The fullAccess

Bandaranaike to Galle, Yala, or the hill country in twenty minutes — the road equivalent is three to six hours. Operated through Hummingbird Helicopters. We hold the slots in high season; off-season we book in two days.

The south-to-east coast crossing in twenty minutes — otherwise it is a six-hour drive across the bottom of the island. Cinnamon Air's small Cessna Caravans land on lakes and harbours. We use them most often for the Mirissa-to-Trincomalee leg.

International charter to and from Colombo via Cinnamon Air's jet division and FitsAir; domestic legs in the same equipment. We work the schedule against the day's weather and hand you to a slot at a private terminal at Bandaranaike. // VERIFY current operators

S-Class Mercedes, Range Rover Vogue, BMW 7-Series — single vehicle for a couple, two-car convoy for a family. The driver is in starched whites, English-fluent, briefed on you specifically. Same vehicle for the whole trip if you would prefer a familiar face at the wheel.

A 1953 Daimler for a Galle Fort wedding morning, a 1948 Austin Princess for a hill-country drive between two estates. Held in Colombo and Kandy, hired by the half-day. The chauffeur knows the car, the gears, and the road.

South-coast day sail from Mirissa, west-coast sundowner from Negombo, a full-day private cruise to a sandbar lunch off the Tangalle coast. Catamarans for stability, sloops for speed; crew, captain, and a galley that arrives at the right hour.

CIP lounge on arrival, immigration fast-track, kerbside hand-off to your driver — the queue, the hall, the airport coffee, all skipped. Reverse on departure: we walk you to the security line, not the front door.

Sri Lanka has produced sapphires for two and a half thousand years — the Ceylon blue is still the international benchmark. We hold private dealer introductions in Colombo and Beruwela, and arrange mine visits at Ratnapura where stones are still pulled by hand. Your envoy sits beside you for the conversation.

Once the stones are chosen, the design and the commission. The goldsmiths we work with have made for British royalty, Gulf families, and several dozen of our own clients. Two fittings; the finished piece flown to you in its own teak box.

Custom shirts and suits cut in a Cinnamon Gardens workroom we've used for fifteen years. Cloth choices from English mills (Holland & Sherry, Scabal) or hand-loomed Sri Lankan silk. Three-fitting standard for suits, two for shirts; finished pieces ship globally.

Colonial furniture, Dutch and British, in dealers along Galle Road; the Bawa-trained design houses (Channa Daswatte, Murad Ismail) for new pieces in the Bawa idiom. A long short-list of houses that sell only to introduced clients.

Gallery introductions in Colombo (Saskia Fernando, Barefoot, the Sapumal Foundation), artist studio visits, private viewings. Acquisition guidance, framing, export documentation, shipping handled end-to-end.

Private tasting flights at the Colombo Tea Auction floor, blends composed for you with one of the country's master tasters, packed in tin-lined teak chests and shipped home. Many of our clients leave with a year's supply of a tea that exists only for them.

Fresh-ground Ceylon true cinnamon (a different species from the cassia in most supermarkets), cardamom from Matale, pepper and clove from Mawanella, vanilla from Kandy's spice gardens — sourced direct from the estates we trust, packed and dispatched.

Lunuganga, Bawa's country house outside Bentota, and Number 11, his Colombo townhouse — the two great pilgrimage sites of South Asian modernist architecture. Private after-hours tours led by a Bawa scholar, the rooms unlocked one by one. Among the single most-requested pieces of access we hold.

The Hill Club at Nuwara Eliya (1876, English country house frozen in tropical highland), the Colombo Club, the Galle Cricket Club. Reciprocal access where we hold it; introductions where we don't. Dress codes apply; we brief you before arrival.

A poojah at first light at the Temple of the Tooth, observed quietly from the right pew; an offering at the bodhi tree at Anuradhapura with a senior monk; alms-giving (dane) in your hill-country bungalow. Arranged with the priests, with their blessing.

The National Museum in Colombo with a curator after closing, the Sapumal Foundation for modern South Asian painting, Lunuganga itself with a Bawa scholar in residence. The art and the architecture explained by the people who keep them.

Each January, the south-coast fort becomes the literary capital of South Asia for ten days. We hold ticket access, author dinners, and accommodation inside the Fort walls during what is otherwise an impossible week to book. // VERIFY festival dates each year

Mask-carver in Ambalangoda whose family has worked the same trade for four generations, batik master in Mahawewa who waxes the cottons by hand, low-country drum-maker in Hikkaduwa. Private sessions in their workshops; a piece of work made in your half-day with them, dispatched home.

A senior Kandyan dance troupe brought to your bungalow at dusk for a forty-minute private performance — drummers, dancers, masks, fire. The same artistry as the public Esala Perahera, on the lawn, with the supper laid behind.

Colombo's three established casinos — Bellagio, Bally's, and Marina at the Cinnamon Grand — open table-side service to introduced guests. A VIP host meets you at the door, a private table is reserved, the chip pile is waiting. Discreet dress code, smart casual upwards. // VERIFY current operators and dress codes

Cloud Café at the Cinnamon Lakeside, the Galle Face Hotel rooftop above the Indian Ocean, the bar lounge at Ministry of Crab inside the Old Dutch Hospital. Reservations held; the seat we'd want for you, kept.

Lionel Wendt programme tickets, Royal Asiatic Society concert evenings, Colombo Symphony Orchestra performances when in season. Schedules thin in low season; we tell you what's actually happening the week you arrive.

Sri Lanka international match tickets at the Premadasa Stadium, hospitality boxes when the touring team is one we share calendar with. Off-season: a private hour at the nets with a former international, especially memorable for children who watch the game at home.

A Sri Lankan jazz quartet brought to a Cinnamon Gardens townhouse, a baila band for a beach supper at Tangalle, a sitar player to your tea-bungalow firepit. The musicians are people we have known for years; they understand what we ask for.

Four o'clock on the Galle Face Hotel verandah, with the Indian Ocean opening up before you, is a Colombo institution. We pre-book and have a discreet word with the maître d' so the seat is the right one — the one with the view, not the one inside.

Royal Colombo Golf Club (founded 1879, Asia's oldest), Nuwara Eliya Golf Club (eighteen highland holes with a fire in the clubhouse at night), Victoria Golf Resort outside Kandy. Member-day access where we hold it; private pros for lessons and rounds.

Sri Lanka has a small, friendly polo set centred on a Tangalle field and a Colombo club ground. Private lessons by appointment; occasional match access in Colombo when the calendar aligns. A genuine niche, and an unexpected one.

Royal Colombo Yacht Club introductions for visiting members; day charters off Mirissa, Galle, and Negombo; sail-and-stop lunches at a sandbar reachable only by water. Crewed boats, captained by people we have sailed with for years.

Day boats out of Negombo and Kalpitiya — sailfish in season, dogtooth tuna year-round, the occasional marlin off the deeper canyons. Overnight charters for the serious; tag-and-release as standard. Captains we know personally.

An hour at the Colombo nets with a former Sri Lankan international — children, especially. Off-season only; the names depend on who is on tour and who is at home. Memorable in a way most travel experiences are not.

PADI Open Water through to Advanced taught by a single instructor over four to six days from a south-coast base. Calm-water training off Hikkaduwa, certification dives at Bar Reef or Pigeon Island. One-on-one tuition, not a class of strangers.

Sri Lankan, modern Asian, or French-trained — brought to your villa for the week. The menu is composed with you over a first conversation. Market mornings, kitchen evenings, supper on the verandah. Many clients keep the same chef for return trips.

For the planter's bungalow or villa takeover that didn't come with one. English-fluent, hospitality-trained at one of the established Colombo houses, on for the week. Knows the silver, the wine, the way you take your coffee by the third morning.

Qualified, English-speaking, references on file. Half-day for a parents' lunch out, full-day for a parents' day off, evening cover so the adults can have dinner without compromise. We use a small handful of agencies we have known for years.

A trainer to the bungalow at six — a thirty-minute session on the lawn, a long swim by seven. Strength, mobility, road running. Trainers we have used ourselves over the years.

A yoga teacher to the bungalow at sunrise — Hatha, Iyengar, vinyasa matched to your practice, plus breathwork sessions if requested. Studio-quality teachers brought to where you are; the practice ends with the kettle on.

A residence consultation with a credentialled Ayurvedic doctor, a panchakarma protocol composed for you, oil treatments in the right room, the kitchen briefed for the week. The same standard as the dedicated Ayurveda properties — at the bungalow you have already chosen.

Sri Lankan rupees delivered to your hotel room in any quantity, at the day's rate, with paperwork. No queue at the airport ATM, no time spent at a bureau. The right notes; small denominations on request for tipping.

ETA renewals, custom permits for restricted areas, lost-passport emergencies handled with the British, US, EU, Australian and Indian high commissions. We sit beside you at the office; the queue, the form, the second photograph, all already arranged.

Major sites — Sigiriya, Polonnaruwa, the Temple of the Tooth — require permits for drone or commercial photography. Allow forty-eight hours; we file on your behalf and meet you at the gate with the paperwork.

A single white rose every morning on a honeymoon; a complete birthday delivery to the verandah at first light; a courier who knows your villa by sight. The small gestures are arranged in the same conversation as the big ones.

Colombo to Galle to Yala without you carrying a bag between rooms. Same-day forwarding by van or scheduled for a particular hour, secure handover at the next property, signed for at both ends.

Vet appointments at Colombo's better practices, kennel referrals (we keep a short list of the homes that do it well), import and export paperwork for travelling pets. The questions get asked more often than people expect.

Local SIM and eSIM activated before arrival, MiFi router for travelling families, satellite communicator for genuinely remote moments — a deep-jungle camp, a sail off the south coast. Set up before arrival, returned on departure.