Experience the best of Jaffna

Jaffna lies at the northern tip of Sri Lanka, on a flat peninsula of palmyra palms, red soil and shallow lagoons, and is the centre of the island's Tamil culture and language. Its star-shaped fort was begun by the Portuguese and rebuilt by the Dutch in the seventeenth century, and its walls overlook the lagoon. The Nallur Kandaswamy Temple, with its tall gopuram and gilded interior, is the main Hindu temple, and its annual festival draws large crowds.

Beyond the city, causeways and boats lead to islands: Delft, with its wild ponies, baobab tree and coral walls, and Nainativu, with a Hindu temple and a Buddhist shrine. Point Pedro is the northernmost point of the island, and beaches such as Casuarina Beach have shallow, calm water.

Jaffna cooking is fiery and seafood-based: crab curry, a thick spiced seafood broth called kool, and dishes made from the palmyra palm, from sweet jaggery to boiled sprouts. Jaffna mangoes are prized in season. The north is drier than the rest of the island, with its main rains falling with the north-east monsoon in the last months of the year.