Bradt Sri Lanka Guidebook
by Philip Briggs
Sri Lanka travel guide – holiday advice and tips from Colombo hotels and restaurants to cuisine and homestays, wildlife, national parks (e.g. Yala and Horton Plains), wellness tourism and historic sites. Features Kandy’s Temple of the Tooth, Arugam Bay, Dambulla cave temples, Sigirya, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Galle Fort, Jaffra and beach resorts.
Size: 135 X 216 mm
Edition: 7
Number of pages: 600
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Bradt Sri Lanka Guide
The latest edition of the most detailed English-language guide to Sri Lanka.
About this guide to Sri Lanka
This updated Bradt Sri Lanka Guidebook, now in its 7th edition, remains the most detailed and comprehensive guidebook to this alluring island nation. Written by Philip Briggs, one of the world’s most experienced and highly regarded guidebook writers, this thoroughly updated guide provides detailed coverage of every aspect of this diverse and compact country, from idyllic tropical coastlines to mist-shrouded tea plantations and time-warped colonial homesteads.
Alongside in-depth sections on all major beach resorts, archaeological sites, historic towns and national parks, it introduces adventurous travellers to intriguing lesser-known sites and emergent destinations inaccessible for decades prior to 2009, when the civil war ended.
Beach holidays are a year-round attraction, while fantastic Buddhist-affiliated UNESCO World Heritage Sites range from the massive dagobas of Anuradhapura, built in pre-Christian times on a scale rivalling Egyptian pyramids, to Dambulla’s exquisitely painted cave temples. Wildlife-viewing opportunities abound, and this guide provides unparalleled, illustrated advice on making the most of these. Asia’s densest elephant and leopard populations thrive in an extensive network of national parks, complemented by fine whale and dolphin-watching, and 450 bird species including 30 occurring in no other country.
Extensive hotel and restaurant listings, covering everything from exclusive boutique hotels to shoestring homestays, have been cherry-picked based on the author’s personal inspection of hundreds of properties countrywide. Sri Lanka’s increasingly renowned cuisine features strongly, as does its growing focus on wellness tourism including Ayurveda therapies. This guidebook differs further from competitors by catering for truly independent travellers, providing 70-plus visitor-focused maps covering all major towns and resorts, clear directions for public transport, and off-the-beaten-track information.
Following a tourist boom in the south, and the gradual opening of the north and east to independent travel, tourism jumped 15% in the two years to 2018. Following COVID-19 and a 2019 terrorism incident, Sri Lankan tourism is again welcoming visitors, with infrastructure benefitting from recent investment in trains, which provide comfortable, efficient and inexpensive public transport.
Whether you’re into wildlife, culture, beaches or cuisine – and whether you seek luxury or budget travel – this updated Bradt Sri Lanka Guidebook will address your every need for an enjoyable visit to this bewitching and varied country.
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Contents
Introduction
PART 1 GENERAL INFORMATION
Chapter 1 History and Background
Chapter 2 The Natural World
Chapter 3 Practical Information
Chapter 4 Health and Safety
PART 2 COLOMBO AND SURROUNDS
Chapter 5 Colombo
Chapter 6 The Coast from Negombo to Kalpitiya
Chapter 7 Inland of Colombo
Chapter 8 The Western Resort Coast: Bentota, Kosgoda and Hikkaduwa
PART 3 THE CULTURAL TRIANGLE
Chapter 9 Dambulla, Sigiriya and Surrounds
Chapter 10 Polonnaruwa
Chapter 11 Anuradhapura and Surrounds
PART 4 NORTHERN AND EASTERN PROVINCES
Chapter 12 Northern Province
Chapter 13 Eastern Province
PART 5 KANDY AND THE HILL COUNTRY
Chapter 14 Kandy and Surrounds
Chapter 15 High Hill Country
Chapter 16, Low Hill Country
PART 6 GALLE AND THE DEEP SOUTH
Chapter 17 Tissamaharama and the Southern Safari Circuit
Chapter 18 The Southern Resort Coast: Tangalle, Matara and Weligama Bay
Chapter 19, Galle and Surrounds
Appendix 1 Language
Appendix 2 Glossaries
General glossary, Annotated glossary of key historical, legendary and mythical figures
Appendix 3 Further information
Index
About the author
Philip Briggs (www.philipbriggs.com) is one of the world’s most experienced and knowledgeable guidebook writers, having been researching and writing guides for Bradt and other well-known publishers for 30 years. In 1991, he wrote the Bradt Guide to South Africa, the first such guidebook to be published internationally after the release of Nelson Mandela. Over the rest of the 1990s, Philip wrote a series of pioneering Bradt travel guides to African destinations (Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Ghana, Rwanda) that were then – and in some cases still are – otherwise practically uncharted by the travel publishing industry. More recently, he authored the first dedicated English-language guidebook to Somaliland, as well as a new guide to The Gambia, both published by Bradt. Turning his attention now to both South America and Asia, he has written Bradt guides to Suriname and Sri Lanka. Philip spends at least four months on the road every year.
