Jaffna

Jaffna is the cultural capital of Sri Lanka's Tamil community, and visiting it feels like discovering a different side of the island. The landscape is flat and dry, scattered with palmyra palms and colourful Hindu temples; the food is spicier and built around seafood; and the people are proud of a culture that survived decades of conflict. Since the civil war ended in 2009, the railway and A9 highway have reconnected Jaffna to the rest of the country, but it still sees only a fraction of the visitors who go south.

Things to do

• Nallur Kandaswamy Kovil — Jaffna's grandest Hindu temple. Visit during a puja; men must remove their shirts to enter.
• Jaffna Fort — a Portuguese fort rebuilt by the Dutch, with a star-shaped plan and views over the lagoon.
• Jaffna Public Library — burned in 1981 and rebuilt; a powerful symbol of the city's resilience.
• Island hopping — take ferries to Nainativu, sacred to both Buddhists and Hindus, and to remote Delft with its wild ponies.
• Point Pedro — the northernmost tip of Sri Lanka, plus the Manalkadu sand dunes nearby.
• Casuarina Beach — a long, shallow beach on Karainagar island.
• Keerimalai hot springs and the Naguleswaram temple on the north coast.

Food to try

Jaffna crab curry, spicy mutton curry, odiyal kool (a seafood soup thickened with palmyra flour), thosai and vadai for breakfast, and famous ice cream from local parlours.

When to visit

January to September. October to December brings the north-east monsoon rains. The 25-day Nallur festival takes place in August and September.

Getting there

• By train: the Yal Devi and Uttara Devi services link Colombo and Jaffna in about 6–7 hours.
• By road: the A9 highway from Anuradhapura takes about 4 hours; from Colombo it's 7–8 hours.
• By air: limited domestic flights to Jaffna's Palaly airport.