‘Serendib’ was the one-time name for the ancient island of Sri Lanka, from which derives ‘serendipity’, the enviable art of happening by chance upon pleasant and unexpected discoveries.

On the map seemingly no more than a teardrop at the tip of Southern India, Sri Lanka’s 25,000 square miles encompass a superb natural environment. Best of all, perhaps, for today’s visitors, are the superb beaches in the south-west of the island. Here you can enjoy a perfect beach holiday lifestyle, informal and easygoing rather than luxurious and sophisticated, enhanced by the natural friendliness of the island’s smiling people.

Though not an island that majors on Caribbean-style luxury and sophistication, Sri Lanka offers its visitors an exceptionally friendly and easygoing welcome. And while its superb palm-edged, beach-fringed shores are the main attraction for the modern visitor, you’ll find that the island is far more than just exotic beaches!

For those drawn by the island’s beautiful interior and its 25 centuries of history a journey into the hills offers much to enjoy. Here echoes of past civilisations abound and Buddhist shrines and vast ruined palaces dot the landscape. And everywhere the eye is met by the lush vegetation of the tropics - a tapestry of sweeping tea-plantations, rugged mountains, cascading waterfalls and forests of sandalwood and mahogany.