Colombo is Sri Lanka's commercial capital, largest city, and the place most visitors arrive but few stop for long — which is a shame, because in the last decade the city has become genuinely interesting. The war that dragged on until 2009 kept tourism away from the capital, and the scars are still visible in the guarded checkpoints near government buildings. But the post-war years have brought a wave of construction, a lively restaurant scene, and a new confidence that is worth a day or two of anyone's time on the way to the hill country or the beaches.
The Fort district, at the north end of the city, is where the colonial-era story is still most visible: Dutch warehouses repurposed as shops, British-era banks, the red-and-white striped Old Lighthouse, and the handsome 1906 clock tower. Just south of Fort is Pettah, a chaotic market district of covered bazaars selling electronics, spices, and sarees — the Red Mosque, with its striped candy-cane minarets, is the landmark you'll keep seeing from every angle. The Gangaramaya Temple, further south, is an extraordinary working Buddhist temple crammed with thousands of objects — statues, vintage cars, Buddhist kitsch from a century of pilgrim donations — and is one of the most photographed places in the city.
The seafront is where Colombo comes alive in the evenings. Galle Face Green, the long stretch of lawn between the city and the ocean, fills up with families flying kites, courting couples, and vendors selling isso wade (prawn fritters) at sunset. Behind it, the new waterfront skyscrapers and the old colonial Galle Face Hotel (open since 1864) face each other across a piece of history. Cinnamon Gardens, the leafy colonial-era residential district south of the centre, is where the embassies and the best restaurants are, and where the National Museum holds the island's archaeological collection.
Eat kottu roti from a street stall — chopped flatbread fried with vegetables, egg, and meat on a hot iron plate, to the signature rhythm of metal spatulas — and go to a rooftop bar for the view. Colombo is humid, chaotic, and messy, and it does not have the obvious charms of Kandy or Galle, but it is a real city with a pulse, and it is changing fast.