Kandy

Kandy was the last independent kingdom on the island and it still carries itself like a capital. The city curls around a man-made lake at five hundred metres, high enough that the air is noticeably cooler than the coast, and its centre is the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic — one of Buddhism's most venerated sites, where drummers announce the puja three times a day.

Beyond the temple you will find the Royal Botanical Gardens at Peradeniya, a working market that has not changed much in a century, and viewpoints that catch the whole valley at dusk. Most travellers use Kandy as the pivot between the cultural triangle to the north and the tea country to the south.