LPCooray

Planning to visit Sri Lanka on December this year and will be there for at least 2 weeks. In two weeks time I want to use the whole week visiting beautiful places there. Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks in advanced!

Craig

Define beautiful - cultural, wildlife, beaches, nature, local people? Help us out - Sri Lanka has much to offer but it is diverse.

Kathie

We thought all the places we visited in Sri Lanka were beautiful, but in different ways. We loved the cultural triangle area and spent 4 nights there. Tea country is lovely, with cool evenings and mornings and the mountainsides covered with tea bushes.

Take a look at some of our photos: www.marlandc.com and click on Sri Lanka.

silverlex

I visited Colombo, Galle, Nuwara Eliya and Kandy in a 6 day personalized tour of Sri Lanka. Suggest you spend a few days in Galle ( Galle Fort Hotel in the Fort precincts or the Jetwing Lighthouse by the beach ) and in the Tea Factory Hotel in Nuwara Eliya for a couple of nights would be good fun. Unless you have a strong interest in Buddhist artifacts, Kandy is very crowded. Generally infrastructure slows you down in travelling but then who's rushing in Sri Lanka. If you have time go to a wild life safari - planning for my next visit. Get a personalized tour worked out - I used Blue Lanka - a pretty small but reliable outfit.

silverlex

Also I forgot - watch out for whales!

annhig

I visited Colombo, Galle, Nuwara Eliya and Kandy in a 6 day personalised tour>>

that was quite a fast trip, silverlex. in 14 days you can see quite a lot of SL at a reasonable pace [for Sri Lanka] which can mean speeds of up to 40 mph but you can't see it all. The roads and traffic are shocking, so much better to take it slowly, or rather, allow your driver to do so.

Kathie has a lot of good information in her trip reports [just click on her screen-name].

Esme_Travels

Ha. It seems I am always following Kathie and annhig on these replies, and basically just reiterating what they have already said.

Sri Lanka offers more diverse, beautiful scenery in a compact space than any other country I've visited. Extreme geographies and cultural examples are very close to one another, but -- as others have mentioned -- the time getting from one to the next is increased by the lack of infrastructure.

Thoughts:
- I didn't find much beauty in Colombo
- The grounds of my hotel, Apa Villa Illuketia, outside Galle, were gorgeous
- Galle's ramparts at sunset are quite photogenic
- Yala National Park is scenic. I got some pretty good elephant photos
- Tea Country, Horton Plains, etc. is completely different. Less tropical, still dramatic
- Sigiriya is also a sight to behold
- I can't even speak to the Northern part of the country, which I did not have time to visit

I, too, have a Sri Lanka trip report. It's at http://www.esmetravels.com/category/...log/sri-lanka/

annhig

Ha. It seems I am always following Kathie and annhig on these replies, and basically just reiterating what they have already said.>>

great minds, esme. Can all 3 of us be wrong?