Taxi in Jaffna: private transfers at fixed prices

Inside Jaffna, take a tuk-tuk, or a bicycle: the town is flat and Nallur, the fort and the library are a short ride apart. PickMe works here for tuk-tuks and short car rides, with far fewer cars than in Colombo, and Uber is thin on the ground. Neither app suits the long trips: a request for the airport is rarely accepted, and the fare is only an estimate. A pre-booked transfer is one price agreed in advance and a car at your guesthouse at the hour you chose.

The honest comparison is with the train and the plane. The northern line runs from Colombo Fort to Jaffna in roughly six to seven hours, through Anuradhapura and Kilinochchi; from Colombo city with light bags it is a good choice. It does not serve the airport, and sections have closed for track work in recent years, so check the timetable first. Jaffna International Airport at Palaly has flights to Chennai and, at times, domestic services. Landing at Katunayake with luggage, the 365 km road transfer remains the direct way north.

We collect from any hotel or guesthouse in Jaffna: around Nallur and Temple Road, near the fort and Old Park, in Chundikuli. At Jaffna railway station, give us the train and the driver meets the real arrival. We also collect at Jaffna International Airport in Palaly, at Point Pedro, Kankesanthurai, and on the islands joined by causeway; choose that town as your pickup and its fixed price is shown before you pay. Nainativu and Delft are reached only by ferry, so we meet you at the Kurikadduwan jetty. Fifteen minutes of waiting are included, an hour at the airport. During the Nallur festival the streets around the temple close at peak times, and we agree a meeting point outside the closure.

Jaffna town is small; leaving it takes time. The A9 runs south across Elephant Pass, the thin strip of land between two lagoons that joins the peninsula to the mainland, then through Kilinochchi and Vavuniya; most drivers stop at the Murukandy Pillaiyar temple by the road, where travellers break a coconut for a safe journey. The usual route to Colombo Airport continues to Anuradhapura and down to the west coast: 365 km and about 7 h 50, with no expressway, which is why we suggest a night in Anuradhapura (200 km, 4 h 20) rather than one long push. Mihintale is 195 km and 4 h 15. East, Trincomalee is 230 km, about 5 h; Minneriya, for the dry-season elephant gathering, is 265 km. Wilpattu National Park is 180 km, and Kalpitiya, the kitesurfing lagoon, 265 km.

The north is dry from roughly February to September and hottest from March to May; the north-east monsoon brings rain from October or November into January, when the lagoons fill and migrant birds arrive. Drive the A9 in daylight, with fewer cattle and dogs on the unlit stretches, or better, split the trip from the airport with a night in Anuradhapura: two half days instead of a full day in the car. For an early flight home, sleep near the airport, or allow 7 h 50 of driving plus the three hours the airport asks for; a 15% night surcharge applies to pickups between 22:00 and 05:00 and is shown before you pay.

Nallur Kandaswamy Kovil, the great Murugan temple rebuilt on this site in the 18th century, is the heart of Jaffna. Shoes stay at the gate, men enter bare-chested, and the evening puja is the moment to go. Its festival lasts about twenty-five days, usually from late July into August, and ends with the chariot procession. Jaffna Fort, begun by the Portuguese and rebuilt by the Dutch as a five-pointed star, was badly damaged in the war and partly restored; walk the ramparts at dusk over the lagoon. The Public Library nearby, burned in 1981 with its irreplaceable collection and rebuilt in the same white form, carries real weight for the city. Beyond town: Point Pedro, near the northern tip, the spring at Keerimalai beside the Naguleswaram temple, Casuarina Beach on Karainagar. Nainativu, with its Hindu and Buddhist shrines, and Delft, with coral-stone walls and wild ponies, are reached by ferry from Kurikadduwan. Then eat: Jaffna crab curry, odiyal kool, the seafood broth thickened with palmyra flour, dosai, and ice cream in the parlours near Nallur.