Negombo

Negombo is Sri Lanka's most popular fishing village, situated on a strand separating the sea from an ancient lagoon only 15 minutes from the country's international airport. It is a hip tourist town famous for its superb seafood (particularly the shellfish), fresh fruit and excellent health retreats. Negombo is a year-round destination boasting lovely golden sandy beaches, a recently restored old quarter and a charming old world fishing village atmosphere. Few fail to fall in love with the outrigger canoes and wooden oruwas (catamarans) that sail past the main hotel stretch daily.

Due to the resort's proximity to the airport, just about everyone stops here for a night or two either to get over jet lag on arrival or to guarantee being on time for an international departure. Negombo is also popular with sun seekers escaping cold European winters, family groups, health fanatics, church lovers and eccentrics.

Negombo is a quaint fishing hamlet on the western coast of Sri Lanka. From there it is a 20-minute drive to Bandaranaike International Airport in Katunayake, 7km (4 miles) away. The capital Colombo is 37km (23 miles) to the south.

For the best sandy beaches head for the main hotel drag, where it is possible to hire all sorts of watersports equipment and enroll on reasonably priced diving courses. An excellent diving spot where you can see stunning corals, groupers and all sorts of colourful fish, Kudapaduwa is a 40-year-old shipwreck about 75m (246ft) in length.

In town there are remnants of the Dutch fort built in 1642, as well as some stunning old Dutch houses and fascinating Portuguese churches. Dawn bird-watching trips on the canals built by the Dutch are increasingly popular, or take an early morning tour of the country's second-largest fish market, the llelama in Pitipana, at the north end of the town's lagoon. There are daily fish auctions, a chance to meet the area's colourful fisherman and even organise a fishing trip on one of the wooden oruwas. Other treasures include Muthurajawela, a 6,000-hectare (14,826-acre) protected marshland, which is home to 192 species of wildlife, including the adorable but endangered slender loris.

The 5-star hotel The Beach (Ethukala) offers excellent family facilities. The hotel caters to babies from the age of six months right up to 18 year olds, organising supervised watersports, nature walks, cycle tours, boat rides, face painting, magic sessions, cooking lessons, singing sessions and daily games on the beach. Older children can learn to sail, snorkel, windsurf and even do a basic diving course.

Along Hotel Road there are places for teenagers to hang out, including Internet cafés to play computer games in, but not much more than that.

For wooden devil dance masks, handmade puppets and other traditional Sri Lankan souvenirs, the most popular places to shop are on Hotel Road and Lewis Place. For the best buys and an enjoyable spot of haggling head to any of the beaches, where local licensed vendors sell colourful sarongs, swimwear, funky ethnic costume, jewellery and locally made handicrafts. Teas, spices, carving and batiks are all excellent buys at the Sunday market at Kochikade, 7km (4 miles) south of Negombo.

Rodeo Bar (Hotel Road) is a great place to meet people and start a night out on the town with an ice-cold Lion lager. Afterwards you can enjoy one of the hotels in-house cultural shows with Kandyan dancing, fire walking and wild displays of drumming and acrobatics. All the hotels on the main strip have live music, and for those that are not afraid to test out their vocals karaoke is also popular and great fun after a few drinks.

Brown's Beach Hotel (175 Lewis Place), only minutes away from the historic Dutch fort and old Portuguese quarter, serves an outstanding seafood feast with waiters dressed in traditional fishermen outfits. This is also a great place to try the country's most popular national dish, a hopper - a bowl-shaped pancake that comes with any number of fillings. These could be anything from a fried egg in the middle with coconut sambal (chilli condiment) as a garnish, to chocolate or honey. For a different treat, The Beach hotel (Ethukala) serves an excellent high tea, with a wide range of samples from the country's best tea plantations. For myriad cafés and snack joints, go for a walk along Hotel Road.

Taxis can be caught outside the airport arrivals gate, or take a short walk to the airport exit and catch a bus or tuk tuk (motorised rickshaw) to Negombo for a fraction of the price. Once in Negombo, a really special way to get round is by boat along the 100km (62-mile) Dutch-built canal network. The main drag is easy enough to explore on foot or hail a taxi and explore the myriad canals, colonial back streets and wonderful churches left behind by the Portuguese.

Two hours drive from Negombo is a romantic seaside town called Chilaw, famous for crabs, coconuts and curry, as well as its beautiful sea pearls. This is a great place to visit in August/September, because they hold an annual carnival in honour of Lord Shiva at the celebrated Munneswaram Temple. Trips to Kandy's Temple of the Tooth and the cultural triangle can be organised through most hotels (although do bear in mind that this is a very long day trip, meaning an early start and getting back late at night). A must on every traveller's list is a trip to the eighth wonder of the world, the fifth-century Sigiriya Rock Fortress, set on a 200m- (656ft-) high rock surrounded by water gardens. Here too are the extraordinary Sigiriya Maidens, a series of murals of women that represent the oldest-surviving examples of a Sri Lanka school of classical realism.

Rejuvenate with either a musical therapy package or luxury spa treatment at Ayurvedic Pavilions, set among the coconut palm trees that fringe the narrow shoreline, ‘the golden mile' of Negombo, opposite The Beach hotel.

Bandaranaike International Airport (CMB)