13 nights in Sri Lanka? 3 areas only
 

Please could you help me find 3 areas to stay, looking for beauty and nature, off the beaten track, not big on cities. ( 1 beach area). In our 60's, fit but need a bit of luxury...thanks

My recommendations:

1. The Cultural Triangle area to visit the Dambulla Cave Temples, Polonnaruwa and Sigiriya. We very much enjoyed staying at the Kandalama.

2. Tea Country Staying at Tea Trails was a highlight of our trip

3. A beach - sorry, I can't help much with this one. We didn't stay at any beaches. And which beach to choose depends a lot on when you are going.

You might find our photos helpful: http://www.marlandc.com/Sri-lanka-2007

BTW, you will want/need a car and driver for your trip, certainly for your time in the Cultural Triangle. Hire through an agency.

Thank you for your help

Hi, if you're looking for an unspoiled empty beach, go to Kalpititya! We were there in October and it was beautiful without many other tourists around. We stayed at Ruwala Resort, which was at the lagoon side. Also Bar Reef Resort at the beach (we had lunch there twice) looked like a lovely place to relax, with a big pool right on the beach.

Which month do you visit?

I can recommend the following:
1. Galle and a stay at Galle Fort. It's an amazing location! And close by are paradise beaches such as Unawatuna and Jungle Beach (one of my favorites in Sri Lanka).
2. South coast: We traveled the second time to Sri Lanka last November to discover the south and west coast and I can definitely recommend that areas around Mirissa and Tangalle. It's beautiful and in November it wasn't crowded at all.
3. The mountain area: around Haputale and Ella is stunning! I can recommend trying a tuk tuk safari through mountains and tea plantations, it was so much fun and one of the highlights of our trip!
If you're looking for a local agency I can recommend the one we used to book hotels and the driver/ guide, the name is Mai Globe Travels and their service was really good.

I think the places Kathie recommended are great: Cultural Triangle and tea country. Kandy is a really interesting city in tea country and the site of the Temple of the Tooth which is amazing. It's also a beautiful city. We went to Mirissa as it was a beach that was supposed to be somewhat undeveloped but that was a bit disappointing: beautiful beach but filled with buildings and food kiosks and noise so we moved on to Welligama which was more isolated but more of a surfer beach in a fisherman's harbor so I don't know what I'd recommend,. However, Yalla Park is not to be missed even with all the jeeps searching for animals. It's utterly amazing. We did use a driver (Sri Lankan Safest Driver) and it was wonderful both for not having to deal with arrangements, his knowledge of the sites and not having to deal with the narrow winding roads.

However, Yalla Park is not to be missed even with all the jeeps searching for animals. It's utterly amazing>>

Marc - I have respectfully to disagree with you about Yala. Fleets of jeeps chasing the animals around a relatively small area is not environmentally sound, is bad [and dangerous] for the animals, and potentially dangerous for the humans too. jeep drivers putting their vehicles directly in the path of a herd of elephants is foolhardy in the extreme, and all the jeeps converging on a point where it is believed a leopard might be is at best frightening for the animal concerned. We saw all this and more in only 2 days.

Ella for Nature, Yala and udawalawa for wildlife, Tangalle/mirissa for beach