A Dutch fort town on the southern coast
Galle Fort was built by the Portuguese and greatly expanded by the Dutch in the seventeenth century, and today it is a UNESCO site of ramparts, churches, colonial villas and lanes full of cafés and boutiques. Walk the walls at sunset past the lighthouse. The south coast beyond is lined with beaches: Unawatuna and Mirissa for swimming and whale-watching, and Weligama for learning to surf. Stilt fishermen still perch on poles offshore near Koggala.