Sri Lanka’s cultural capital, home to the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, the island’s most venerated Buddhist shrine and the sprawling Royal Botanical Gardens at Peradeniya nearby. The evening puja ceremony, when the inner shrine opens to candlelight and temple drums, is genuinely atmospheric and worth timing a visit around wherever possible. Kandy Lake and its surrounding colonial-era streets give the city a walkable, unhurried centre that rewards an afternoon spent without a fixed itinerary. Every one of our nine tours passes through Kandy, usually for at least one full day of cultural immersion.