About this experience
The Galle Fort Street Food Walk is a two-hour private walk through the Old Town of Galle and its Fortifications, the UNESCO World Heritage Site on Sri Lanka's southwestern coast, led by an English-speaking guide who is a genuine foodie. Along the way you sample up to ten varieties of Sri Lankan street food: Ceylon tea, savoury snacks, tropical fruit and a plate of kottu, with a bar visit to finish.
The meeting point is the National Tea Rooms on Lighthouse Street, the oldest café inside the ramparts. The walk starts there with a cup of Ceylon tea, then passes the Dutch Reformed Church and heads south through the fort's lanes to the Galle Lighthouse at the tip of the headland. From the lighthouse the route follows the Galle Fortification, the circuit of ramparts, round to the Galle Fort Clock Tower, then winds back through the streets of the Galle Dutch Fort and ends at the Galle Services Club.
The food stops come in between. Snacks from the street stalls include cassava chips with a salty-spicy finish and freshly made samosas, followed by a spread of local fruits that runs from sour to sweet. Kottu is the island's signature street dish: chopped roti stir-fried on a hot iron griddle with vegetables, egg or meat, cut with two steel blades whose clatter you hear long before you see the stall. The walk closes with a bar visit at the Galle Services Club.
The fort gives the walk its setting. Inscribed by UNESCO in 1988, it keeps its Dutch street grid, its circuit of ramparts and the colonial buildings that now house cafés and small shops, and your guide can explain the history of a building as readily as the dish served in front of it.
The tour is private and lasts two hours. Children aged five and above are welcome, and comfortable walking shoes are all you need. Hotel pick-up and drop-off, personal expenses and gratuities are not included.
