Sri Lanka July 2025

[Dandan83]

Hi, my husband and I are looking to go to Sri Lanka next year for 3 weeks with our two children who will be 6 and 10. I would love any info from people who have travelled with children to Sri Lanka. What places would you recommend? We are looking to travel around for 3 weeks and spend around 10 nights in arugam bay towards the back end of holiday but worry this might be too long. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

We went in July/August and followed this route by train and bus across 2.5 weeks.

I'd say unless you are massive surfers 10 days in arugum bay is too long. We loved it there, but 4 nights was good. Kids had surf lessons.

Habarana - Nilaveli - Arugum Bay - Ella - (train to) Kandy.

We went to Kandy for 3 nights, visited Sigyria and an elephant sanctuary then went down to Bentota for a week. From there we visited Galle, a turtle sanctuary, swam, saw elephants galore and had an amazing time. It’s incredibly hot at that time of year!

Thanks for the input. It's the beach issue which we are having issues deciding on. We want some chill out time and are planning going to the south coast but aware it's monsoon then. What was the weather like? We lived in Thailand pre kids so know what monsoons can be like. If it's a daily downpour for a an hr that's fine but if it's none stop rain for days then that would rule that out for us. This is what we have planned for so far:Night 1 - spend in Colombo. Relax. Stay at Marino Bay Hotel. We really like the look of this hotel after the long flights!

Nights 2 and 3 - stay at Sigiriya. Climb Sigiriya Rock Fortress

Night 4 - in Kandy. Tooth Temple

Night 5 - in Nuwara Eilya

Nights 6 and 7 - in Ella. Rawana Pool Club - Nine Arch Bridge

Nights 8 to 16 - in Arugam Bay. Chill out/whale tour etc....

Nights 17 and 18 - in Yala. Do an afternoon safari on Night 17 and morning safari on Night 18.

Nights 19 and 20 - in Unawatuna before driving back to the airport on the final evening. We will take the risk for the last few days with the weather!

I had reservations that 10 nights in arugam bay would be too long which other part for chill would you suggest? Any hotel recommendations?
We are looking to hire a driver for some of the trip too.
Many thanks for you input is very helpful and much appreciated.

How old were your kids when you went? Thanks

Did you go July? Also how long did you go for? We are going to Thailand this year as lived there pre kids so trialling first long haul with kids and see how it goes.

Make sure you have enough time for the elephant sanctuary. I'd also recommend a boat safari, the turtle hatchery is there too, just an hour or two south of Colombo, we saw so much. I would rejig so you get at least 2 nights each place then less at the beach, and consider a couple of nights before heading inland on the west coast

I stayed at the blue water spa and hotel south of Colombo which is ideal at the beginning or end as it's an easy journey to the airport. One nice thing is it was walking distance to shops and restaurants that ordinary Sri Lankans use, we particularly loved the food at the "family restaurants" not posh at all, wipe clean tables but the food was amazing. We also ate in what turned out to be someone's front garden, literally just us and the most amazing seafood. I remember these meals more than the 5 star meals. There was a little independent tour office not far from the hotel that sorted us with trips and a driver, there is also the train

@Dandan83 kids were 10, 13 and 15.
You can factor in chill time anywhere if you have a hotel with pool. Morning sight seeing, afternoon swimming.
In the sigariya area, you can visit Pollonawara (hire bikes, including kids ones to pootle around). Also see the 'great gathering' of elephants there. If you have a driver, there are caves on your way.
Yala can be accessed from Arugum bay side.
We took the bus directly from Kandy to the airport so never stayed in Colombo.
My route was a typical summer route to avoid the south/east Monsoon.

What is your plan for Thailand?
That's an option for us for summer 2024.

Thanks so this is really helpful. We are heading to koh samui in July as the weather at that time is good in comparison to Phuket. We are doing a day/ night in Bangkok then heading to samui. Staying in a traditional Thai hotel in bophut and then staying right on beach in Cheong mon which is more low key. Going to visit and elephant sanctuary, snorkeling trip. Sri Lanka will definitely be more sightseeing this hol is more beach / chill. So much to see in Thailand and the transport options are good. Recommend sleeper trains. Loads to see just weather can be a bit iffy depending when / where you go. Temp is good in July also.

My husband and I went to Sri Lanka for our honeymoon. So not with children but we hired a driver for the first part of our trip so we could go where we wanted. Not sure how you are planning to travel but I highly recommend this. Our travel-

• A few nights in Negombo
• Travel to Sigiriya, with a stop off at pinnawala elephant orphanage on the way.
• 3 nights in Sigiriya doing some of the sights around there to include lion rock, Polonnaruwa, Dambulla temples, national park to do a jeep safari.
• 2 nights in Kandy. And did temple of the tooth, tea museum and botanical gardens.
• We then left our driver and got the train from Kandy to Ella.
• After a night in Ella we got a taxi to the South Coast. Just stayed in a 5 star hotel to relax (but probably not great for you with children). Although we stopped off at Galle on the way back to the airport which was a lovely town. So if you wanted to cut down the length of time in Arugum Bay this could be an option and would make a shorter drive back to the airport.

Sigiraya may be quite a hard climb for a 6 year old. It's a couple of hours if I remember correctly, and very steep in places.

I've never been in July but am following as it and Thailand are both on our potential August holiday list but am wondering whether it's best to leave it till Easter instead as Asia is not great in the summer.