Srilanka vacation 7 days/6 nights

Old Jun 4th, 2013, 11:35 PM
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Srilanka vacation 7 days/6 nights

My wife and I plan to visit Srilanka in September/October this year on our first wedding anniversary. We are budget minded travelers looking for an optimal mix of fun and spend.

Our plan is to fly into Colombo and travel by local transport (train/bus- find cab a bit expensive ). Things we want to cover during our 6 nights/7 days stay are, beaches, Cultural triangle, Galle and Colombo city. Please help us refine this itinerary of ours.

From the airport :

Day 1 & 2 – Visit the cultural triangle ( Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and Dambulla ), by train or bus- need suggestions on mode of transport and accommodation.

Is this possible in two days? . Dambulla and Sigiriya are places that we want to make it to. need suggestions on the others

Day 3 - back to Colombo..City tour... (need suggestions for place of stay.. been told Colombo is expensive)

Day 4 - Train to Unawatuna (3 hrs)

Day 5 - Visit Galle and move train to Bentota

Day 6 - Bentota -(is there option to do snorkelling)?

Day 7 - Bentota to airport . ( is Negombo a better option as it is close to the airport)


We would also like to do white water rafting. How can we accommodate this in our itinerary.

Please suggest place of stay and things to check out in various destinations to make our first overseas trip a memorable one.

Thanks
Utter!
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Old Jun 5th, 2013, 05:20 AM
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I'd cut Colombo from your itinerary. Read some of the trip reports - no one felt it was a must-visit. If you decide you must visit Colombo, do it at the very end before you fly out.

The Cultural Triangle area is fascinating. We loved Polonnaruwa as well as the Dambulla cave temples and SIgirya. Anuradhapura is a long drive away.

We used a car and driver for our time in Sri Lanka, so I can't help with trains/buses. DO you have the Lonely Planet guide?
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Old Jun 6th, 2013, 07:17 PM
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Kathie thanks for your response. I am new to this forum and I do not have the Lonely Planet guide.

We will skip the colombo city tour and may be do it on the way back to the airport.

Are you suggesting us to skip Anuradhapura. Are two days good enough to cover the cultural triangle.
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Old Jun 7th, 2013, 06:27 AM
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I am suggesting you skip Anuradhapura. Two full days (three nights) would be an absolute minimum to cover the other major sites in the cultural triangle.

Read some of the many trip reports here - just choose Sri Lanka from the drop-down menu at the top of the page and look for the posts with the trip report icon. One of the things you will learn is that getting from place to place in Sri Lanka takes a lot longer than you think. I'd encourage you to make fewer stops so you have more time to enjoy.

Do get yourself a guidebook, you will need it to do your planning.
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Old Jun 7th, 2013, 12:41 PM
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Far, far too ambitious for a 6-7 day trip. road travel in Sri Lanka takes a lot longer than you can possibly imagine.

you could do a very nice trip going to Polonnaruwa, the Dambulla cave temples and SIgirya [and you could see the elephants at Minneriya while you are there] for 3 nights, then going to Kandy for 2 nights, and finally back to Colombo [not much to see] for your final night.

the drive from the airport to Dambulla [a good base for seeing the cultural triangle] is at least 4 hours, and the same again from Dambulla to Kandy.

you could also have a lovely time if you went up to Kandy, then down to Galle, and back up to Colombo.

sadly, unless you have access to a private jet, your original ideas are impossible.
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