Sri Lanka

Anyone been? Me and the girlfriend are there over this Easter, the 2 weeks between the bank holidays. All we have booked is flights, on our holidays we tend to move around a bit, booking as we go. Any advice on what to see/do? How did you travel around? I heard driving is lethal, as is getting the bus. Any comments would be appreciated!

yep – went last Summer travelling independantly & taking the kids.

email me if you want but here arer my tips:

getting about:

1. yes don’t drive yourself
2. you could hire a driver – most do but this is very expensive & I think you miss out on half the fun.
3. On that travel the local buses either big red or fast private minibuses is very fast & cheap

Where to go & not to go:

1. Ancient sites. There are essentially three. Polonnaruwa, Annuradhaphura & Sigriya. P & S are close together, A is on a bit of a limb & IMHO is similar to P but not as interesting, so do P & S.

2. Whales – Think the time of year is good for you, so you could head over to Trincomalee & do that but it is a long trek over to T.

3. Kandy & the hill country. Kandy is lovely & the train up to Nuwara Eliya & Ella is wonderful. Not to be missed. Ella is a lovely small place. Don’t bother with the tea plantations in NW. Much better in Ella.

4. Beaches – combine with trip to T or better go to Galle & do a beach from there. Galle is a fabulous old Portugeese fort town – not to be missed.

Some places to stay:
I’ll have to look up where we stayed & get back to you later but we did find a few gems.

Here are some of our photos to get you dreaming:
https://plus.google.com/photos/115452805210042015362/albums/5961743980316182961?authkey=CIH1_cWm4tC0uwE

We went for the first week of our honeymoon and did a 6 night tour through Kuoni.

I loved it.
We went to Anuradapura, Siguriya, Kandy Nuwara Eliya, Galle etc. We were on a guided tour with a driver, and although we missed out on making or own way about, I think I prefer that. The roads are pretty mental!

Take lots of small denomination notes for tips (or make sure you get some when you change money at the airport).

Taxis are pretty cheap and tend to go where you ask them. Mainly.

Temple of the Tooth in Kandy is well worth going too, as are most of the ancient cities in the north.

Brief gardens down near Galle were nice as well, bit of a trek though.

Me and the missus went for just over 3 weeks Jan 2013. Just booked flights and our first two nights accommodation in Negumbo, a beach town just up from Columbo. We took a taxi straight from the airport.

After that all transport was local buses and we booked the next place in advance or just turned up and found a place. Y’know, as you do.

Negumbo, Kandy, took day packs and went to Anuradapura, then Siguriya for a night each, back to Kandy, Ella, Yala National Park, Tangalle, Marissa, day trip to Galle, then straight back to the airport from Marissa in a private mini bus.

Loads to see and do. Great food. Egg curry, dahl and string hoppers for breakfast washed down with tea. **** yeah. Kotthu Roti for dinner.

We did spend two weeks travelling from location to location. Seemingly constantly on the move in an attempt to see monuments, national parks, mountains, etc, etc and then we found a fantastic place in Marissa so we ended it with a weeks beach holiday.

Drop us an e-mail if you need any further info, accomm. recommendations, etc,etc.

I might add there are two types of holidays in SL. The ones were you travel around like the locals and stay in local, family run accomm. or travel around privately, in taxis or minibuses and stay in hotels. The latter holiday experience is missing out in my opinion.

Thanks for the replies people, especially the offers of dropping an email!

KingofBiscuits – Member

Me and the missus went for just over 3 weeks Jan 2013. Just booked flights and our first two nights accommodation in Negumbo, a beach town just up from Columbo. We took a taxi straight from the airport.

Sounds just like my holiday in Kerela, except we got the bus from the airport, so we win. 😆

Would love to see Sri Lanka.

It was 4am on New Years Day sbob 😉 You can win if it makes you feel better 🙂

Forgot to say, we did a safari tour of Udawalawe National park and it was amazing. I was pretty sceptical that it would be any good, but we saw loads of wildlife up close; elephants, water buffalo, crocodiles, eagles, hornbills…got some great photos.

Oh, and don’t forget your visa.

KingofBiscuits – Member

It was 4am on New Years Day sbob You can win if it makes you feel better

I’d love to go back for Christmas and New Year, those Indians do like a celebration. 😀

We went many years ago, after the tsunami, so we did an organised tour as travelling independantly would have been very difficult. I would also recommend seeing Sigiriya, Kandy temple of the tooth and the tea plantations around there. We stayed on the western coast, which was nice but I believe the southern coasts are prettier.

Friends of mine travelled more recently and highly recommended Yala. Although expensive (there is only one accommodation option to stay within the park) it has the best chance of sighting leopard probably anywhere in the world. Also at Rekawa there is a program where you can stay up to see the turtles laying eggs on the beach, if they decide to nest. However, you aren’t guaranteed a sighting and you (and the group) need to be quiet without lights and so on, otherwise it can feel like a bit of a theme park and the turtles are likely to be scared away.

Enjoy the curry!