Top 5 Reasons To Visit Sri Lanka - Once You've Fallen in Love, There's No Going Back!

Sun kissed beaches, warm waters and spectacular marine life, make Sri Lanka one of the best beach destinations in the world! There are a handful of beaches to choose here but it all depends on what you want to do. Say you're quite the surfer, then you should head over to the east coast of the island to the beautiful Arugam Bay of which the waves offer the best of surfing conditions. If you're here with the family to just chill and bond, settle down at one of the beach hotels in Sri Lanka like the ones by Earls Hotels; and experience a most relaxing getaway. If you're a nature lover, head over to the beaches of Hikkaduwa and Mirissa in the southern coast and Pasikudah in the East. While Hikkaduwa and Pasikudah are great for snorkelling due to the gorgeous coral reefs; Mirissa is world famous as a whale watching destination.

Sri Lankan food is a perfect representation of the country as its bold, vibrant, diverse and at times, quite surprising! Wherever you travel across Sri Lanka, you will always get to sample rice and curry, which many Sri Lanka cannot do without eating even just for a day. Rice and curry is a dish that features boiled rice served with a few curries made using vegetables, meat or fish. One of the most popular of curries is the dhal and the chicken curries.
In addition to rice and curry, make sure to try out hoppers, string hoppers, milk rice and koththu- the queen of Sri Lankan street food! And if you have quite the sweet tooth, have some delicious watalappam, chocolate biscuit pudding or some kevili. The latter are range of sweet meats that are prepared for special occasions like the New Year, but available the year round at some bakeries. Some of these include kavum, athirasa, aasmi, pani walalu and the best of all (according to many)- kokis!

Sri Lanka is among the top 5 generous countries in the world and this generosity is very much extended to foreign tourists. If you visit a Sri Lankan home it's very rare that you will leave the house without being invited to have a cup of Ceylon tea or even lunch or dinner. In Sri Lanka, almost everyone is an uncle/ aunty or brother/ sister; so don't be surprised if you get called an uncle or aunty by a little child!

For a tiny island nation Sri Lanka sure does have a most illustrious past- a history spanning over 2500 years to be exact! During these many years, great kings have ruled, foreign invasions and brutal wars were raged and the colonization by the Portuguese, Dutch and the British took place consecutively. The result of all these historical events is that the country is blessed with an impressive range of heritage sites. Seven of these have been declared as UNESCO World Heritage sites and these are the ancient kingdoms of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa; Sigiriya,the Dambulla Cave temple, Dambulla City, Kandy and Galle. So while you're holidaying here do make it a point to visit these destinations and see some of the marvels that are these such as the magnificent Sigiriya Rock Fortress, the Temple of the Tooth, the Galle Dutch Fort and the gigantic Ruwanweli Maha Seya, to name a few.

The biodiversity of the country is simply amazing. Sri Lanka has a myriad of wildlife attractions and a few of them include Wilpattu, Yala, Minneriya, Udawalawa, Kumana and the Horton Plains reserves. The Yala wildlife sanctuary situated in the southern coast for example is renowned across the world for having one of the largest densities of leopards in the world. Then there's the Minneriya National Park where herds of about 300 elephant congregate to create the famous Minneriya Elephant Gathering.