West Coast

The Colombo region and the West Coast are the gateway to Sri Lanka for 95 % of international travellers, as this is where the Bandaranaike (CMB) international airport is located at Katunayake, 30 km north of the capital. But the region deserves much more than a simple transit: Colombo, the economic and cultural capital with 800,000 inhabitants (5 million with its suburbs), is one of the most dynamic Asian metropolises in full transformation. The skyline of the Fort district transforms every year with the appearance of skyscrapers, the Cinnamon Gardens district preserves its whitewashed colonial villas, and the Galle Face Green boulevard unfolds 500 metres of seaside esplanade where, every evening, tens of thousands of inhabitants come to cool off around street food stalls.

To the north, Negombo (7 km from the airport) is traditionally the preferred transit place on arrival or departure: a Catholic coastal town with Portuguese colonial churches, famous for its 35 km² lagoon populated by fishermen in outrigger canoes (oruwas), and for its Dutch canal of 120 km dug in the 17th century to transport spices to Colombo. The morning fish markets of Negombo, where the night's catches arrive in a millennial choreography, are one of the most beautiful sensory introductions to Sri Lanka.

South of Colombo, the West Coast stretches in beach resorts: Mount Lavinia (15 min from the capital, vintage atmosphere), Kalutara (giant Buddhist temple), Wadduwa (family resorts and palm groves), and especially Bentota, the south-west beach capital with its famous Bentota Ganga estuary, its lagoons, its luxury lodges (Heritance Ahungalla, The Wallawwa) and the restored estate of the great Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa at Lunuganga. Beyond officially begins the South Coast (towards Galle), but Bentota already belongs to the tropical pre-paradise of Sri Lanka.