Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka packs a continent's worth of experiences into an island the size of a mango. In a single day, you can explore a 2,000-year-old Buddhist temple, ride a train through tea plantations that look like green velvet draped over mountains, spot a leopard in one of Asia's densest wildlife habitats, and end with sunset on a beach where sea turtles nest under a sky streaked with coral pink. The cultural triangle in the north-central plains holds ruins that rival anything in Southeast Asia. Sigiriya -- a fortress built atop a 200-meter granite rock -- is the kind of place that makes you question how ancient civilizations achieved things modern engineers would struggle with. Nearby, Polonnaruwa's stone Buddhas have been meditating for 900 years, and Dambulla's cave temples hold the largest collection of Buddhist paintings in the world. The hill country is where Sri Lanka reveals its colonial-era charm. Ella, a mountain town so small it has one main street, offers views from the gap between two peaks that stretch all the way to the coast on clear days. The train from Kandy to Ella is consistently rated among the world's most beautiful railway journeys -- nine hours of tea plantations, waterfalls, and locals leaning out of open doors with the confidence of people who've done this commute a thousand times. The coast wraps the island in a necklace of beaches -- surfing in Arugam Bay, whales in Mirissa, Dutch forts in Galle, and stilt fishermen in Koggala who balance on poles above the surf in a tradition that photographs better than it works for actually catching fish.