Sri Lanka itinerary

[fruitbrewhaha]

I wonder if anyone with experience of Sri Lanka can help me nail down an itinerary? We will be going next April during school holidays with perhaps a an extra day or two. It’s me, DP, DDs 15 and 12 yo. We’d like some culture, animals and surfing. Don’t really want to stay in a new place every night. What are highlights? I know we can’t do it all and will definitely want a fair bit of beach downtime.

Thinking hikaduwa for beach and from there can visit Galle on a day trip.
I think we’d like the elephant sanctuary in pinawala.

Also recommendations of where to stay. Not luxurious.

Looks like the preferred way of travelling is to hire a driver/guide. I think I’d rather not although I haven’t worked out why.

Bump

I can tell you where I went with some friends - we started in Colombo and went to Kandy by train - very popular route. Then we hired a driver and went to Dambulla to see the rock temples, Sigirya to see the ancient fortress, Pollonaruwa - more temples and huge buddhas. Then headed south to Nuwara Eliya, which is at highish altitude and a bit like Scotland, misty and green, then stopped off at Udawalawe national park to see some wildlife and hit the coast at Tangalle. We stayed there for a few days, visited Galle by taxi, and then went up the coast by taxi and stayed in Hikkaduwa for a week. Got the train back to Colombo from there.

For me the most memorable bits were Dambulla, Sigirya and the beaches. Oh and the elephants - didn't go to the sanctuary but saw quite a few in passing and stopped somewhere where we got to give one a scrub in a river :). I found the trains fun as well. It was all really great actually.

This is more travelling than you're likely to want to do, but might give you a few things to Google with an eye on a map of Sri Lanka. Hiring a driver worked out well for us and it is a very standard way for tourists to travel over there as you've already found out.

Also, my other half surfs - he's gone over there and stayed in Weligama and Arugam Bay a few times. Weligama is likely to be more handy for you.

I'm not sure that I would try to tour to Sri Lanka under my own steam, given its recent history of political volatility. Especially not with DCs. I would be concerned about my plan B if some part of the infrastructure was suspended for a day or two. It's a great country and people are very welcoming, but there are all kinds of ethnic tensions under the surface, and it's not a full democracy.

About 10 years ago we did a 7- or 8-day tour with a "small group", which turned out to be just us two and a driver (but it could have been up to 6 pax in a minibus). It was great and we were able to talk to the driver about anything... except politics. This was 2013, so not long after the end of the LTTE wars.

We absolutely loved the food, but then we love hot food. The tours stop at roadside restaurants aimed at tourists where the food is perfectly nice, but mostly toned-down versions of local dishes. Our driver asked how we liked it and we said "Fine, but it's not as spicy as we imagined". His eyes narrowed and he said "Would you like to eat what the drivers eat tomorrow?". We agreed and so the next day, instead of us going up to the buffet, he went up to someone and said something, and a variety of very spicy dishes were produced at our table. A couple of heads poked around the door of the kitchen to see how the Europeans were coping with the fish curry. It was great!

hi,

we are hoping to go with our 5yr old and 3yr old next easter aswell, what are your thoughts on the weather then ? im worried it may be too hot, we did thailand last march and it was hot but we still loved it ( they were napping in the middle of the day so was perfect) but now there older i doubt we will get those naps.