Sri Lanka & the Maldives

The turn of the year is the right time for the south and west of Sri Lanka and for the Maldives alongside it. From December to March the north-east monsoon leaves the Cultural Triangle, the hill country and the southern beaches dry and warm, and the same months are the calm, clear season across the Maldivian atolls. The two sit an hour apart by air and belong on one trip.

Fifteen nights, and a deliberate arc from culture to nothing at all. The Cultural Triangle to begin, then the tea country in the hills, then the southern coast and its leopards, and finally the Maldives to end on the water. Sri Lanka is the substance of the trip; the Maldives is the coda, and most members want it that way round.

The set pieces hold up. Sigiriya, the rock fortress, climbed early before the heat; the cave temples at Dambulla and the Temple of the Tooth at Kandy; the old train through the hill country for a leg, which is slow and worth it; Yala for leopard with a private vehicle; and the ramparts of Galle Fort in the evening. In the Maldives the day empties out to the reef off your own deck.

The flying is simple at both ends. Colombo takes long-range aircraft, and within Sri Lanka the coastal expressway and a domestic seaplane cover the ground. The Maldives is reached through Malé, and the last leg to the atoll is by seaplane in daylight or by private launch, which we time the arrival around.

Among our preferred hotel partners we use Amangalla within Galle Fort, Ceylon Tea Trails in the hills and Cape Weligama on the south coast, and in the Maldives Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru and Soneva Fushi, each on its own island.

Ask your advisor about Sigiriya before the crowds, the hill-country train for one leg rather than the car, and a single Maldivian villa for the whole coda rather than moving between atolls.