Sri Lanka

[Sortingfinances]

I'm planning a trip to Sri Lanka in August and would love to know your best bits.
We're after wildlife beaches surfing snorkelling and culture - August means focussing on the east coast I think.
We'll be travelling independently on a tightish budget.
Thanks!

Cjpark, that's really interesting and sounds like just the sort of thing we are looking for. We have 2 teen dds.

Could I ask you some questions -
What was the weather like?
Where did you stay on the East Coast?
How much were you paying each night for accommodation?
For how many days did you have a driver?
How did you get from the East Coast back to Columbo, assuming you flew home from there!
Thanks!!

@Sortingfinances we went all over in sigeriya. We went to the temples at Polonorruwa, a woodworking shop, had lunch at someone's converted house in the jungle and went on a safari and saw elephants. That took us a day. The travel time to Kandy took around 6hrs total but we stopped off at a spice plantation and various temples and had lunch too.

😭😭😭😭😭😭
Those good prices have gone.
Note to self - stop procrastinating!
Can't whether to book next ones asap or watch over the month.

Jill, that sounds great. Be nicer to have fewer bases rather than keep changing. Did you hire a driver for the whole time?

We went the first three weeks of august. The first two weeks were beautiful.There had been very little rain so it was excellent for spotting wildlife around the watering holes! Maybe 28C. The last week, the rain started - usually 4-6pm most days and it was heavy!

On the East coast we stayed at Pasikuda. Fab beach and virtually deserted. We were at the Maalu Maalu Resort but the Uga Bay looked nicer.
Our driver picked us up at Pasikuda and drove us back to Colombo to fly home. It was our longest journey of about 5-6 hours but we slept most of the way. We had our driver from day 2 when he met us at our airport hotel for 12 days. He was irreplaceable and took us to his daughter's school one day so our DC could play football and see a lesson and we ate with his family a couple of nights.He knew the good cafes for lunches and we skipped lots of queues by him nodding at staff somehow!
Most tourist hotels offer driver accommodation our driver would stay overnight at the hotel I chose, the cost of that was included in his fee. I chose a variety of accommodation and tried to do 3 nights in each place to avoid packing / unpacking. Sometimes we went B and B for £50 a night and sometimes did luxury hotel £100 a night. it balanced out.

Sortingfinances perhaps try another site or use another device if you've not done that already? I had cheap airline flight vanish completely off Kayak last year - I removed the cookies, tried again, still gone but they came up on Skyscanner

I've been twice. Both times, flights direct with the airline. Hotels on arrival. Tour with a local chap called Lucky (Lackshman) Bolonghe. He's a family friend, and has taken lots of our friends around the country now! He specialises in bird watching, but does all the usual routes and will make a bespoke trip to your budget and time frame including hotels / B&Bs. My last trip was 3 weeks with my parents. His driving is also less insane than many local drivers.... I felt safe in the minivan!

Lakshman (Lucky) Bolonghe

Lucky's Tours & Travels
146. Lewis Place,
Negombo. 11500
Sri Lanka.

Tel. 0094 31 2233733
Mobile. 0094 77 357 8487
[email protected] or
[email protected]

Pleased to have found this thread we are thinking of Sri Lanka for August or over Christmas. Need to start planning.

Thanks everyone. Very useful information.

@Sortingfinances yeah we had one for the whole time we were there. He was a lovely man and took us to his house on our way home for tea!
I can't for life of me remember the name of the company we used - let me ask DH when he comes home from work.