Things to do in Colombo

Landmark · Colpetty seafront

A half-kilometre strip of lawn along the Indian Ocean where the whole city comes at sunset.

Local tip: Go on a Sunday evening for the kite sellers and isso wade (prawn fritters) carts. It is the most democratic space in Colombo and the best free thing to do in the city.

Neighborhood · North of Fort

The dense wholesale bazaar district — street after street each dedicated to a single trade.

Local tip: Go early morning before the heat and crowds. The Red Mosque on Second Cross Street is extraordinary, and Pettah is where you actually buy things rather than shop.

Culture · Beira Lake

A working Buddhist temple crammed with donated objects, plus a serene Geoffrey Bawa-designed pavilion floating on the lake.

Local tip: Seema Malaka next door is the quieter and more beautiful half, and most visitors miss it. Bawa is Sri Lanka's great architect and this is his most accessible work.

Food · Colombo Fort

A 17th-century colonial building turned into the city's best-known restaurant and bar courtyard.

Local tip: Convenient rather than authentic, but genuinely pleasant. Walk the surrounding Fort streets for the colonial banking architecture, which few visitors bother with.

Culture · 2 hours south by expressway

A Portuguese and Dutch walled town on a promontory, and the best-preserved colonial fortification in South Asia.

Local tip: The Southern Expressway makes this a genuine day trip. Stay for sunset on the ramparts after the coach parties leave — that is when it becomes remarkable.

Nature · Thalawathugoda

Boardwalks through a restored urban marsh with monitor lizards, kingfishers and the occasional crocodile, inside the city.

Local tip: Almost no foreigners know Colombo is an internationally designated Wetland City. Go at dawn, take binoculars, and you will have a genuine wilderness twenty minutes from the centre to yourself.