Sri Lanka

[thegoodnamesarealltaken]

Would love some advice when it comes to Sri Lanka, and where to stay.

We are planning on going for two weeks over Christmas but have held off on booking as flights are looking quite expensive/ not ideal - which airlines would people recommend for flying to Colombo? Sri Lankan is direct but seems very expensive so not sure if its worth breaking up?

When there we have secured the second week ( over Christmas itself) in a villa near Mirissa which we are really excited for but not sure what exactly to do for the first week - we were thinking hill country and then Yala for Safari but is this what people would recommend or is there something we are missing? Also I'd love to know if anyone has hotel reccomendations for these two areas/ must-haves for Sri Lanka as a whole!

Sorry this post is so long/ all over the place - just finding it quite hard to plan so would love to hear everyones thoughts, recommendations and if we are thinking in the right direction? Thanks in advance!

If you're going up to the hills, there is a hotel in Nuwara Elya which is a converted tea factory which is excellent - amazing architecture, great views.

It is a bit of a long trek up there however and Nuwara Elya itself doesn't have much to offer after the tea plantation tours. Kandy is nicer, I think, or the cultural triangle. Maybe worth a poke?

if planning on heading to Sigryia or Dambulla check out this hotel- I stayed there years ago and have never forgotten - its like a luxury bond villains base yet open to nature

www.heritancehotels.com/kandalama/

actually I think this is the same group that own Alaaya's recommended tea factory hotel too!

Amazing thank you both - with this we are not sure between the two areas/ don't have a lot of knowledge of the middle of the country- we'll only have about two/three days so sadly think we'll have to choose one place! If anyone has an opinion on what we cannot miss that would be amazing - we did look at the Resplendent Ceylon Tea Trails but it's all booked out!

Honestly, I think Sigirya is nicer than Nuwara Elya. I stayed at Vil Uyana near there and it was magic. They have a tree house you can have dinner in, and so much incredible wildlife to see from your room.

Yes Sri Lankan direct flights are expensive, try Qatar airways, emirates , etihad transit flights. Transit times would be 2,3 hours but less expensive than direct flight.
Kandalama hotel is beautiful, and you can visit sigiriya too, as they both are in dambulla. Sigiriya is an ancient rock fortress where you can climb all the way to the top.
Nuwaraeliya and kandy are in central part of Sri Lanka, beautiful cities, with mountains and tea plantations. Weather is much cooler, Kandy is famous for the Temple of tooth.

Mirissa is a good choice as the beaches will be lovely, that's south part of the country.
Make sure you take mosquitoe repellents and sun protection.

When we booked, Air Ukraine were offering very cheap flights with a stop over in Kiev i think (had Russians with rocket launchers in my head so didn't really consider it!). We're flying Air Kuwait - 5 hour transit in Kuwait City flying out on a Sunday & 4 hour transit on the way back - not 100% ideal & so far their Customer Services team have less than sparkled but the flights cost £1380 for 3 of us at Easter. The airlines the PP mentions above all had better transit times & I'd have definitely preferred Emirates but were a good couple of hundred pounds more

I'd recommend getting a quote from Flight Centre for your flights. Me and my friend are going to Dubai, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Bali next month for £1,100 each (return) - it saved us a few hundred quid compared to booking direct. All flights bar one are with Emirates.

That's such a good deal Sweetheart1313 - thank you! Will definitely shop around. SJane45S - we were looking at Kuwait airways too so may end up also flying it - fingers crossed!