Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, in a few days

Sigiriya, Kandy, Ella and Galle, by car and by rail: the map, what is worth booking, everything that costs nothing, and where to sleep at three budgets.

Day by day

1

Sigiriya and Dambulla

Days 1-2

A fifth-century palace built on top of a 200-metre rock, known as the Lion Rock and UNESCO-listed. The cave temples of Dambulla are half an hour away.

🎟️ Worth booking

• The Lion Rock at SigiriyaHalf day · from €30
  Twelve hundred steps past the frescoes and between two carved paws, up to the palace on the summit. Start at dawn, before the heat.
• Elephant safari at MinneriyaHalf day · from €40
  From July to October, hundreds of wild elephants gather on the dry lake bed. The rest of the year, fewer but still there.

✦ Free to visit

• The Golden Temple at Dambulla
• The rice paddies
• The villages
• Sunsets

📲 Book things to do in Sigiriya and Dambulla on GetYourGuide

2

Kandy

Days 3-4 · 🚗 Car 2h30

The last royal capital of the island, held until 1815. The Temple of the Tooth keeps a relic of the Buddha and draws pilgrims all year.

🎟️ Worth booking

• The Temple of the Tooth, guided2h · from €20
  The relic is shown three times a day behind drums and horns. A guide explains what is happening; without one it is only a crowd.
• An evening of Kandyan dance1h · from €15
  An hour of drumming, masks and fire walking, in the court style the kings of Kandy kept alive.

✦ Free to visit

• Kandy Lake
• The Peradeniya botanical gardens
• The market
• The viewpoints

📲 Book things to do in Kandy on GetYourGuide

3

Ella and the tea country

Days 5-6 · 🚆 Scenic train 6h

Misty valleys in the hills, planted with tea since the 1860s. The Nine Arch Bridge and the trains crossing it are why most people stop.

🎟️ Worth booking

• The Kandy to Ella train7h · from €12
  Seven hours through tea estates and cloud, at walking pace for much of it. Book the reserved seats, then sit in the doorway anyway.
• A working tea factoryHalf day · from €15
  Withering, rolling, oxidising, firing, grading. Half a day that explains what the word Ceylon is doing on the packet.

✦ Free to visit

• The Nine Arch Bridge
• Little Adam's Peak
• The waterfalls
• The tea fields

📲 Book things to do in Ella and the tea country on GetYourGuide

4

Galle and the south

Days 7-10 · 🚗 Car 4h

A Dutch colonial fort from the seventeenth century, UNESCO-listed, built out on a headland. The beaches run east and west from its walls.

🎟️ Worth booking

• Leopard safari at YalaFull day · from €55
  Yala holds one of the densest leopard populations anywhere. A full day, starting before first light.
• Whale watching from MirissaHalf day · from €45
  Blue whales pass close to shore here between December and April. Boats leave at six, and the sea is calmest then.

✦ Free to visit

• Galle Fort, UNESCO-listed
• Mirissa and Unawatuna beaches
• The stilt fishermen
• Sunsets

📲 Book things to do in Galle and the south on GetYourGuide

Worth sorting before you go

A driver, and one train · A driver takes the winding roads, which are slower than any map suggests. The climb into the tea country is the one stretch worth doing by rail.

📶 eSIM data
Online the moment you land, no roaming bill.
Get one · Holafly

🛡️ Travel insurance
Health, luggage, cancellation.
Cover it · Ekta

🚗 Car hire
Compare the agencies before you land.
Compare · Booking

💳 Fee-free card
Pay at the real rate, with no exchange markup.
Open one · Revolut

🚐 Airport transfer
A private car at a fixed price from the moment you land.
Book it · GetTransfer

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Flavours & local habits

🍽️ Worth tasting

• Rice and curry: half a dozen curries around a mound of rice, all at once.
• Hoppers: a bowl-shaped pancake of fermented rice flour, often with an egg in it.
• Kottu: roti chopped and fried on a griddle, to a rhythm you hear down the street.
• Dhal: lentils cooked slowly in coconut milk, on every table.
• Ceylon tea, drunk where it grows, in the hills of the interior.

⚠️ Best avoided

• Bare feet and covered shoulders in temples. Hats off too.
• Never turn your back on a Buddha image for a photograph. It is an offence here, and people have been deported for it.
• Agree the tuk-tuk fare before you get in, or use the PickMe app.
• Bottled water only. The monsoon hits the two coasts at opposite times of year, so check which one you are on.

Words that help

English ↔ Sinhala

✈️ Flight delayed by 3 hours or more, or cancelled? You may be owed up to €600. Check your flight on AirHelp.

The practical page

Scan to open this guide online, always up to date.
https://offwegooo.com/en/guides/sri-lanka

Packing checklist

Have a good trip.
Guide made on offwegooo.com · Photos via Pexels · Details are indicative, check before you leave.