bicycle. The Gal Vihara rock temple, carved into a single granite face, contains four images — a seated Buddha, two standing figures, and a 15-metre reclining figure — that represent the apex of Sinhalese sculptural art. Early morning visits before tour groups arrive allow photography of the stone surfaces in angled raking light.

✦ May to September, December to March · $

Meet Polonnaruwa All 14 places in North Central Province →