Where to stay in Sri Lanka: the best areas and hotels

Galle Fort is Sri Lanka's most beautiful town, and probably its most photographed. Inside the thick stone ramparts built by the Dutch, a grid of quiet lanes is lined with colonial villas, churches, galleries, cafés and some of the most characterful hotels in Asia. Walk the walls at sunset, when locals come out to play cricket and couples watch the sky turn orange over the lighthouse.

Amangalla occupies a magnificent 17th-century Dutch building inside the fort, all polished teak and slow ceiling fans. Just outside, Le Grand Galle is close to the cricket stadium, and Jetwing Lighthouse sits on the shore. Want a beach? Unawatuna, a few minutes down the coast, has a sheltered bay and the white Japanese Peace Pagoda on the headland.

This is the south coast at its most seductive. Mirissa is a palm-backed crescent of golden sand with a laid-back strip of seafood restaurants and beach bars, and boats leave its fishing harbour on whale-watching trips: blue whales and dolphins feed in the deep water offshore.

Next door, Weligama's wide, gentle bay is one of the best places in Asia to learn to surf, and the Weligama Bay Marriott sits right on it with three pools and a spa. Mirissa itself has smaller, more personal hotels, from Sharavi Beach Villas to the design-led Vis ta Vie and the boutique Mandara.

Hikkaduwa is one of the island's original beach resorts, and it still has the island's most sociable scene. A coral reef lies just offshore, protected as a national park, so snorkelling with turtles and tropical fish is a matter of wading in. Surfers ride the breaks further along, and in the evenings the beach bars fill up.

Hotels range from simple guesthouses to stylish newcomers. Riff Hikkaduwa is right on the beach, Hikka House pairs ocean views with reef snorkelling and whale-watching trips, and Haritha Villas offers a spa a few minutes from the sand. Galle Fort is about 18 km down the coast.

Bentota is the west coast's resort heartland, a long golden beach at the point where the Bentota River flows into the Indian Ocean. The river is perfect for boat safaris among mangroves and monitor lizards, and the lagoon is a hub for jet skis, windsurfing and banana boats.

This is the place for a proper resort holiday. Cinnamon Bentota Beach sits on the headland between river and sea; Taj Bentota has red-tiled colonial roofs and an infinity pool with a sunken bar; and NH Ceysands is reached by boat. Down the coast at Ahungalla, Heritance Ahungalla was Sri Lanka's first five-star beach resort, and RIU runs a 24-hour all-inclusive right on the sand.

Kandy was the last royal capital of Sri Lanka, and it remains the island's spiritual heart. The Temple of the Tooth, home to one of the most revered relics in the Buddhist world, sits on the shore of a placid lake in the middle of town, and the evening ceremonies, with drums and lotus flowers, are unforgettable.

Stay close to the lake and you can walk everywhere. Queens Hotel has been welcoming guests for 160 years and is a few minutes from the temple; Hotel Suisse is another grand colonial survivor. For space and views, the resorts in the hills outside town, like Aarunya and Earls Regency, swap convenience for valleys full of green.

At more than 1,800 metres, Nuwara Eliya is the highest town on the island, and the British planters who built it called it Little England. They weren't wrong. There are Tudor-style mansions, a golf course, a racecourse and a park, all surrounded by mountains carpeted in tea bushes, and the nights are cool enough for a fire.

Jetwing St Andrews is a beautiful old country house in town; The Golden Ridge and Goatfell are smart modern alternatives. Out in the estates near Horton Plains, Ceylon Tea Trails is all-inclusive and quietly legendary, with restored planters' bungalows. Ride the train through the hills if you can: it is one of the world's great rail journeys.

Sigiriya is the image everyone knows: a sheer slab of rock rising out of the jungle, crowned with the ruins of King Kassapa's 5th-century fortress-palace. It is the centrepiece of the Cultural Triangle, along with the painted Dambulla Cave Temple and the vast ruined capitals of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa, and safari parks where elephants gather in their dozens.

Hotels here are mostly resorts set in the scrub, with pools and views of the rock. Aliya and EKHO Sigiriya are close to Lion Rock and Pidurangala; Hotel Sigiriya claims the best view of all; and Seerock is a boutique option near Dambulla. Climb early, before the heat and the crowds.

Negombo is where most trips begin and end, and it is a far nicer place to spend a night than an airport hotel. The international airport is about 20 minutes away, and the town has a long golden beach, a lagoon full of outrigger canoes and a busy fish market.

Jetwing Blue and Jetwing Beach sit side by side on the sand; Sentido Heritance is within walking distance of the old fishing village; and Club Hotel Dolphin is built for families.

Colombo is loud, busy and changing fast, and it deserves a night or two. Stroll the seafront promenade of Galle Face Green at sunset, when families fly kites and street stalls fry up spicy snacks, then eat your way around some of the best restaurants on the island.

Most of the top hotels cluster around Galle Face and Beira Lake. Shangri-La sits between the two with ocean views and a shopping mall attached; ITC Ratnadipa and the Hilton are close by; and NH Collection has rooftop dining with city views.