Eleven days of gems and rainforest

A large Catholic church known for the painted ceiling inside, at the centre of the town.

A waterfall about 30 metres high whose shape is said to resemble a leaf of the bo tree, near Kuruwita on the way to Colombo.

An archaeological cave with evidence of habitation from about 8,000 years BCE, where stone tools and ostrich eggshell beads of Balangoda Man were found. It lies in the Kuruwita area.

An ancient shrine to the god Saman, guardian of Sri Pada (Adam's Peak), rebuilt in the Kandyan period, with a Buddhist temple in the same compound.

A visit to a working gem pit outside town, where miners haul up gravel in baskets and wash it in the river to find stones.

A dawn walk with a specialist bird guide to find the mixed feeding flocks and endemics such as the blue magpie, the red-faced malkoha and the green-billed coucal.

A guided walk of three to five hours along the main trails, through tall forest and across streams, looking for birds, giant squirrels, lizards and frogs.

A guided walk after dark along the edge of the forest to look for frogs, geckos, owls and other night life.

A half-day jeep safari across grassland and scrub, with herds of elephants, water buffalo, crocodiles and birds of prey.

A cave temple complex on a steep rock, with reclining Buddhas and painted ceilings on several terraces and views over the countryside from the top.

A temple with one of the island's largest seated Buddha statues, about 50 metres tall, and a tunnel of painted scenes of the afterlife.

Snorkel in the shallow, reef-protected lagoon of Hikkaduwa National Park, where green turtles often feed close to shore.

The grid of streets inside the walls, with the Dutch Reformed Church (Groote Kerk), old warehouses and small museums.

Finds from shipwrecks in Galle harbour, from anchors and cannon to trade ceramics, displayed in a long 17th-century Dutch warehouse near the Old Gate.

A walk along the 17th-century ramparts and bastions, from the clock tower past the lighthouse to Flag Rock.