10-day Sri Lanka itinerary, day 10: Galle Fort and departure

Day 10 of the 10-day Sri Lanka itinerary is shaped entirely by your flight time. Most long-haul departures from Bandaranaike International Airport leave in the evening or late at night, which leaves the morning and early afternoon free for Galle Fort.

Work backwards from the flight: three hours at the airport, two and a half to three hours on the expressway, plus a buffer for traffic around Colombo and Negombo.

Galle Fort, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a walled town built by the Portuguese and greatly expanded by the Dutch in the 17th century, and it is still a living community of homes, churches, mosques, shops and cafés. Its ramparts run around a headland, with the sea on three sides.

The best way to see it in a morning is a loop of the ramparts, which takes roughly 60 to 90 minutes, followed by a wander through the grid of lanes inside. Mornings are cooler and quieter than midday, and the light on the lighthouse and the white Dutch Reformed Church is at its best.

Inside Galle Fort, Church Street, Leyn Baan Street and Pedlar Street hold most of the cafés, boutiques and restored villas. The National Maritime Museum and the Dutch Period Museum are both small enough for a short visit, and the Old Dutch Hospital building now houses shops and restaurants.

Lunch inside the fort is the natural last meal of the trip. Keep it relaxed but watch the time; the point of the morning is to leave for the airport without rushing.

The Southern Expressway runs from Galle towards Colombo and connects with roads to Bandaranaike International Airport. The drive typically takes roughly two and a half to three hours, but traffic around Colombo can add an hour at busy times, particularly on weekday evenings.

For international flights, most travellers aim to be at the airport around three hours before departure. For an evening flight around 9pm, that means leaving Galle by roughly 2pm to 3pm. For a flight after midnight, you can stay for sunset on the ramparts.

A departure before roughly midday makes the final day impractical from Mirissa, since you would need to leave in the early hours. The fix is to move the last night: spend night 9 in Negombo, around 20 minutes from Bandaranaike International Airport, after visiting Galle Fort on day 9.

That costs the second Mirissa night and turns day 9 into a travel day, but it removes the stress of a pre-dawn transfer. Some travellers use a day room at an airport-area hotel instead for late-night flights, to shower and rest after checking out.

Pack the night before, and keep your passport, tickets, a change of clothes and anything you need for the flight in a separate bag. Confirm the flight time again on the morning of day 10, and tell your driver when you need to be at the airport.

Lankan Stays & Trails drivers plan the last day around the flight, not a set schedule, and build in a buffer for Colombo traffic. The site's guide to Galle Fort at sunset goes further for anyone with a late flight or an extra night.