Sri Lanka Attractions

Kandy

A restored tea factory at Hantana telling the story of Ceylon tea, with vintage machinery and a top-floor tea room.

🎟 LKR 1000 (foreign)

Kandy

Sri Lanka's holiest Buddhist shrine, enshrining a tooth relic of the Buddha inside the former royal palace complex.

🎟 LKR 2000 (foreign)

Matale

A small, complete ancient stone temple blending Buddhist and Hindu architecture, near the geographic centre of Sri Lanka.

🎟 LKR 500 (foreign)

Elkaduwa

A windswept viewpoint on the western edge of the Knuckles Range, with sweeping views over montane grasslands and valleys.

🎟 Free

Sigiriya

A 5th-century royal citadel atop a 200-metre granite monolith, famous for its frescoes, mirror wall and lion-paw gateway.

🎟 LKR 9000 (foreign)

Nuwara Eliya

A famous roadside tea estate and factory with free guided tours and a cafe overlooking the tea gardens.

🎟 Free

Nuwara Eliya

One of Sri Lanka's grandest gardens, set against the Hakgala rock at high altitude and famous for its roses and orchids.

🎟 LKR 3540 (foreign)

Nuwara Eliya

A high-altitude plateau of montane grassland and cloud forest, home to the sheer cliff viewpoint known as World's End.

🎟 LKR 10000 (foreign)

Nuwara Eliya

A colonial-era reservoir at the edge of town, ringed by a park with boat rides, cycling paths and pony rides.

🎟 LKR 200 (foreign)

Trincomalee

A dramatic clifftop Hindu temple to Shiva on Swami Rock, high above the ocean at the tip of the Trincomalee headland.

🎟 Free

Anuradhapura

The sacred fig tree grown from a cutting of the Buddha's own Bodhi tree, said to be the oldest historically documented tree in the world.

🎟 LKR 200 (foreign)

Anuradhapura

A colossal red-brick stupa, once among the tallest structures in the ancient world, at the ruins of the Jetavana monastery.

🎟 Free

Mihintale

The mountain where Buddhism was introduced to Sri Lanka, reached by a monumental stairway past ancient stupas and monastic ruins.

🎟 LKR 500 (foreign)

Anuradhapura

A gleaming white dome-shaped stupa and one of the most sacred and revered monuments in the Buddhist world.

🎟 Free

Polonnaruwa

Four colossal Buddha images carved from a single granite wall, among the greatest masterpieces of ancient Sri Lankan sculpture.

🎟 Free

Polonnaruwa

A serene circular relic house crowning a low rock hill about 30 km north of Polonnaruwa, ringed by concentric rows of stone pillars.

🎟 LKR 500 (foreign)

Polonnaruwa

An exquisite circular relic house at the heart of the Sacred Quadrangle, regarded as the finest surviving example of vatadage architecture in Sri Lanka.

🎟 LKR 9000 (foreign)

Jaffna

Jaffna's most important Hindu temple, a golden, five-tiered Dravidian gopuram complex dedicated to the war god Murugan.

🎟 Free

Ratnapura

Sri Lanka's last major tract of primary lowland rainforest, a UNESCO World Heritage Site teeming with endemic birds, plants and wildlife.

🎟 LKR 2700 (foreign)

Ella

An easy hilltop hike rewarded with panoramic views over Ella Gap, tea slopes and the surrounding hill country.

🎟 Free

Ella

An iconic curved stone railway viaduct set amid jungle and tea, famous for photos of the train crossing its nine arches.

🎟 Free

Ella

A wide, roaring cascade tumbling down the hillside on the road below Ella, tied to the legend of the demon king Ravana.

🎟 Free

Colombo

Colombo's most eclectic Buddhist temple, an eccentric treasury of relics, statues and curiosities beside Beira Lake.

🎟 LKR 300 (foreign)

Gampaha

An ancient and deeply sacred Buddhist temple believed to have been visited by the Buddha, famed for its vivid murals and the Duruthu Perahera.

🎟 LKR 200 (foreign)