Galle Fort

Built by the Portuguese and massively rebuilt by the Dutch in the seventeenth century, Galle Fort is the largest remaining European-built fortress in Asia and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. What makes it special is that it is still lived in — behind the ramparts is a working neighbourhood of coral-stone villas, mosques, churches and warehouses.

The pleasure of Galle is simply walking it: shaded lanes of colonial townhouses now holding galleries, jewellers and cafés, and a rampart circuit that catches the sea breeze and, at the western bastions, one of the finest sunsets in the country.