Things to Do in Habarana

Within an hour

Nearby Attractions

Distances and drive times are measured from our gate. We can arrange a driver for any of these, usually at a day's notice.

UNESCO World Heritage

Sigiriya Rock Fortress

20 km · 30 min drive

A royal citadel built on top of a 200-metre column of rock, abandoned for centuries and swallowed by jungle until the nineteenth century. The most extraordinary thing you will climb in Sri Lanka, and half an hour from your room.

Wild elephants on the grassland at Minneriya

Wildlife

Minneriya National Park

12 km · 20 min drive

Every dry season, hundreds of wild elephants walk out of the surrounding forest onto the grassland left behind by a receding reservoir. It is the largest gathering of Asian elephants anywhere, and it happens twenty minutes away.

UNESCO World Heritage

Dambulla Cave Temple

25 km · 35 min drive

Five caves under an overhanging rock, filled with Buddha statues and painted from floor to ceiling. Continuously in use as a temple for more than two thousand years.

Wildlife

Kaudulla National Park

25 km · 30 min drive

Minneriya's quieter neighbour, sharing the same elephants and a fraction of the jeeps. Often the better call once the Gathering has moved on.

UNESCO World Heritage

Polonnaruwa Ancient City

35 km · 45 min drive

The island's medieval capital: palaces, temples and four colossal Buddhas cut from a single wall of granite, spread across a park you can cycle around in a morning.

Viewpoint

Pidurangala Rock

18 km · 25 min drive

The rock next door to Sigiriya, and the only place you can stand and look at Sigiriya itself. A rougher, cheaper, emptier climb — and the best sunrise in the region.

Wildlife

Hurulu Eco Park

10 km · 20 min drive

The closest park to us, and where the elephants go when the tanks at Minneriya and Kaudulla have dried back. Dry-zone forest rather than open grassland.

Nature

Habarana Lake

2 km · 5 min drive

The village tank, five minutes down the road. Herons, cormorants and fish eagles at dawn, an outstanding sunset, and — on a good evening — elephants coming down to drink.

Ruins & Forest

Ritigala Forest Monastery

22 km · 40 min drive

The ruins of an ascetic monastery on a forested mountain, reached on a stone path through the trees. The quietest and strangest of the ancient sites, and almost nobody goes.

UNESCO World Heritage

Anuradhapura

60 km · 75 min drive

The island's first great capital, and a place of pilgrimage for well over two thousand years. Colossal brick stupas, monastery cities, and the oldest planted tree on earth with a recorded planting date.

Nature

Kantale Tank

45 km · 60 min drive

A seventh-century reservoir on the road to the east coast, big enough to lose the far shore in haze. A good stop on the way to Trincomalee rather than a destination in itself.

Coast

Trincomalee

90 km · 120 min drive

The east coast: one of the finest natural harbours in the world, a clifftop temple above it, and white-sand beaches with reef a short boat ride offshore.