You can’t travel far in Sri Lanka without hearing the name ‘Bawa’. Geoffrey Manning Bawa is the island’s most famous and influential architect. In 1947 he built Lunuganga Estate - his country home - near Bentota. The property nowadays functions as a hotel, which you’ll tour before lunch in the grounds. The ‘tropical-modernist’ design is typically sparse and elegant and Bawa enthusiasts will enjoy the family photographs and memorabilia on the walls.