Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is absurdly compact for what it contains. In an area roughly the size of West Virginia, you can visit 2,500-year-old ruins, surf world-class waves, hike through tea plantations that look like green velvet draped over mountains, spot leopards in the wild, and eat rice and curry so good it redefines what you thought rice and curry could be. The distances are short — Colombo to Kandy is three hours, Kandy to Ella is a six-hour train ride through some of the most beautiful scenery in Asia — and the variety is unreasonable. No country this small should contain this much.

The train from Kandy to Ella is the experience that defines Sri Lanka for most travelers, and deservedly so. The blue carriages wind through tea country with the doors open, mist rolling through, emerald hillsides falling away into valleys dotted with Tamil tea pickers in bright saris. But the Cultural Triangle in the north-central plains — Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Sigiriya — holds ruins that rival anything in Southeast Asia and draws a fraction of the visitors. The south coast, from Galle’s Dutch colonial fort to the surf breaks of Mirissa and Hiriketiya, has the laid-back beach culture that Bali had twenty years ago.

When to go: Sri Lanka has two monsoon seasons affecting different coasts. The west and south coasts are best from December to April. The east coast is best from May to September. The hill country is pleasant year-round but driest from January to April. You can always find good weather somewhere on the island.

What most guides get wrong: They underestimate the food. Sri Lankan cuisine — fiery pol sambol, hoppers with egg, black pork curry, kottu roti chopped on a hot griddle at midnight — is one of Asia’s most underrated. Eat everything. Also, take the train. Every time there is a choice between a bus and a train, take the train.