Galle has long been a stopover for foreign travellers; Sinbad the sailor, the chinese admiral Cheng Ho, Marco Polo, the Portuguese admiral Lorenzo de Almeida, the Dutch VOC company and even the first package tours in 1842 with the arrival of the first P&O passenger ship.
All have echoed Marco Polo's sentiment that "it is better than any other island in the world" and whilst Galle may have had its heyday, Sri Lanka has now become the new Riviera of subcontinent the perfect time warp for the inquisitive traveller.
Located 119km south of Colombo, Galle is the capital of the Southern Province and is the fourth largest city in Sri Lanka (after Colombo, Kandy & Jaffna) with a population of some 92,000.
In 1988 its historic fort was nominated as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
It is an ideal springboard to visit the beaches, the temples, the wildlife reserves, the lowland tea estates, the rain forests and the local and chaotic markets and villages of the Southern Province.
Just some of the things to do in and around Galle:
- Walking tour of the historic Galle Fort
- Travel back in time in our beautiful vintage Rover around the Fort
- Visit key temples & churches
- Shopping in & around Galle
- Snorkeling at Wijaya Beach coral reef – Thalpe
- Scuba diving - Unuwatuna
- Deep-sea fishing
- River cruises
- Mountain bike riding with guide.
- Surfing & boogie boarding on nearby beaches
- Visit Lunuganga, the country estate of Geoffrey Bawa. Open for cream teas, lunches & dinners. (www.lunuganga.net)
- Visit a lowland tea estate
- Water-skiing, windsurfing & other water sports – Bentota
- Sinharaja Rainforest
- Day safari to Ude Walawe National Park
KEY DATES for Galle and The Fort –
- 1505 Portuguese first land in Galle
- 1589 Portuguese establish permanent settlement
- 1640 Galle seized by the Dutch
- 1663 Dutch build Galle Fort as it is today
- 1755 Dutch church built
- 1796 Galle ceded to England
- 1842 First P&O passenger boat arrives in Galle Harbour
- 1863 New Oriental Hotel built
- 1873 British build the main city gate
- 1884 Original lighthouse built
- (Total of 3 lighthouses built in the Fort and you can still see the remains of 2)
- 1988 Galle declared a UN World Heritage Site
- 2003 The Fort celebrates its 400th birthday
- 2004 Boxing Day - Galle hit by massive tsunami, devastating the entire modern city, leaving the Fort relatively undamaged.
- 2007 celebrates the fort's inaugural literary festival.
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