Location
Polonnaruwa, is located at a distance of 216km from Colombo in the North central province of Sri Lanka.

Reaching Polonnaruwa
Polonnaruwa can be reached by main road Colombo-Habarana main road (A6) and then by Habarana-Polonnaruwa (A11) main road. Colombo-Batticaloa railway line runs via Polonnaruwa. The railway station as well as the main bus station is 4km straight east of the town center at Kaduruwela.

Accommodation
Accommodation at Polonnaruwa is modest and as such the village of Giritale, located15km down the main road, with its lovely hotels perched on banks of beautiful Giritale lake has become the much preferred option. Habarana, a further 35km down the road is still superior; once again with Habarana lake and loveliest eco-oriented high end hotels. Then again, Polonnaruwa's rest houses by the great man-made lake have their own charms to please all comers.

Polonnaruwa Old Town
Polonnaruwa Old Town is where the well preserved ruins of the ancient city of Polonnaruwa, a world heritage site, are located. The ruins are clustered over an extensive area which runs s about 4km from north to the south. Among the multitude of ruins, Citadel, Quadrangle, Gal Vihara (Sinhala: stone temple) and Lanktilaka, Gal Pota (Sinhala: stone book), The Menik and Rankoth vihara Buddhist shrines, Alahena Pirivena monastery, Lankatilaka (Sinhala: Ornament of Lanka), Kiri Vehera stupa, Tivanka-patamaghara image house Buddhist shrine, are must visit attractions.
To the west of the ancient city is inland-sea like Parakrama Samudra (Sinhala: sea of Parkramabahu) man-made lake built in the 13th century and rehabilitated in 1950s.

Polonnaruwa Museum
Polonnaruwa Museum is the ideal starting point in touring the ancient city of Polonnaruwa: the impressive presentation at the museum imparts a wealth of knowledge that would help come to grips with numerous ruins, preserved ruins, restored ruins and rehabilitated irrigation network that consists of man-made rainwater reservoirs and canals that distribute water to the agricultural district of Polonnaruwa.