Things To Do In Colombo

Things to do in Colombo

Start in Pettah, the old bazaar district, where each street sells one kind of thing: spices on one, fabric, hardware or plastic buckets on the next. In the middle stands the red-and-white striped Jami Ul-Alfar Mosque, built in 1909, which welcomes respectfully dressed visitors outside prayer times. Go in the morning, before the heat and the traffic peak.

Walk south through Fort, the colonial business district, to the Dutch Hospital, a seventeenth-century building now full of restaurants and bars, and on to Galle Face Green, a long seafront lawn where families fly kites and street-food stalls fry prawn fritters at sunset.

Gangaramaya Temple, a cluttered, fascinating mix of Buddhist shrine, museum and vintage car collection, sits beside Beira Lake. Its ticket also covers Seema Malaka, a calm meditation pavilion on the water designed by Geoffrey Bawa, Sri Lanka's most influential architect.

The National Museum, Sri Lanka's oldest, gives the best overview of the island's kingdoms before you head to Anuradhapura or Kandy. For views, the Lotus Tower, the tallest structure in South Asia, has an observation deck. In the south, Mount Lavinia has the nearest proper beach, and the colonial Mount Lavinia Hotel's terrace is a classic sunset stop.