Sri Lanka

Few places have as many Unesco World Heritage Sites (eight) packed into such a small area. Sri Lanka’s 2000-plus years of culture can be discovered at ancient sites where legendary temples boast beautiful details even as they shelter in caves or perch on prominent peaks. More recent are evocative colonial fortresses, from Galle to Trincomalee.Across the island, that thing that goes bump in the night might be an elephant heading to a favourite waterhole. Safari tours of Sri Lanka’s pleasantly relaxed national parks encounter leopards, water buffaloes, all manner of birds and a passel of primates.

Bentota River Safari

A popular outing for guests staying on the west coast of Sri Lanka is to take a cruise by boat, with an outboard motor, along one of the many broad rivers that flow into the Indian Ocean. The river at Bentota is near several mainstream hotels and has a lagoon at its mouth where local instructors teach tourist daredevils on jet skis how to send up showers of spray to startle more sedate river sightseers.

These jet-ski exhibitionists usually keep to the seaside of the three bridges that cross the river at Bentota, leaving the rest of the river inland for small safari boats.