Taxi in Polonnaruwa: private transfers at a fixed price

Inside Polonnaruwa, take a bicycle. The ruins are flat and strung along one road for several kilometres, from the Royal Palace north to Gal Vihara, and guesthouses near the entrance rent bikes by the day for very little. A tuk-tuk does the same loop if you would rather not pedal in the heat. PickMe has a few drivers here: worth a try across town, not for the airport or Trincomalee, where long requests tend to go unanswered or get cancelled.

Public transport is slow. Polonnaruwa station is on the Batticaloa line, but trains towards Colombo are few, take most of the day and end at Fort, far from the airport. Buses run often west to Habarana and Dambulla and east to Batticaloa, cheap, crowded and hard work with suitcases. The private car is therefore the realistic way in and out, and the reason Polonnaruwa stays quieter than Sigiriya. For the coast, a fixed price from your hotel door to the beach at Pasikuda ($38€33CHF 32AED 140Rs 12,000₹3,600¥260₽3,200 (Rs 12,000)) gives you the afternoon back.

We collect from any hotel in the old town and along the lake, from the guesthouses of Kaduruwela and New Town, and from the Giritale hotels. Give us the property name rather than a landmark: many guesthouses sit down unlit canal lanes. At Polonnaruwa station, in Kaduruwela, give us the train number and the driver meets the real arrival, not the timetable. For a day visit from Sigiriya or Habarana, we set you down at the archaeological museum, where tickets are sold; to keep the car all day, following you through the ruins and taking you back, book a private driver by the day (/private-driver). Fifteen minutes of waiting are included at every pickup, an hour at the airport.

Polonnaruwa is two places: the old town between the ruins and the Parakrama Samudra, with the museum and the lakeside hotels, and Kaduruwela to the east, with the shops, the bus station and the railway station. One road does most of the work. Heading west it passes the hotels of Giritale and Minneriya (25 km, 40 min) on the way to Habarana, 45 km and 1 h 10; Sigiriya is 45 km and 1 h 10, Dambulla 60 km, Matale 100 km on the way to Kandy. The airport is 200 km and about 4 h 20 via Dambulla and Kurunegala. East, flat paddy leads to the coast: Pasikuda is 75 km and 1 h 45, Batticaloa 100 km. North through Kantale, Trincomalee is 100 km and about 2 h 15, the beach at Nilaveli 115 km; Mihintale, beside Anuradhapura, is 95 km.

Polonnaruwa is in the dry zone and among the hottest places on the island. See the ruins from opening, around 07:00, or after 15:00, carry water and pack socks: the sacred terraces are walked barefoot on sun-heated stone. Cover shoulders and knees, take hats off, and never pose with your back to a Buddha. May to September is dry and the best time for the ruins and the east coast; the north-east monsoon brings most of the rain from October or November to January or February. If you are heading to Pasikuda or Trincomalee, visit the ruins early and leave around midday. For a flight, the drive takes 4 h 20 and the airport asks for three hours; a 15% night surcharge applies to pickups between 22:00 and 05:00, shown before you pay.

Start at the archaeological museum by the lake, where tickets are sold. The Royal Palace group comes first: the brick walls of Parakramabahu’s palace, his council chamber with its elephant friezes and the Kumara Pokuna bathing pool. North of it, the Sacred Quadrangle gathers the circular Vatadage, with four seated Buddhas facing its entrances, the Hatadage and Atadage, both built for the Tooth Relic, and the Gal Pota, a stone book about eight metres long. Further on stand Rankoth Vehera, the largest dagoba in the city, and Lankatilaka, whose tall brick walls still frame a headless standing Buddha. Gal Vihara is the high point: four twelfth-century Buddhas cut from one granite outcrop, two seated, one standing and a reclining figure about fourteen metres long. Back south, the Pothgul Vihara statue faces the Parakrama Samudra, the king’s great reservoir. Minneriya, where elephants gather from June to September, is next door; we drive you to the park gate and jeeps are hired there.