Kandy is Sri Lanka’s cultural capital and the site of the island’s most venerated Buddhist shrine – the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, which houses the relic of the Buddha’s tooth and draws pilgrims from across the Buddhist world. The combination of the temple, the Kandy Lake precinct and the Royal Botanical Gardens at Peradeniya – 147 acres, orchid collections, the famous avenue of royal palms – gives a full and unhurried cultural day. If your visit includes an evening temple stop, the puja ceremony is genuinely atmospheric: the inner shrine doors opening to the sound of temple drums and the smell of incense drifting through the courtyard.