SRI LANKA GROUP TRIP.

We are up before the sun for the trip's headline act: a sunrise climb up Sigiriya, the fifth-century sky fortress a king built on top of a sheer 200-metre rock.

We wind up past the mirror wall and the painted frescoes to the palace ruins at the very summit, beating both the heat and the tour-bus crowds to the top.

Back at ground level we flip the pace completely, swapping the climb for a village safari: a bullock-cart and catamaran loop through the paddy fields, capped with a home-cooked Sri Lankan lunch. The rest of the afternoon is yours by the pool. You have earned it.

Before we leave the cultural triangle, we spend the morning inside the Dambulla Golden Cave Temple: five caves crowded with giant Buddhas and ceiling murals painted straight onto the rock two thousand years ago.

Then we point the coach south and start climbing into tea country, the air cooling and the hills turning an impossible green, with a quick photo stop at Ravana Falls along the way.

We pull into Ella by evening, a laid-back hill town built for slow mornings, big views and very good coffee.

Ella is exactly our kind of town, so we give it a whole day. We start gently with a sunrise walk up Little Adam's Peak, an easy half-hour climb that opens onto the huge sweep of the Ella Gap.

Next we time our arrival at the Nine Arch Bridge to catch the bright blue train curling across the century-old viaduct, the most photographed two minutes in the country.

After lunch, you fly. The Flying Ravana mega-zipline sends you 500 metres of dual line screaming straight over the tea fields. We cool off under Ravana Falls, then close the day with a sundowner at the Ravana Pool Club and a slow wander through Ella's cafe-and-bar lanes.

Today we go wild. We set out on a proper jeep safari through Sri Lanka's best wildlife country, scanning the scrub for leopards, wild elephants, buffalo and crocodiles.

To give you the best shot at big sightings, our local team chooses the park on the day, Yala, Yala Block 5 or Udawalawe, based on where the animals are actually moving and which gates are open.

Safari done, we drive down to the coast and roll into Mirissa just in time for sunset.

A free day to play on the south coast. We head out early on a whale-watching boat when the season is right (it runs with the weather and the season, so it is a hopeful highlight, never a promise).

Back on shore we snorkel with turtles in the shallows, then surrender to the Mirissa beach-club afternoon: cold drink, warm sand, absolutely nowhere to be.

We take a short day trip down the coast to Hiriketiya, a perfect little horseshoe bay that has quietly become the island's coolest surf-and-cafe corner.

Catch a beginner wave, hop between the boutique cafes, then drift back to Mirissa for one last night by the sea.

A short hop up the coast brings us to Galle and its 400-year-old UNESCO fort, a walled old town of cobbled lanes, indie boutiques and a clifftop lighthouse.

We spend the day happily getting lost in it, then walk the sea ramparts as the sun drops into the Indian Ocean.

One last island breakfast, then the coastal transfer back to Colombo and the flight home.

You leave tanned, well fed and already plotting the next one. Ayubowan, Sri Lanka.