While visiting the city be sure to take a day trip to the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kandy, Sri Lanka’s largest garden at an expanse of 147 acres which is elegantly designed and renowned for its collection of orchids.

You will find some four thousand different species of plant at the Royal Botanic Gardens, as well as around ten thousand mature, towering trees. A particular attraction of the garden is the collection of Burmese Giant Bamboo which can grow to a whopping one hundred and thirty feet tall and have stems that are close to a foot thick!

Another highlight is the enormous Javan fig tree which is a century old. The roots of the tree extend out to cover an area of nearly two thousand square meters and the branches of the tree previously protruded out from the gigantic trunk to form an expansive canopy. In 2015 the tree was cut back due to disease but it now nearly just as tall as it was previously (approx. 40ft high) but not currently quite as wide as it once was, but is getting there!

Notable people who have visited the gardens and planted trees to mark their visit include Queen Elizabeth II, Yuri Gugarin and Marshal Tito.