Galle has long been a stopover for foreign travellers; Sindbad 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 the finest island of its size in all the world" and to which Mark Twain added; “my goodness! It is most sumptuously tropical!”. Although Galle may have had its heyday as a trading port, the city and its coastal environs have become the new riviera of choice, whilst still managing to maintain that time warp for the inquisitive traveler.

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 95,000. 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, the chaotic local markets and villages of the Southern Province. It is also home to the Galle Literary Festival.

Just some of the things to do in and around Galle:

• Take a Walking tour of the historic Galle Fort
• Visit key temples & churches
• Go shopping in & around Galle
• Snorkel in the coral reef off Wijaya Beach (Thalpe)
• Go Scuba diving in Unawatuna
• Try out your sea legs with some Deep-sea fishing
• Go on a River cruise 
• Mountain bike riding with guide.
• Surfing & boogie boarding on nearby beaches. 
• Visit a lowland tea estate. 
• Engage in some water sports like Water-skiing and Windsurfing in Bentota. 
• Visit Sinharaja Rainforest, a World Biosphere Reserve and World Heritage Site.
• Go on a Day safari to the Uda Walawe and Yala National Parks.
• Visit Lunuganga and Brief, the former country estates of Geoffrey Bawa and Bevis Bawa.
• Whale and Dolphin watching at Mirissa.
• Eat at one of Galle’s many boutique  restaurants.
• Rummaging around the antique shops of  Ambalangoda.

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
• 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