Galle Fort, Kosgoda Turtles and Madu River Shore Excursion from Colombo

This is the standard shore excursion for anyone with a single day in port at Colombo, and it works equally well from a city hotel. A private car meets you at the terminal and heads south, roughly two hours to the first stop, so the day starts early and finishes late.

Kosgoda comes first. The sea turtle hatchery here works with eggs bought back from the beach and reburied in protected sand, and the walk through the tanks takes about three quarters of an hour. Green turtles and olive ridleys are the common residents; the older animals in the pools are usually those too injured to be released. It is a small operation and the honest version of what it does is more interesting than the brochure one.

A short drive on brings you to the Madu Ganga at Balapitiya for a two-hour boat safari. The lagoon holds dozens of islands, some inhabited by a single family, others by a temple or a cinnamon plot, and the boat spends much of the time in mangrove channels narrow enough to touch both banks. Monitor lizards, kingfishers and macaques are the usual company.

Galle Fort is the afternoon. The Portuguese founded it, the Dutch rebuilt it in coral and granite in the seventeenth century, and the British left the lighthouse and the clocktower; the whole promontory is a UNESCO site and still a lived-in neighbourhood rather than a museum. An hour is enough for the ramparts, the lighthouse end and a walk down Pedlar Street, and if you time it late the sunset from the western wall is the reason people linger.

Expect twelve hours in total with around four and a half of them in the car. The southern expressway takes the sting out of the return leg, but this is a long day and there is no way to shorten it and still reach Galle.