Sri Lanka

Från och med den 1 augusti erbjuds svenskar, och resenärer från 47 andra länder, gratis turistvisum till Sri Lanka. Anledningen är att landet vill ha tillbaka turismen efter bombattackerna i påskas.

Negombo is a modest beach town located just 10km from Bandaranaike International Airport. With a stash of decent hotels and restaurants to suit all pockets, a friendly local community, an interesting old quarter and a reasonable (though somewhat polluted) beach, Negombo is a much easier place to find your Sri Lankan feet than Colombo.

Vagabonds guide till Sri Lanka. Här tipsar vi bra hotell, om hur du bäst reser runt, när det är bäst tid att åka och vad du inte får missa i matväg.

Weligama (meaning ‘Sandy Village’) is an interesting blend of lively fishing town and beach resort. The sprawling main settlement and coastal road is somewhat scruffy and not that easy on the eye, but you'll find the sandy beach is attractive once you're away from the main section; there's a couple of cove beaches west of the centre. At the east end of the beach, there's an enormous new concrete Marriott hotel, which towers over the surrounding buildings and looks completely out of place.

Trincomalee (Trinco) sits on one of the world’s finest natural harbors. This historic city is old almost beyond reckoning: it’s possibly the site of historic Gokana in the Mahavamsa (Great Chronicle), and its Shiva temple the site of Trikuta Hill in the Hindu text Vayu Purana. It makes a great stop over on the way to the nearby beaches of Uppuveli and Nilaveli.

Berg med gröna teplantage och sköna vandringar. Stränder med vit sand och slingrande kokospalmer och kolonialstäder med historisk atmosfär. Vagabonds Per J Andersson har rest till ett otal gånger sedan tidigt åttiotal. Här är hans bästa tips.

Often referred to as ‘Little England’, this genteel highland community does have a rose-tinted, vaguely British-country-village feel to it, with its colonial-era bungalows, Tudor-style hotels, well-tended hedgerows and pretty gardens. Indeed, Nuwara Eliya was once was the favored cool-climate escape for the hard-working and hard-drinking English and Scottish pioneers of Sri Lanka’s tea industry.

Matara is a busy, booming and sprawling commercial town that owes almost nothing to tourism – which can make it a fascinating window on modern Sri Lankan life. Matara’s main attractions are its ramparts, Dutch architecture, a well-preserved fort and its street life.

Crack open a coconut, slip into a hammock and rock gently in the breeze, allowing the hours, days and even weeks to slip calmly by. Welcome to Mirissa, a stunning crescent beach. Modest guesthouses abound and there's a string of simple restaurants at the back of the sand.

I nio månader har Sri Lanka varit stängt för utländska turister på grund av pandemin. Men nu öppnar landet åter för besökare. Från och med. 21 januari gläntar man på dörren och öppnar för besök på den tropiska ön i Indiska oceanen.