Debating a trip to Sri Lanka, 2 weeks likely, 1 of which will be more beach orientated, 1 more “adventure” orientated.

Given I know nothing about the place, can anyone suggest where to the country to aim at/avoid? Or even any general thoughts?

I really rate sri lanka – its like India but turned down a couple of notches – you can see most of it in a couple of weeks, there’s less hassle, etc etc. I did a loop round the south coast then up via the hill town in the middle (can’t remember the name) – did a bit of surfing, some tours, and took some local trains.

The language can be tricky – there are 2 alphabets that aren’t roman in play, so finding the correct bus somewhere can be a case of pronouncing the name as best you can, then hoping someone points you in the right direction. TukTuks were pennies though – I often took them for ~2 hour journeys as the buses stopped at 6ish

I wouldn’t spend more than a day in columbo, but others may disagree. Looking at my photos, I also remember doing a tuktuk based mtb uplift 🙂

[url=https://flic.kr/p/8RPSah]Sri Lanka 2010-10-29 029[/url] by Hugh Lunnon, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/8RMvuc]Sri Lanka 2010-10-29 070[/url] by Hugh Lunnon, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/8RNh4T]Sri Lanka 2010-10-29 121[/url] by Hugh Lunnon, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/8RS9Vw]Sri Lanka 2010-10-29 173[/url] by Hugh Lunnon, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/8RZFWr]Sri Lanka 2010-10-29 292[/url] by Hugh Lunnon, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/8S14kk]Sri Lanka 2010-10-29 344[/url] by Hugh Lunnon, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/8RRX8m]Sri Lanka 2010-10-29 165[/url] by Hugh Lunnon, on Flickr

Went there a few years ago, amazing place. I have a number for a german guy who can arrange a local driver for you if required, it was about $200 all in for a small minibus with driver and fuel etc for a week.

Loads to see, roads are poor and slow, allow plenty of time between stops.

We stayed at a place called the last house in Tangalle, it was like paradise.

Went last year for 2 weeks. Hated most of it to be honest but then I’m not really a traveller in the real sense.

Good Parts:
– Beautiful country, and not too big so you can see it all in a short space of time
– Cheap (as long as you’re not drinking alcohol – see below)
– People are very friendly (overbearingly so sometimes)
– Food is great as long as you like curry

Bad Parts
– Hot and humid as hell
– Roads are a deathtrap and incredibly stressful to travel on whether you’re a driver or passenger
– Cities/towns are crowded, dirty and congested
– Pretty much a dry country if alcohol is your thing (and where you can get it in the beach resorts it’s bloody expensive)
– Mosquitos absolutely everywhere.

Had my honeymoon there. Lovely place.

Go to Kandy (temple of the tooth), the golden triangle, Trincomalee, Galle, the tea plantations in the mountains, elephant orphange, sigiryua (proper tourist trap but has to be seen)

Avoid: Columbo, the all inclusive strip down the west coast

Used private taxis in the main to cover distance and for days to out of the way locations – cheap and usually happy to hang around to take you back. A good guide book (lonely planet etc.) was enough to cover what to see in each area and hotels were always happy to recommend a cousin, uncle, brother who had a taxi / restaurant / spice garden etc. Got taxed by the Tamils, in a very friendly way, not sure if that’s still a thing.

Would love to go back and do a cycling tour, staying at the tea houses, kind of like colonial Travel Lodges scattered around the island.

I have never been but a friend of a friend was so impressed when he went on a cricket tour that he built a guesthouse with some of the locals and it opened about a month ago

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fwiw, I don’t remember the roads as being particularly dangerous – it probably depends on your experience. Certainly less hectic than India, probably worse than the UK 🙂

We went there on what sounds like a very similar honeymoon to brassneck, and had a lovely time. We had 4 days or so on the beach, and the rest of the time spent travelling around and exploring.

I’d definitely recommend getting the train up into tea country, the scenery is phenomenal.

@dazh Dry country? AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Pause

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

But seriously, where on earth in the country did you go to give you that impression? Sri Lanka is majority Buddhist, with Hindu, Christian and Muslim minorities. Selling liquor is prohibited on some religious holidays, but consuming it is not. Bars can always sell as well. If you want to drink the local stuff then Old Reserve Arrack is what you want. It runs around £10 a bottle. The local beer (Lion) is pretty good and cheap (less than £1 for 325ml) too. Sri Lankans love a drink, maybe to excess as alcoholism rates and liver disease rates are pretty high.

Sri Lankan food is not just curry. They have Dutch, Portugese, Indian, Malay and Chinese influences in their cuisine. The day to day staples are more like South Indian food (Tamils tend to lean vegetarian, while Sinhala Buddhists and Muslims lean towards meat). Stay away from the beef and the pork because it’s shit. Stick to veggie, chicken, and seafood and you’ll be fine. Sri Lankan seafood is amongst the best I’ve had in the world when it comes to shellfish. Desserts like Wattalappam are a must try. It’s one of my favourite things to eat in the world.

Stay away from the tourist traps and find where the locals eat and drink and you won’t get rinsed. Check out http://www.yamu.lk for reviews on where to eat and drink in Colombo and some of the other larger cities.

I’d second avoiding Colombo for the main body of your stay. There are some nice boutique hotels and spas if you fancy some pampering, and some nice restaurants too. Ministry of Crab may be worth visiting if you like seafood, and Paradise Road if you want to bring some souvenirs back. You have to visit Hotel de Pilawoos to try their Chicken Kottu if you’re in Colombo, or Kottu at a road side cafe anywhere in the South. For vegetarian food, you can’t go wrong with any of the roadside Tamil cafes in Colombo and in the North and East. The food’s cheap and **** delicious.

Trincomalee, and Batticaloa in the NorthEast and maybe Mirissa and Unawatuna towards the south for beaches. Check the forecast, because there’s a NorthEastern monsoon and a South monsoon at different points of the year. The beauty of it is, you can travel to the other side fairly quickly if you want to escape the rain.

By the way, if you go to the beaches not associated with tourism, you know, the off the beaten track ones where the locals go, then don’t be surprised if people gawp at you if you’re skimpily clad. This is a conservative country where pre-marital sex was illegal the last time I checked (not enforced though) and I think homosexuality is too (again, not enforced). PDAs in Colombo white westerners may be acceptable, but people will stare if you do that in some Southern backwater.

Avoid the North unless you want a history lesson.

You could combine adventure with your beach holiday. Check out http://www.kitesurfinglanka.com it’s run by an old buddy of mine. I’ve never been, but it’s on my to do list. There’s some ok-ish white water rafting towards the hill country. Rafters Retreat is where I usually go. They have a lovely eco lodge right next to the river, and the food Channa dishes up is incredible.

You can also go on safari for some adventure. Yala and Wilpattu are great for observing animals. I don’t like the elephant “sanctuaries” because they feel like tawdry money grubbing affairs, and I don’t know how well the animals are cared for, but I can’t deny that there’s an appeal.

If you’re feeling hot and want to cool down, but don’t want to visit the beach, then take the train into Kandy/Nuwara Eliya and hike into the mountains. Trains are cheap, but the booking process may take some planning on your part. Buses are cheap and plentiful. You may feel like you’re taking your life in your own hands, but stick to the air conditioned express buses if you are making a 30 minutes plus journey by bus. Infrastructure is not great, so some journeys take longer, but they have build some highways (toll is around £1.50) between the major cities and they drive on the same side as here, so car hire is a valid option. So is hiring a van with a chauffeur.

Culturally, yes, Sri Lankan people are super friendly. I can understand that it can come across as overbearing, but they’re some of the most genuine people I’ve ever encountered. Whoever said it’s like India, but dialled down is spot on. Plus it’s not as filthy!

Mosquitos, yes, if you’ve not got air con and you live on the equator then this is a fact of life. It’s like living in Scotland and complaining about the midges. It is what it is. Take some insect repellent with you, use your mosquito net and compare bites in the morning. Malaria/Dengue risk is fairly low these days, but I’d not laugh if you wanted to take the pills.

It all depends on what sort of traveller you are. There are options for everyone. Sorry, I’ve rambled a bit, but happy to help if you want to e-mail me (in profile).

@dazh I feel bad you have the opinion that you hold. I’d be interested to know why!

As per brassneck. We loved it, particularly the archeology and the wildlife. People were generally great and the few who appeared to be on the make (and I couldn’t really blame them with naive western tourists like us) were never rude or aggressive. My memories are of amazing thunderstorms with spectacular lightening, fruit bat colonies, monitor lizards and huge temples. Having a stand off with a bull elephant on safari got the adrenaline going too.
I want to go back now…

For our honeymoon my Wife and I did a week in Sri Lanka followed by a week in the Maldives.

We loved it.

Sri Lanka was amazing although we were ‘lazy’ and booked a Kuoni tour.
We were lucky there was only us and another couple on the tour so we had plenty of space in the mini bus and the guide could be flexible with the itinerary.

Regarding the negative post above….
Yes, it was hot and humid
We had drinks every night and with lunch if we wanted – I don’t remember I it being hard to get hold of, or expensive.
Mosquitoes – not when we went in June but there were in the Maldives!
The roads – just part of going to a place like that. Yeah, it’s hectic but we quite enjoyed it after an hour or so.

Cheeky morning bump.

Went in August 2012 with Red Dot Tours who were excellent. Avoid the monsoon season(s), no problem getting a drink, and I don’t remember mozzies being a problem.
I didn’t enjoy the elephant orphanages, much preferred the wild variety in the Minneriya National Park. Camped out in Yala National Park (properly organised, not wild camping) We saw all manner of wildlife; crocs, leopards, elephants, bears, monitor lizards, birds, etc.-highly recommended!
We did the tea areas, white water rafted down the River Kwai (the setting in the film, not the real one) and the towns and cities already mentioned ^^^
Brilliant, brilliant holiday

just resurrecting this as we’re currently considering sri lanka for next winter (november or december)

basically we want an affordable holiday somewhere hot in our winter, so has to be long haul really. possibles at the mo are SE asia (malaysia/thailand/vietnam/cambodia) and sri lanka. we discounted the caribbean as too dear for food and drink in the resorts.

we want lovely beaches, friendly people, a few restaurants/tavernas to choose from in the evenings and reasonable prices. think greece but a bit further away 🙂

sri lanka looks good so far, just need to pinpoint a possible location to start looking at prices. i believe it has to be west or south coast due to the monsoon season on the east.

all recommendations/experiences welcome.

thanks

Guess it depends on your definition of affordable – it’ll cost a fair bit to get there.

Also seems a long way to go just for beaches … though plenty seemed to have done so. Would be a real shame to miss out on the cultural stuff inland as it’s truly a million miles removed from our (well my at least) experience.

I didn’t think the roads were that bad – but I’ve worked in Mumbai and j15 M4 so … ;-D

Road were fine, most tourists have a driver, we certainly did, and they navigate them with a minimum of fuss. The style of driving is very different to Britain and I know i’d struggle with it.

The only beaches we saw were at Negombo which was very good indeed and Passikudah which was also awesome. However, good though the beaches are, head to the centre of the island for more interesting places.

Loved it. Go if you can.
Beaches, wildlife, historic sites, it’s got everything.
Arugam bay is great for surfing, travel by bus not too hard.
Just go.

I was there in Dec…1990. We stayed in a Hotel on the south coast and hired a taxi to drive to Kandy, via tea plantations, elephant sanctuary etc and stayed in The Swiss Hotel in Kandy for a night.

I recall the weather was humid and hot with occasional downpours. In Kandy it was quite wet too, but I don’t remember it being a problem, it just adds to the experience of being in the tropics and freshens the place up.

It was a great trip with the taxi driver even taking us to meet his family at the end.

loved it – went in about 1999/2000; before the war was over. Loads of checking of bags, and road check points.

We hired a driver for a week (driver’s used to get free accommodation – he wasn’t used to our level of hotel!).

Immediately left Columbo, and went to Kandy. Couple of days there, then to Dambulla, Polonnaruwa, Sigiriya, Nuwara Eliya (and World’s End) and then to a shack on the beach in Mirissa. I doubt that’s there now, after the Tsunami a decade ago. Day trip to Galle.

Lovely country, amazing sites. Hot, but that wasn’t an issue. Nurawa Eliya was cooler.

Course, don’t know what it’s like now. The Buddhists cracked down on the Tamils a bit more, then the war was over. So it’s probably safer, but would it be any better?

I cycled around Sri Lanka – as noted above don’t just go for beaches. Head inland and check out Kandy, Sigiriya, various large Buddhas, tea plantations and so on. Any Lonely Planet guide will give you the highlights. By all means tack on a few days on a beach on the south coast but it deserves more than that. I loved the place (and it was significantly less hassle than India).

I married Mrs Coolhandluke in Sri-Lanka, many years ago now like.

Elephant orphanage is a must. I’d head back there at the drop of a hat.