Hudhud

Hello there,
We are leaving to Sri Lanka for 6 days in mid October with our 2 children 6 and 3!
Arriving at the airport late after midnight and hence booked a room in a nearby hotel so that we can rest after the trip.
We are intending to have a driver/guide all along the trip.
Starting our day fresh, we were thinking of going to Kandy , Nuwara Eliya and then to Udawalawa. Finally spending one night in Colombo.
Does this seem a good choice of traveling with two children? We didn't include Sigiriya because we though it would be hot and not much for the children and hence opted for Udawalawa since it offers a nice stay in the jungle and a safari. But we were told that it is a very long drive to Udawalawa! any other jungle-like experience that we can replace it with?
I would very much appreciate your suggestion and any changes/suggestions to my itinerary.
Thanks in advance.

Kathie

With two small children, pause and consider what they will want to do. I assume they will not want to spend hours and hours driving on winding roads. All of the drives in Sri Lanka are long - probably 4-5 hours to Kandy, for instance. And I'd suggest you skip Columbo.

With just 6 days choose not more than two locations. And choose, in part, on the basis of how close they are. Even places that look fairly close will take 2-3 hours to get to.

Hudhud

Very kind of you Kathie! So what do you suggest as the two stops? We will have to go back to Colombo for the last night. We will have full five days to explore since I didn't include the night we arrive in Colombo and the day we leave. Shall we make it Nuwarul Eliya and Ella only? We are not much into beaches as we live in Dubai and we have plenty of them around! We are hungry for jungles, waterfalls, green mountains and all!
Thanks again.

Kathie

If wildlife is a must, you might want to consider Yala. Coming from Dubai, you might want some time in the cool of the hill country, perhaps time at a tea plantation. We used Boutique Sri Lanka to arrange our trip, you might take a look at their website for ideas.

annhig

Hudhud,

I agree with Kathie that moving around so much would be too much for small children - longer in fewer places would be much better.

Driving [or rather being driven as you do not want to drive yourselves] takes much longer than you would ever think possible.

Hudhud

Thanks guys for your advice! Very helpful
We decided to go to Sigiriya for one night, Kandy 2 nights and Nuwara Eliya only!
all the best!

Kathie

Even that is a lot. You will be almost 20 hours of driving just for that.

annhig

Hudhud - that's an awful lot of time on the road. I would suggest Sigiriya and Kandy, or Kandy and NE, but not all 3.