My visit to Sri Lanka – a jewel-shaped country in the Indian Ocean exceeded my expectations in every way. It was a trip of a lifetime and a place I would recommend everyone visiting. Every trip to Sri Lanka starts with flying into Colombo International Airport. From there, we booked a taxi via the PickMe app (their equivalence of Uber) to take us our hotel. The airport is 45 minutes drive from the city so we ended up sharing the taxi with another traveller as their hotel was right next to ours. It costed £10 for the entire trip.

As we arrived quite late at night, we only wanted to stay 1 night and spend half a day in Colombo before moving onto the next city – Galle. Our train was at 4pm so we only had 6 hours to explore Colombo. To be honest, I think it was plenty of time and contrary to popular opinion, I probably wouldn’t recommend staying any longer as there are plenty of other amazing cities and towns to explore.

The most popular location to stay in Colombo is along the seafront at Galle Face. We decided to stay in CityRest Fort Hotel, a basic budget style hotel but in a great location – its a few minutes away from Fort train station which is useful for our transportation out of the city.

The next morning, we had something light to eat for breakfast (we had KFC – but don’t judge, it was Christmas and nothing was open!), and then a tuk-tuk driver drove past us and offered to take us around the main sights of Colombo in 1.5 hours for 1500 LKR which is around £3.60. Without thinking too much, we jumped in and asked if he could first take us somewhere to buy a sim card. We both bought a Dialog Sicard for 2000 LKR (£4.80) which gave us 15 GB and then started the tour.  Here are the main sights he showed us:

Sri Kailawasanathan temple

The first stop he took us to was to Colombo’s oldest Hindu temple called Sri Kailawasanthan Temple. It was a feast of colours. Just look at the intricate design of the entrance tower! It’s free to enter, but they expect a small donation.

Town Hall

We then drove past the beautiful town hall, a remnant of Sri Lanka’s colonial history is the city’s town hall as well as the major’s office. Architecture lovers will appreciate the Corinthian-style columns and domed roofs dating back nearly a century. Interestingly, the building is modelled after St Paul’s in London.

Viharamahadevi Park

Opposite the town hall was Viharamahadevi Park, also known as the Cinnamon Gardens – it’s Colombo’s largest green space and is a great place to walk around. There is also a huge Buddha statue near the entrance.

Dawatagaha Jumma Masjid

We then did a quite pit stop to Dawatagaha Jumma Mosque, but compared to other ones I’ve seen, this wasn’t as grande and it lacked domes/minarets. It was still nice to visit.

Gangaramaya Temple, and Beira Lake and Seema Malakaya

Just around the corner was Beira Lake and next to was Gangaramaya Temple, Colombo’s most famous Buddhist temple. We didn’t go inside and so just took some photos from the outside. It was really relaxing and a nice break from the chaos of the city.

Visit Red Mosque

I was most excited about visiting this beautiful and unique-looking mosque above everything in Colombo. I had come across an image of it from Instagram and made sure that in the short amount of time we had in Colombo, this was the top of the priority list to see… and it did not disappoint. It was like no building and mosque I had ever seen. It was squeezed in both sides from some uninteresting buildings where it stood tall and skinny. It was covered in a perfect red and white candy stripe.

Pettah Market

We were then dropped off at Pettah Market and this was when I felt like I was in ‘real’ Sri Lanka. This is oldest district in Colombo and so had a hectic atmosphere. Even though we were getting aggy from the heat and hunger, we still enjoyed getting lost (quite literally) in the winding streets of Pettah.

The Colombo Lotus Tower

This relatively new addition to the Colombo skyline is not to be missed. It is the tallest self-supported structure in South Asia and inspired by the iconic lotus flower which is often associated with Buddhism. There is also an observation deck in the tower if you’re looking for views of the city from above, but we didn’t have time to do this.

Go to Galle Face Green Promenade

We then took a tuk-tuk to the Galle Face Green Promenade, our final stop before going to the train station. It was really nice just walking along here, people watching and stopping for some street food. People usually come here for sunset and apparently it’s a vibe.

Sufficiently refreshed, I headed back out in search of Galle Face Green. It was only a 20-minute walk from the hotel and I did this as briskly as possible without looking like a weirdo. I got there just in time to watch the sun dip behind the clouds for what turned out to be a magnificent sunset.