best town to stay at for vsiting in Cultural Triangle area?
 

My husband and I will visit Sri Lanka in Feb. 2016 for 14 days/nights. I have a driver lined up and am beginning to plan the routing for a typical first time visit highlight tour. I am also researching hotels at the 3 or 4 star level or guesthouses and can use recommendations. Trying to stay at a budget of under $75 a night with a pool and AC

We land at 11:30pm the first night and I plan to check into a hotel in Negombo for one night. Next day we will meet the driver and head off for the Cultural Triangle. I think spending 3 nights in this area will give us time to see all the sights as day trips from one hotel location. Which town is most centrally located for easy access to all of the important places in the CT?

After leaving the CT area it looks like the next town to stay would be Kandy, right?

We stayed in Dambulla and felt it was an great location. There are a number of good hotels in the area.

Are you working with a local agent? We found that very helpful. We used Boutique Sri Lanka and they gave us excellent recommendations for hotels.

Yes, usually the next stop after the cultural triangle is Kandy. We didn't like the town as much as we had expected to like it.

Dambulla is centrally located. I also recommend BSL. Kandy would be your next logical stop - 1 night is all that is needed there with Botanical Gardens definitely worth a visit.

Another vote for Dambulla. We spent 4 nights and thought that was perfect. If you are interested in medieval temples, there are three outside of Kandy that are worth visiting; you can combine it with the botanic gardens for a full day.

Yes, I am working with an agent. Camlo Lanka Tours, in direct contact with the owner. He can also get good rates at some places. before I started working with him I sent numerous emails to BSL last December and never heard back so I found another company.

With a late arrival to a Negombo hotel, any suggestions for one that is clean, cheap, has a good breakfast, and can arrange an airport pick up late at night? I was going to stay in Negombo 2 nights before heading out on tour but a friend says it's a horrible dirty place.

I will study up on Dambulla and hotels there.

I am going to build the itinerary in segments as I have 9 months to plan it all out. I also know the last 2 nights of the tour will be spent at Unawatuna, at a hotel called Bedspace.

Villa Ariliya is excellent but might be slightly more than your budget. Otherwise it will meet all of your requirements...

Habarana will probably be the most central area to stay.

Villa Araliya in Negombo looks to be $90 a night. If we were staying more than one short night I would consider it. My agent says he can get us in Jetwing for $55-60 a night with breakfast. he says an airport pick up would be $20. Does this sound fair?

My agent and a friend we will meet up with in SL think Sigiriya is a good place to be based for 3 nights to see the Cultural Triangle sights. She has stayed at a hotel there on a prior trip, Lion Rock Hotel Guesthouse. It has 8 rooms, AC, pool and is $45 a night.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev..._Province.html

Anyone vote for Sigiriya? Any hotel suggestions there?

Sigiriya is a fine location> Dambulla and Sigirya are quite close together.

I can't help with the guesthouse questions. $20 for pick up at the airport sounds reasonable to me..

So Sigiriya is a good choice. I know the Lion Rock Hotel guesthouse has driver accommodations.

The Negombo Jetwing hotel my agent recommends is called Jetwing J.

http://www.hotel-j-negombo-sri-lanka.en.ww.lk/

It is managed by Jetwing but is a budget version. Deluxe with breakfast, no sea view is $63 on their web site. Since we will only be at this hotel for 1 short night and won't have time to use the pool or facilities I think I'll look for a guesthouse for just a place to sleep in Negombo. There are dozens that are under $50 a night.

Update
I will stay 1 night in Negombo at Serendib Guesthouse, $38
Day 2 drive to Anaradhapura stay 1 night Ceylan Lodge, $55
Day 3 drive to Dambulla stay 2 nights Pelewehera Village Resort, $81.
We will visit Polonnoruwa and Sigiriya from Dambulla. Then we will move on to Kandy.

I can cancel or change ge the hotel's at no charge if I change the plan or find a different place to stay.

Hi, out of the hotels you chose I know only Pelwehera Village Resort. Stayed there when I was in SL for a horse riding vacation. I liked this hotel a lot! Friendly staff and nice, clean rooms.

susiesan - have you checked how long the drive will be from Negombo to Anaradhapura, and then to Dambulla?

google maps says that it's about 3 ½ hours from Negombo to Anaradhapura, [and the rest!] and then you have to see the sights there which is probably going to take at least half a day or more to do properly.

then the next day you are driving to Dambulla [anther 2 hours probably] and see one of the sights, with the other one the next day, and then moving on again.

that's a lot of moving about for my tastes. the driving in SL takes a lot longer than you might expect - Dambulla to Kandy is only 84 kms but can take anything from 2-4 hours.

personally I would plan for 2 nights in Anaradhapura, and three in Dambulla. 2 in Kandy is then probably enough.

where are you planning to go after that?

After Kandy we will drive to Nuwara Eliya for 1 night. Then to Ella for 2 nights.Then Tangalle for 2 nights, then end in Unawatuna for 3 nights.

I dropped Pelewehera Village and booked Joe's Habana in Dambulla for 2 nights after Anuadhapura.

As a Srilankan i would suggest Habarana , which is the center location for all the places.
You can find lost of hotels with nature experience in that area.
Your Guide or travel agency will help you.

But if you stay at sigiriya you can have some experinace in elephant riding kind of thing. but you can save time when stay at Habaran.
Also visit dambull when you come back to kandy. Then you have more time. Depending on your schedule.
If you need more info please tell me. As a Srilanka i would like to help our guests.

Have a memorable trip.

Anuwa: I would never ride an elephant in Sri Lanka. It is animal cruelty to put those heavy riding boxes on their back and load down with hundreds of pounds of human weight. Many Americans are urging tourist to Sri Lanka to boycott elephant rides.

The location of Joes Habarana Village hotel is 1h 14m on google maps from Anuradhapura. It is 18 min from Dambulla, 20 min from Sigiriya. Appears to be quite central for this area.
Then 2h 10m to hotel in Kandy, Thilanka Hotel.

susiean, apparently no one from Google has ever been to Sri Lanka. Double the drive times they give you and you'll be closer. In some cases, you need to triple the times.

suseian - just echoing what Kathie says - what with the state of some of the roads, the level of traffic and the frequent traffic jams, the standard of driving and the interesting vehicles being driven, and the very low speed limits even on long straight even stretches of highway - it can take what you may find is an extraordinarily long time to get from A-B.

Thank your susiesan for standing up for the elephants, I am one who strongly believes in exactly what you said. The story of the elephants is a sad one! The wild population has come down 100 fold due to "sportmen" hunting in the past colonial era and nowadays they are captured and kept in captivity in most depraved conditions. The big temples keep them in chains with wounds festering around their ankles, they are dressed and paraded and forced to walk on hot asphalt roads in the burning mid day heat which burn their soles, babies snatched way from their mothers....have you ever seen a grieving sad elephant?, exported to far away zoos to live among strangers... have you seen the glazed look in the eyes of zoo elephants, and also like you said being forced to carry these big loads on their spine is most unnatural for them and hurts them.