The Historic Fort of Galle
Summary
The atmospheric UNESCO World Heritage site of Galle is on most traveller’s Sri Lankan list. The place has some wonderful deep history across the colonial times of the Portuguese, Dutch and British that you can soak up while wandering the old streets and the fort walls in an afternoon, or for staying overnight to enjoy one of the beautiful colonial style hotels. Nice to stop in and you don’t really need much more time than half a day
Top tip – no need to really have a set walking route as the fort area (the place you will spend all your time) is super small and easy to navigate. Just head off in the general direction of the fort walls for the views of the surrounding area and the centre for some of the colonial hotels, where I’d recommend lunch at the Fort Bazaar
Travel tip – if travelling from Colombo by train, be sure to 1. Take the train – the views are beautiful as the train hugs the beach for a big chunk of the way. 2. Get first class or at least reserved seating – the train is one of the busiest in Sri Lanka, so you’ll be crammed in standing in the hallway between carriages with very little space. I decided not to wait 4 hours for the next reserved seating train, which was an error
highlights
#1 Strolling along the Fort’s coastal walls as you look into the Old Town on one side and the beaches on the other
#2 walking along the old colonial streets with their formerly grand buildings and imagining what it must have been like here in the times of the Portuguese, Dutch and British
#3 Chevking out the fortifications, with the different sizes for defences used by the Portuguese and the Dutch
#4 The train down the coast from Colombo to Galle
Experiences nearby
The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences
Other Old Town Experiences
Score Detail
Background - how many times have you asked someone what a travel experience was like and the response was "amazing" or "awesome"? That response is nice to know, but it makes it hard to differentiate that experience compared to others. That is exactly what these scores are trying to do - differentiate the experience by giving a score out of 10 based on 6 categories and then giving an overall experience score
This overall experience score is calculated by: take the highest of the "Culture" or "Nature" score (1-10) + "Fun factor" (1-10) + "Avoiding the crowds" (1-10) + highest of the "Unique" or "World Famous score" (1-10). Then convert into a score out of 100
Extra detail - the logic being that I find all of the 6 individual scores important, but I don't want to mark an experience down just because it doesn't cover both "Culture" and "Nature", or because it isn't both "World Famous" and "Unique". Take the examples of Safari in The Serengeti and walking through Rome - they both appeal at opposite ends of the nature / culture spectrum, and you can have a fantastic time without needing to appeal to both sides. So, their overall scores aren't penalized for their lack of one or the other, and I've done the same for "World Famous" vs "Unique". But . . . I do think that the "Fun factor" of an experience is important, irrelevant of other factors, and so is "Avoiding the Crowds" (or where there are crowds that add to the experience). So, both of these scores are standalone