Top 10 Things to Do in Colombo | One Good Day in the Capital

Start with the honest version

Colombo is a good day. It is not a good three days, and nearly every itinerary we see gives it three.

Sri Lanka is a small island with a lot in it: a rock fortress, a Cultural Triangle, tea country, two coasts, leopards and whales. Every day you spend in the capital is a day you did not spend on those. So the recommendation, and our hotels page argues this at length, is to put Colombo at the end of the trip, when you have earned a good dinner and a hotel bar, rather than at the start when you arrive at 3am and drive an hour in the wrong direction.

With that said: one day here is genuinely worth having, and here is how to fill it.

1. A rice and curry, properly

If you do one thing in Colombo, eat this.

Not a curry. A table of them: rice in the middle, then five to fifteen small dishes around it, mostly vegetables, each cooked differently. Dhal, jackfruit, beetroot, a fierce sambol, a fried fish, a papadum crushed over everything. You mix with your hand.

It is the national meal, it is nothing like the Indian food most Australians expect, and it costs almost nothing at the right place. This is the thing you will still be thinking about in a year.

2. A guided food walk

Which is why this is second. Sri Lankan food is not well understood outside Sri Lanka, and a couple of hours with someone who can explain what you are eating changes the entire rest of your trip.

Short eats, kottu being chopped on a hot plate with a rhythm you can hear down the street, hoppers, string hoppers, and the difference between a good sambol and a great one. Do it early in your Colombo day. Compare Colombo food tours on Viator.

3. Galle Face Green at sunset

A long stretch of grass along the ocean where the entire city comes in the evening: kite sellers, isso wade stalls frying prawn fritters, families, couples, cricket.

It is free, it is genuinely lovely, and it is the most Colombo hour available. Buy something fried from a cart and sit on the wall.

4. The Fort district on foot

The old colonial-era quarter, and it has changed enormously. Dutch and British buildings that were falling down are being restored, the old Dutch Hospital is now a rather good courtyard of restaurants and shops, and the whole area is walkable in a morning.

It is not Galle, which is the real thing. But it is a genuine port district with four centuries of layers and it rewards an unhurried walk. Our Colombo travel guide covers the detail.

5. Pettah market

The dense, loud wholesale district behind Fort: fabric, produce, electronics, spices, and streets that specialise so completely that one is entirely bags and the next is entirely lightbulbs.

An hour, no plan, and hold onto your bag. It is chaotic in the good way.

6. Gangaramaya Temple

An unusual, cheerfully cluttered Buddhist temple that has accumulated everything: a museum's worth of donated objects, vintage cars, a bodhi tree, gilt Buddhas, and a slightly overwhelming quantity of stuff.

It is twenty minutes, it is not solemn, and it is more interesting than a tidier temple would be. Find Colombo tickets on Klook.

7. The Colombo National Museum

The island's history in one building, and the Kandyan regalia are the reason to go. It is a colonial-era building doing an honest job, it is air-conditioned, and it is a good use of the hottest part of the day.

8. Independence Square and the Arcade

The memorial hall and the surrounding park make a pleasant early-evening walk, and the restored colonial building at Independence Arcade nearby has become a decent place to sit with a coffee.

This is Colombo's genteel corner. It is not exciting and it is not trying to be.

9. A tuk-tuk ride you agreed the price for first

Half a joke, half genuine advice.

Colombo's tuk-tuks are the way to move around and the metre conversation is the most tedious part of the city. Agree the fare or insist on the metre before you get in, and the whole experience becomes fun rather than annoying.

10. Galle, and give it a night

Two hours south on the expressway, and the best thing within reach of Colombo by a distance.

The Dutch fort is a walled seaside town of ramparts, churches, a lighthouse and streets of restored merchant houses, and it is one of the loveliest places on the island. It is a long day trip and an excellent overnight, and travellers who stay always say the evening, after the day visitors leave, was the point.

If you are already heading down the south coast, Galle is on your way and this is not a day trip at all. It is a stop. See Galle trips on Viator.

The one day, structured

Morning: the Fort district on foot, then Pettah when you have had enough of architecture. Gangaramaya on the way back.

Middle of the day: a rice and curry, then the National Museum while it is too hot to be outside.

Late afternoon: Independence Square, or shopping if that is your thing.

Evening: Galle Face Green at sunset, isso wade from a cart, then dinner somewhere the city has got excited about recently.

That is Colombo. One good day, and you have had the best of it.

What we tell clients to skip

The three-day Colombo itinerary, which is the polite way of saying you have lost two days from the rest of Sri Lanka.

The generic city tour, which drives you past things you could have walked to.

And the day trip to Galle squeezed into an afternoon, which gives you four hours of the fort and four hours of expressway, when a single night would have given you the evening, which is the part worth having.

Booking notes

Prices shown by our partners are live and in your choice of currency, most activities confirm instantly, and free cancellation windows are stated on each listing. Almost nothing in Colombo needs advance booking; the food walk is the exception and it is the one thing worth arranging.

Sri Lanka is reached from Australia with at least one stop, and which hub you use determines what hour you land, which as our flights to Sri Lanka page explains, decides rather a lot about your first day. Get your free Sri Lanka fare quote.