Classic Sri Lanka: 12 days
The route almost every first visit should take, in the season it is built for. It runs north to south with no backtracking: the ancient cities in the dry zone, Kandy, up into the tea hills by train, then down to the coast for the last three nights.
- Duration
- 12 days
- Pace
- Moderate
- Hotel changes
- 6
- Best months
- Dec, Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr
- From
- $2,100 per person
It is written for December to March or early April, when the south and west are dry. If your dates fall between May and September, this is the wrong itinerary and we will say so on the first call. Take the east coast and Jaffna route instead.
Twelve days, six hotel changes, and no drive over four hours.
Who it suits: first-time visitors who want the whole shape of the island without a driving holiday, and couples or friends travelling at a normal pace.
Your specialist: your named Sri Lanka specialist, with our Delhi office and our representatives in Colombo coordinating the ground.
Day by day
Day 1: Arrive Colombo, night at Negombo. Most long-haul flights land late at night or before dawn. Negombo is twenty minutes from the airport and Colombo is an hour in the wrong direction, so we put you on the coast, hand you a room and schedule nothing. If you land in the morning, the fish market and the Dutch canal fill an easy afternoon.
Day 2: Negombo to Sigiriya. Around three and a half hours north, mostly on the expressway and then good road. Afternoon at the Dambulla cave temples, five caves cut into the rock and painted floor to ceiling, which take about an hour and are best in the late light. Check in near Sigiriya.
Day 3: Sigiriya. At the gate for opening, before the heat and before the tour buses. The climb is about 1,200 steps, a good part of it on open metal staircases attached to the rock, with a slow section near the top where you move at the pace of the queue. It is worth it, and it is a genuine climb. Down by mid-morning, then the afternoon is yours. If anyone would rather not do the staircases, Pidurangala opposite is a shorter scramble with the better view.
Day 4: Polonnaruwa. Forty-five minutes east, on bicycles from around seven, which is the only sensible way to cover a site this spread out and the only comfortable hour to do it. The Gal Vihara Buddhas are the best carving on the island. Back for lunch and an afternoon off. Between roughly July and October we would swap this afternoon for an elephant drive at Minneriya or Kaudulla, but in this season the herds are dispersed and we do not pretend otherwise.
Day 5: Sigiriya to Kandy. Around three hours south, through Matale. We do not stop at the commission spice gardens on this road. We do stop at a working cinnamon or pepper smallholding if you are interested, and at Nalanda Gedige, a small eighth century stone shrine that almost nobody visits. Evening puja at the Temple of the Tooth, which is when the temple is alive rather than a museum.
Day 6: Kandy. The Peradeniya botanical gardens early, then the covered market, then the lake walk. Kandy is a working city rather than a pretty one and it rewards a slow day. Late afternoon free.
Day 7: The hill country train. Board at Kandy or Peradeniya for the climb to Nanu Oya, roughly four hours through tea estates, tunnels and eucalyptus. Your driver meets the train with your luggage. Two nights in a tea estate bungalow above Nuwara Eliya, at around 6,000 feet, where you will want a jumper after dark.
Day 8: Horton Plains, then the estate. Leaving at half past five so you reach World’s End before the mist does. The loop is about five and a half miles (9 km) over open moorland, roughly three hours, and the cliff drops around 2,900 feet (880 m). By ten the cloud is usually in and the view has gone, which is why the alarm is set. Back for a late breakfast, then a guided walk through the estate with a plucker and a look at the factory.
Day 9: Nanu Oya to Ella by train. The best three hours on the line, past Haputale and over the Demodara loop. Afternoon in Ella: Little Adam’s Peak is 45 minutes up and is the right amount of effort for the day you have had.
Day 10: Ella to the south coast, via Udawalawe. Down out of the hills, a two-and-a-half-hour drive, then an afternoon game drive at Udawalawe. This is the elephant park, and elephants are close to certain here year round, which is why we use it rather than promising you something seasonal. On to the coast near Tangalle or Dickwella for the night.
Day 11: The coast, and Galle. A morning that is deliberately empty: swim, sleep, eat. Then two hours west to Galle in the afternoon and the ramparts of the fort at dusk, when the walls fill with families and the heat finally breaks. Night inside the fort walls.
Day 12: Departure. Galle to the airport is about two and a half hours on the Southern Expressway, which is the fastest road in the country. If your flight is late, we add a morning at the Dutch Reformed church, the lighthouse and the ramparts again before it gets hot.
What is included
Accommodation with breakfast including two nights in a tea estate bungalow and a night inside Galle Fort, a private air-conditioned car with a licensed English-speaking chauffeur guide throughout, reserved train seats on both hill country legs, site guides at Sigiriya, Polonnaruwa, Kandy and Galle, bicycles at Polonnaruwa, the Horton Plains entry and permits, a private jeep with tracker at Udawalawe, all entry fees, a document with real driving hours, and a WhatsApp group with your consultant and our local representatives.
Honest notes
The train seats. Reservations on the hill country line open exactly 30 days before departure and the reserved classes routinely sell out the same day in high season. We buy on the morning they release. If your booking sits outside that window we hold the plan and buy at day 30. If they are gone we use a private carriage or, failing that, we drive the Kandy to Nanu Oya section and keep the Nanu Oya to Ella leg, which is the part worth having.
Sigiriya at midday is unpleasant. Hot, exposed, and slow because of the volume of people on a staircase that can only take one line at a time. The opening slot is not a luxury on this itinerary, it is the whole reason it works.
We have left Yala out. On a twelve day first trip we would rather give you a reliable elephant morning at Udawalawe than a crowded afternoon in Yala’s block 1 hoping for a leopard. If a leopard is the point of your trip, tell us and we will restructure the last third around Yala or Wilpattu, and we will be straight with you about the odds either way.
Ella is busy now. It is still beautiful and it is no longer quiet. If you would prefer the version without the crowd we move you to Haputale or Ella’s outskirts and keep the same walks.
The season is not negotiable. This route uses the south and west coasts. From May to September that coast is under the southwest monsoon, with rough seas and rip currents. We will not sell you this itinerary in July.
Related
Shape this trip around us All Sri Lanka, planned around the monsoon that actually matters trips
