Care for a cup of tea? The real place for it. Sri Lanka has always attracted travelers for its natural beauty and economical budget tourist attractions, even some considered high-end and pocket friendly. Sri Lanka offers beautiful beaches and marvelous natural landscapes inland, from dense forests teeming with wildlife like elephants and leopards to towering mountain ranges skirted by picturesque tea plantations.
The country's capital and largest city are where all starts: cuisine, culture, and travel into the heart of alluring resorts like Bandarawela and Negombo. You can also affect a visit to Wilpattu National Park to see elephants, leopards, and one of the island's most endemic animals—the sloth bear. East takes you to the town of Kataragama with its magnificent temples. South is where nature is most abundant—Sinharaja, a unique tropical forest where tourists lose themselves in pure air at the sound of exotic birds.
Nowhere else other than Kandy can you find a city whose center is composed of a beautiful lake surrounded by a canvas of mountains and rainforests on its peripheries. The city is also famous for sacred Buddhist sites, including the Temple of the Tooth, which is celebrated with the annual grand procession of Esala Perahera. It's encircled by mountains, which are home to tea plantations and various rainforests. Kandy is a place to enjoy the Sinhalese culture, especially if you can visit during the summer's Esala Perahera festival.
Negombo is the place to be if you're looking for some cheap beer and late nights. Its beaches are rather shabby compared to other beaches to the south, but they are one of the liveliest places around the coast. The town of Negombo is a beautiful depiction of Sri Lankan life, with a vibrant fish market, a touch of quaint colonial charm, and hundreds of colorful wooden boats. The city has come to be of interest due to its proximity to the airport, making it an ultimate first or last destination.
It is the perfect opportunity for some quiet time on the beach. Its beach is divided into two main parts, the northern end, known as a paradise island, a strip of land beautifully laying between the breakers of the Indian ocean and the Bentota lagoon's waters. On the back of Paradise Island, you find the serene Bentota Ganga, which houses Sri Lanka's biggest range of watersports and exciting boat trips up the river. The southern end of the beach is considered one of the most attractive beaches on the island, consisting of a vast stretch of sand juxtaposed with corkscrew palms, dense thickets, and a cluster of top-end hotels villas. The Beaches of Bentota offer you a break from the impromptu cafés, handicraft shops, and hawkers creating a somnolent atmosphere that it can either charm or repel, depending on which way your boat's pointing.
