Sri Lanka for the first time: what we would tell you first

This is what we say in the first conversation with someone who has never been. Five things, in the order they matter.

One: your dates decide which half of the island you get

The island has two monsoons. They arrive on opposite sides and at opposite times of year. The southwest monsoon soaks the west and south coasts and the western hills from roughly May to September. The northeast monsoon soaks the east, the north and the eastern hills from roughly late October to February. There is no month when the whole island is dry.

This is not a detail to check at the end. It is the first decision, and everything else follows from it.

What it means in practice is unusual and, once you accept it, quite freeing. Your dates do not decide whether you can go to Sri Lanka. They decide which Sri Lanka you go to. A traveller with fixed dates in July who insists on Galle and Mirissa has planned a disappointing holiday: grey days, a sea that lifeguards are keeping people out of, half the beach places at half strength. The same traveller sent to the cultural triangle, the eastern hills, Trincomalee and Arugam Bay gets better weather, emptier beaches, lower prices and the elephant gathering while they are there. That is our east coast and Jaffna route, and it exists for exactly this.

The rain is not the main problem in any case. The sea is. A wet afternoon is an inconvenience. A red-flagged beach for ten days is the holiday you thought you were booking, gone, and the currents on the monsoon-side coast are genuinely dangerous rather than merely rough. The month-by-month table is in which month to visit Sri Lanka.

Two: the island is small and the roads are not fast

Sri Lanka is about 270 miles (435 km) top to bottom and 140 miles (225 km) across, roughly the size of Ireland. That smallness is what makes people plan six stops in ten days.

Away from the two expressways, main roads average 25 to 30 miles an hour (40 to 48 km/h). A 90 mile leg is a half day. Ask any operator for driving hours rather than distances, and be suspicious of the ones who answer in distances.

The working limit we apply is one hotel change every two and a half days. Above that, a Sri Lanka trip becomes a driving holiday, and these roads are not enjoyable enough to justify it. When a brief has more places than that allows, we say which stop we would cut. It is nearly always the fourth beach or the second hill town.

Three: three bookings have to happen early

Most of Sri Lanka can be arranged four to six months out and some of it much later. Three things cannot.

The hill country train. Reserved seats on the Kandy to Ella line go on sale 30 days before departure and the good classes frequently sell out the same day in high season. There is no way to buy earlier through the railway. We lock the plan, buy on the morning of release, and if your booking sits outside that window we hold the date and buy at day 30. If the reserved classes have gone we use a private carriage, or run the shorter Nanu Oya to Ella leg, which is the beautiful part anyway. The whole mechanism is in the Kandy to Ella train.

Christmas, New Year and the Esala Perahera. Six to nine months for the small hill bungalows and the good south coast villas, which go first and do not come back.

Anything with five rooms. The best tea estate bungalows have five or six rooms in total. One family books the whole house.

Four: the two sights everybody wants have honest caveats

Sigiriya is worth the climb and it is a real climb: roughly 1,200 steps, much of it on exposed metal staircases bolted to the rock, with a narrow section near the top where you move at the speed of the person in front of you. At midday it is both hot and heavily congested, and the rock holds the heat. We put you at the gate for opening, which solves most of it. If anybody in the party is unhappy on stairs or in crowds, Pidurangala opposite is a shorter scramble with the better view, because it has Sigiriya in it.

The foreign visitor ticket for Sigiriya is also one of the larger single entry fees in Asia, and the cultural triangle tickets together are the most underestimated line in a Sri Lanka budget. They have risen more than once in recent years, so we confirm the current published prices for your dates rather than quoting last year’s.

Yala has one of the highest leopard densities anywhere and block 1, where almost every visitor goes, can put a dozen jeeps around a single sighting. A leopard is likely across several dry season drives and it is not guaranteed. We often send people to Wilpattu instead, or to Udawalawe for elephants, and we give you the trade-off rather than choosing for you. Block 1 also usually closes for several weeks in the driest part of the year, generally September into October, and we check your dates against the current closure. Yala or Wilpattu is the longer version.

Five: the driver is the trip

Sri Lanka has a well established system of licensed English-speaking chauffeur guides who stay with you for the whole trip. A good one changes the holiday completely. A bad one takes you to the spice garden, the gem shop and the batik factory that pay him commission, and adds two hours to every driving day doing it.

That commission culture is real and it is the single biggest quality difference between Sri Lanka operators. Our drivers are booked through our Delhi office and our ground team, briefed that there are no shopping stops unless you ask for one, and paid a proper day rate so they are not relying on the alternative. If you are booking elsewhere, ask the question directly: how is the driver paid, and does he take commission.

What surprises first-time visitors

• How gentle it is. People who have travelled in India expect a smaller version of it and find something quite different: quieter, greener, slower, less insistent.
• How cold the hills get at night. The lowlands sit around 86°F (30°C). Nuwara Eliya at 6,200 feet (1,890 m) can drop to the low 50s°F (about 11°C) after dark, and most hill hotels have no heating. Nobody packs a jumper and everybody wants one.
• Poya days. Every full moon is a public holiday. No alcohol is sold, some restaurants stop serving, and religious sites are at their busiest and most interesting. We flag the dates in your trip.
• The sun. Stronger than the temperature suggests, particularly on the water.
• Buddha images. Do not pose with your back to a Buddha statue and think hard about a visible Buddha tattoo. Both have caused visitors serious trouble with the authorities, including refused entry. This is not a cultural nicety, it is a law-enforcement matter.
• Leeches in the Knuckles, Sinharaja and the wet hills after rain. Socks and patience.
• How good the food is, and how little of it appears in hotel buffets. Eat outside the hotel, and see what to eat in Sri Lanka.

What we would do on a first trip

Twelve days, in this shape: the cultural triangle for three nights with Sigiriya at opening, Kandy for one, the tea hills for three with the train leg into Ella, one safari park chosen for the animal you actually want, and four nights on whichever coast your dates allow, at the end, without moving.

That last clause matters more than it looks. Ending on one beach for four nights, rather than two beaches for two nights each, is the difference between a rest and a rearrangement. The full argument is in the best two-week route through Sri Lanka.

Plan this trip

Give us your dates and we will tell you which half of the island they point at, then build the route around it. Free, non-generic, and with no obligation.

Start planning

Keep reading

• Sri Lanka: the complete guide to planning your trip
• Which month to visit Sri Lanka, and why it depends on the coast
• The Kandy to Ella train, and how to actually get a seat
• The best two-week route through Sri Lanka
• Classic Sri Lanka, 12 days
• Sri Lanka, planned around the monsoon that actually matters

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