Two weeks, the complete island loop

With two full weeks ahead, there's every reason to start gently. Bandaranaike International Airport (CMB) sits just south of Negombo, a laid-back fishing town with a long beach, so this first night is about landing softly and letting the time zones settle. Check in, swap travel clothes for shorts, and feel the warm air.

If you arrive early, wander Negombo's lively fish market, take a boat along the Dutch-built lagoon canals, or visit the old churches that earned the town its "Little Rome" nickname. Mostly, though, today is for a sea breeze and an early night before the journey proper begins.

Drive into the heart of the island and the Cultural Triangle, the cradle of Sri Lankan civilisation. Start at Anuradhapura, the island's first great capital and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, where colossal brick dagobas rise from a vast monastic city and the sacred Sri Maha Bodhi - grown from a cutting of the Buddha's own Bodhi tree - is one of the oldest planted trees on earth. Explore it by bike or tuk-tuk. Wildlife lovers can detour to nearby Wilpattu, Sri Lanka's largest national park, famous for leopards and its lily-covered villus.

In the afternoon, make your way toward Sigiriya via the Dambulla Cave Temple - five rock sanctuaries holding more than 150 Buddha statues beneath two-thousand-year-old murals. Settle into your base near Sigiriya for two nights, ready to climb Lion Rock at sunrise.

Beat the heat and the crowds with a dawn climb of Sigiriya Lion Rock, the UNESCO-listed fortress locals call the eighth wonder of the world. In the 5th century King Kasyapa built a palace on its 200-metre summit, reached through water gardens, past a gallery of ancient frescoes, and up a staircase that once rose between the paws of a giant brick lion. It's around 1,200 steps and the view over endless jungle is unforgettable. On a budget - or to photograph Sigiriya itself - climb neighbouring Pidurangala Rock instead; with two weeks you can easily do both.

In the afternoon, cycle the superbly preserved ruins of Polonnaruwa, the island's medieval capital and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, ending at the serene rock-carved Buddhas of the Gal Vihara. Wildlife lovers can swap it for an afternoon jeep safari into Minneriya or Kaudulla, where hundreds of wild elephants gather around the reservoir in the dry months.

Two weeks gives you room to reach a coast most short trips skip. It's an easy drive (around 2.5 hours) from Sigiriya to Trincomalee on the east coast, where the famously wide, white beaches of Nilaveli and Uppuveli stretch beside an unusually calm, clear sea. After the heat and history of the Cultural Triangle, this is where you exhale.

Check in near the beach for two nights, then do very little: swim, read, and watch the fishing boats. If you've energy, visit the clifftop Koneswaram Hindu temple above the old harbour, or the colonial Fort Frederick where spotted deer wander the ramparts.

Spend a full, unhurried day on the east coast. Just offshore, Pigeon Island National Park is a tiny coral island ringed by some of Sri Lanka's healthiest reef - snorkel straight off the sand among reef fish, blacktip reef sharks and sea turtles (a short boat hop from Nilaveli). Back on the mainland, the aptly named Marble Beach is a serene, sheltered stretch of pale sand and turquoise water.

In the right season (around May–August) Trincomalee is also a launch point for whale and dolphin watching, with blue and sperm whales offshore. Otherwise, this is simply a day to slow down - the longest, laziest beach stretch before the hills.

Leave the coast and drive inland to Kandy (around 4 hours), trading sea breeze for cool, forested hills. The last capital of the Sinhalese kings and the island's cultural capital, Kandy sits around a lake and is home to the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic (Sri Dalada Maligawa), which enshrines a tooth of the Buddha and is one of Buddhism's most revered sites.

Time your visit for an evening puja ceremony, when drummers play and white-clad pilgrims file past with lotus blossoms, then walk the lakeside as the lights come on. With a relaxed schedule you can also fit the lovely Peradeniya Royal Botanical Gardens or a colourful Kandyan dance-and-fire show.

Climb from Kandy into Sri Lanka's hill country (around 3 hours), the landscape shifting from forest to endless contoured tea. Pause at Ramboda Falls and a working tea factory - Mackwoods, Pedro or Blue Field are classics - to watch Ceylon tea being plucked, withered, rolled and graded, then taste it at the source.

Nuwara Eliya, "Little England," sits above 1,800 metres in a bowl of green hills. Spend the afternoon on its half-Victorian charm - the half-timbered post office, the racecourse, the lake at Gregory and the cool, fragrant air that feels worlds away from the coast. Pack a layer; evenings here are genuinely chilly.

Today the journey is the destination. The hill-country train to Ella is rightly famous - blue carriages threading through emerald tea fields and misty ridges, doors thrown open to the breeze, vendors selling tea and snacks down the aisle. The stretch from Nuwara Eliya's Nanu Oya station down to Ella is the prettiest of the whole line.

It's a slow, joyful three hours or so. Sit by an open door (carefully), watch the right-hand side for the best views, and let the highlands roll past. You'll arrive in Ella by late afternoon with time for a café with a valley view.

Ella tempts you to slow right down - lazy café mornings, big green views and short, rewarding walks. Start before dawn with the gentle 45-minute climb up Little Adam's Peak for sunrise over the tea valleys. Mid-morning, walk out to the Nine Arch Bridge, a graceful colonial-era viaduct deep in the jungle - time it for a passing train and the photo is yours.

Cool off at Ravana Falls, browse the tea-town shops and tuck into hoppers and fresh juice in a café. If your legs are willing, the longer Ella Rock hike rewards with the day's biggest views. With two nights here you never have to rush.

Drop from the hills to the dry southern plains for one of Sri Lanka's great thrills: a jeep safari. Yala National Park has one of the highest leopard densities in the world, along with elephants, sloth bears, crocodiles and spectacular birdlife. Udawalawe, closer to the hills and far quieter, is the surest place in the country to see large herds of wild elephants up close. Base near Tissamaharama for an early start.

With two weeks, you can take a full morning game drive at a relaxed pace and still have the afternoon to rest, visit the Tissa lake and its birds, or begin easing toward the coast. Tomorrow, the beaches.

Reach the south coast at Tangalle, the quietest and most beautiful stretch of beach on this loop - a string of wide, golden bays backed by palms, with far fewer crowds than the resorts further west. Coves like Goyambokka are postcard-perfect, and the laid-back surf-and-yoga bay of Hiriketiya is a short hop east.

This is pure beach time. Swim, nap in the shade, eat grilled fish at a beach shack, and - in season - keep an eye out for nesting sea turtles, which come ashore on several south-coast beaches. After a fortnight of early starts, a slow day here is well earned.

Move along the coast to Mirissa, the south's liveliest beach town. In season (roughly November–April) start at dawn with a whale-watching boat, where the seabed plunges deep just offshore and blue whales - the largest animals that have ever lived - pass close to land, alongside spinner dolphins that ride the bow on most trips.

Spend the rest of the day in beach mode: laze on Mirissa's golden bay, climb the red-clay headland of Coconut Tree Hill, find quieter Secret Beach, or take a first surf lesson on the gentle rollers at nearby Weligama. For a full guide to this stretch, see our 3-day South-Coast Escape.

Slide west to Unawatuna, whose crescent bay is sheltered by a reef - one of the few south-coast beaches calm enough to swim comfortably almost year-round, with snorkelling straight off the sand. Snorkel the reef, find the hidden cove of Jungle Beach, and climb Rumassala hill to the white Japanese Peace Pagoda for a sweeping view over Galle Bay.

Save the evening for Galle Fort, a 17th-century Dutch-built walled town and UNESCO World Heritage Site that's still a living maze of cobbled lanes, boutiques and cafés ringed by a kilometre of sea walls. Walk the ramparts past the lighthouse at golden hour, then linger over dinner in a fort courtyard - the loveliest evening of the trip.

End where the island is prettiest. Spend a slow last morning in Galle Fort - a final wander of the ramparts and lanes, a visit to the Dutch Reformed Church or the Maritime Museum, and some last shopping for Ceylon tea, spices and gems. Have an unhurried courtyard lunch and, if your flight allows, one more swim at Unawatuna.

From Galle, the Southern Expressway whisks you back to Colombo and the airport in around two and a half to three hours. Time your departure with a buffer, and end the trip the way it began - relaxed, with two full weeks of the island behind you and not a wasted day.