HIGHLIGHTS - DISCOVER SRI LANKA
- Relaxed arrival stay at Negombo Beach
- Visit Mineriya National Park by safari jeeps to witness Wild Elephants.
- A local village visit by jeep with lunch, Dambulla
- Cooking demonstration by local villagers
- Sigiriya Rock Fortress visit
- Dambulla Rock Cave Temple
- A tea factory visit & tea tasting
- The Royal Botanical Gardens, Kandy
- The Temple of the Tooth, Kandy
- An evening Kandyan Dance Performance
- A train journey from Kandy to Nanu Oya
- Udawalawe National Park entrance and jeep safari
- Visit The Elephant Transit Home
- Relax with a 2 night stay in historic Galle
- A Madu River boat ride
- A Turtle hatchery visit
- The Gangarama Temple, Colombo
- Deluxe 4-5 star hotels
PRE TOUR STAY
Consider arriving a day before the tour starting date, or enjoy a stopover. You can relax and refresh after your flight. The cost of the additional night/s of stay applies. Ask our travel team about this option, and the additional costs.
DAY 01
Arrive To Colombo Sri Lanka
Welcome to Sri Lanka. It’s arrival day and travellers will arrive on various flights, and some flights arrive late at night. Settle into your hotel. Tomorrow your adventure begins.
Meals: n/a
DAY 02
Negombo
The morning is at your leisure, including breakfast at your beach side hotel and time for lunch. Early afternoon, meet up with your fellow group members and tour director for a welcome drink and briefing at the hotel. Then we leave Negombo to travel to the cultural triangle for our next three nights of stay in Dambulla. Tonight, enjoy a welcome dinner at our beautiful hotel.
Meals: Breakfast, Welcome Dinner
SNAPSHOT – WHAT’S INCLUDED:
- Free morning
- 1PM group meets for tour briefing
- Negombo to Dambulla, approximately 3.5 hours travel time
- Hotel welcome dinner
DAY 03
Negombo / Dambulla
Enjoy this lovely resort with a laid back morning and energise for this afternoon’s adventure.
HIGHLIGHT EXCURSION
Later in the day, we visit Mineriya National Park by safari jeeps to witness Wild Elephants. This park consists of mixed evergreen forest and scrub areas and is home to Sri Lanka’s favourites such as sambar deer, leopards and elephants. However, the central feature of the park is the ancient Minneriya Tank built in the 3rd century AD by King Mahasena. This tank is an incredible place to observe the elephants who come to bathe and graze on the grasses as well as the huge flocks of birds (cormorants and painted storks to name but a few) that come to fish in the shallow waters.
Meals: Breakfast, Dinner
SNAPSHOT – WHAT’S INCLUDED:
- Free morning
- Easy drive Dambulla to Mineriya National Park, 45-60 minutes travel time
- Afternoon highlight Jeep Safari for Wild Elephants
- Hotel dinner
DAY 04
Dambulla - Sigiriya - Village Visit
Today is a full day and we have an early start to make our way to Sigiriya, a 5th century rock fortress. Setting out early avoids the hotter part of the day. Sigiriya Rock Fortress is a world heritage site, built by King Kashyapa (477-495 AD). The ‘Lion Rock’ is a citadel of unusual beauty rising 200 metres from the scrub jungle. The rock was the innermost stronghold of the 70 hectare fortified town. A moat, rampart, and extensive gardens including the renowned water gardens ring the base of the rock. Visit the world-renowned frescoes of the ‘Heavenly Maidens’ of Sigiriya, which are in a sheltered pocket of the rock approached by a spiral stairway. These frescoes are painted in earth pigments on plaster. There’s time at the rock to make the climb to the top and enjoy the bountiful views in all directions.
LOCAL EXPERIENCE
Afterwards, we take a jeep ride though the village paths up to the lake, then cross the lake by canoe. We take part in a cooking demonstration by the local women of the village and enjoy a locally prepared lunch. After lunch, a jeep or tuk tuk returns through the village paths to bring us back to our van and we make our way back to our hotel.
Tonight, there’s a group dinner at our hotel restaurant.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
SNAPSHOT – WHAT’S INCLUDED:
- Highlight Sigiriya Rock Fortress visit
- Jeep and canoe ride to a local village
- Cooking demonstration by local village women
- Hotel dinner
DAY 05
Sigiriya - Matale - Kandy
Today we depart for Kandy with an en-route visit to the Dambulla Rock Temple where you will take a guided tour of these impressive cave temples.
Our first stop is a visit to the Dambulla Rock Temple. We climb up to the temple, which was donated by king Walagambahu in the 1st century BC to Buddhist monks. Dambulla is a World Heritage site and is the most impressive of Sri Lanka’s cave temples. The complex of five caves with over 2000 square metres of painted walls and the ceiling is the largest area of paintings found in the world. These caves contain over 150 images of the Buddha of which the largest is the colossal figure of the Buddha carved out of rock spanning 14 metres.
From Dambulla we drive to a spice garden in Matale, to see the different spices, for which Sri Lanka is famous. You will be introduced to different spices and shown how some of these spices are grown and processed and take lunch at the Spice Garden. From here, we continue to Kandy and check into our hotel. There’s the option to visit Kandy town this afternoon, always enjoyed with leisurely strolls discovering on foot at leisure. Town’s not far from our lovely hotel, just around 10 minutes on foot, but tuk tuks are always available if you want to return earlier to the hotel, before the group heads back. Dinner in house at our hotel, enjoying the beautiful setting.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
SNAPSHOT – WHAT’S INCLUDED:
- Visit Dambulla Rock (Cave) Temple World Heritage site
- Visit a spice garden
- Travel Dambulla to Kandy, the final destination for the day, about 2.5 hours travel time
- Hotel dinner
DAY 06
Kandy
After breakfast, there’s a walking orientation tour of Kandy, including a visit to the Peradeniya Botanical Gardens. This botanical garden was first built as a pleasure garden by a Sinhala king and was expanded by the British. It is 147 acres and provides an amazing variety of trees, plants and flowers. After our orientation tour, your afternoon is free to make your own excursion or otherwise enjoy the hotel facilities.
This evening we visit the Temple of the Tooth Relic and afterwards, witness a cultural show featuring traditional Sri Lankan dancing. We then return to our hotel for a group dinner.
Meals: Breakfast, Dinner
SNAPSHOT – WHAT’S INCLUDED:
- Walking orientation tour of Kandy
- Visit Peradeniya Botanical Gardens
- Visit the Temple of the Tooth Relic
- Cultural show of Sri Lankan dancing
- Hotel dinner
DAY 07
Kandy - Nuwara Eliya
Breakfast is at our hotel and then we travel to Kandy Railway Station to board a train for a scenic journey through tea plantations and waterfalls up to Nanu Oya. On arrival into Nanu Oya railway station, we will be transferred to a tea estate. The train’s not luxurious but it’s a train journey sought out for it’s picturesque scenery.
There’s time for lunch at a local restaurant followed by a tea factory and tea estate tour in a four wheel drive vehicle. The tour will take you through the process of turning the tender green tea leaf buds to dark brown finished tea products. You also have the opportunity to have a freshly brewed cup of tea right from the factory.
Later today, we check into our hotel in Nuwara Eliya. In the evening, there’s the option to enjoy a short walk around the colonial town of Nuwara Eliya, and experience many types of street food, tasting a little bit of everything (food cost to be paid directly by each traveller). The variety of street food also has a twist of flavour of the Tamil culture.
Meal: Breakfast
SNAPSHOT – WHAT’S INCLUDED:
- Scenic train journey, Kandy to Nanu Oya
- Local restaurant lunch
- 4WD tea plantation tour
- Walking tour of Nuwara Eliya town with street food tastings available
DAY 08
Nuwara Eliya - Udawalawe
After breakfast, we travel to Udawalawe via Elle and Wellawaya.
In the afternoon we visit the Elephant Transit Home at the Udawalawe National Park. The elephant transit home was set up in 1995 as a pilot project by the Department of Wildlife Conservation to look after the abandoned baby elephants until they are able to take care of themselves and be returned to their natural habitats. Dinner this evening is at our hotel.
Meal: Breakfast, Dinner
SNAPSHOT – WHAT’S INCLUDED:
- Travel by road, Nuwara Eliya to Udawalewe National Park
- Afternoon visit of the Elephant Transit Home
- Hotel dinner
DAY 09
Udawalawe
An early start, breakfast first then out for our dawn Jeep Safari to visit the Udawalawe National Park.
Udawalawe National Park was established in 1972 to protect the catchment area of the Walawe reservoir, crucial to the livelihoods of the farmers in the south east dry zone. With the land only recently reverting back from cultivation, the park has some fascinating characteristics that make it well worth a visit. Not least of these is the large elephant population. Udawalawe is the most reliable place to see elephants in their wild habitat year round. Some 400-500 elephants live in the park and herds of up to 50 are commonly seen. The open plains are covered in thick manna grass up to the borders of the large reservoir in the centre and the Walawe River. The park is also covered by some abandoned teak plantation and dense scrub jungle. This variety in habitat makes for a rich variety of wildlife and game. As well as elephants, leopards live in the park (though you will be very lucky to spot one), toque monkeys, grey langur, spotted deer, wild pig and sambar. There are numerous bird species of course and Udawalawe is particularly rich in raptor species, among them the white bellied sea eagle and the crested serpent eagle.
Dinner this evening is at our hotel.
Meals: Breakfast, Dinner
SNAPSHOT – WHAT’S INCLUDED:
- Jeep safari, Udawalawe National Park
- Hotel dinner
FREE TIME EXTRAS:
Afternoon optional visit to return to Udawalawe National Park | USD45
DAY 10
Udawalawe - Weligama - Galle
Breakfast is at our hotel and then we leave for Galle, on the south coast. En route we visit the Stilt Fishing at Weligama. On arrival to Galle we check into our hotel and the rest of your day is at your leisure to relax and enjoy the resort facilities.
Meals: Breakfast
SNAPSHOT – WHAT’S INCLUDED:
- Drive to Weligama to see the ‘stilt fishing’
- Depart Udawalawe for Galle, about 3.5 hours travel time
DAY 11
Galle
We have breakfast at our Galle hotel. This morning we take a sightseeing tour of the Galle Dutch fortress. There will be time at leisure to explore the old fort city plus time for some shopping. At the end of the afternoon there’s the option to make your own way back to the hotel or meet the group transfer.
Shopping Tip: for gifts or personal shopping you may like to visit: Barefoot. Look out for the Spa Ceylon range of personal care items including body lotions, perfumes and bathroom items.
Meals: Breakfast
SNAPSHOT – WHAT’S INCLUDED:
- Galle Dutch Fortress sightseeing tour
- Free time to wander around Galle
- Transfer option Galle Fort area back to the hotel
DAY 12
Galle - Balapitiya - Colombo
We have breakfast at our Galle hotel before leaving for Colombo. En route to Balapitiya, we stop to enjoy a scenic cruise along the Madhu River, a relaxing trip with plenty of interesting stops. We cruise in a canopied, outboard motor powered boat; pausing to view a 200-year-old temple & to watch the locals cultivating cinnamon. All while passing dozens of islets forested with mangroves, appreciating the timeless natural rhythms of rural life. You may also see traditional fishing techniques in action & can view demonstrations of coir manufacture and rope making.
Today, we also visit a Turtle Hatchery at Kosgoda. At the end of the day we check in to our hotel in Colombo. Tonight, come together for a highlight dinner.
Meals: Breakfast, Farewell Dinner
SNAPSHOT – WHAT’S INCLUDED:
- Depart Galle for Balapitiya, about 1 hour travel time
- A scenic cruise along the Madu River
- Depart Balapitiya for Kosgoda, about 30 minutes travel time
- Visit the Turtle Hatchery,Kosgoda
- Depart Kosgoda for Colombo, about 2 hours travel time
- End of day check in at our Colombo city hotel
DAY 13
Departure Transfer From Sri Lanka
Breakfast is at our hotel. This morning we take a sightseeing tour of Colombo city. We drive through the Commercial area of the “Fort” so named, because both the Portuguese and Dutch had a Fort at this point. We drive past “Pettah”; a noisy Oriental bazaar with a hotchpotch of ancient vehicles, bargains, mosques & temples. We continue the tour through the Wolvendaal Dutch Church, Hultsdorf Law courts, to the residential area of Cinnamon Gardens and on to the Independence Square and Bandaranayke Memorial International Conference Hall. We also visit Gangaramaya Temple.
After our sightseeing tour we return to the hotel for check out. There is the option to extend your hotel stay until 6PM for a fee. The rest of the day is at your leisure until you need to transfer to the airport or make plans for an onward journey.
Meal: Breakfast
SNAPSHOT – WHAT’S INCLUDED:
- Morning sightseeing tour, Colombo city
Itineraries are subject to change, due to circumstances outside of our control. If there is any itinerary change prior to departure of significance, we aim to inform you prior to travel. Itinerary changes while on tour will be informed by your tour leader/guide while on tour.
