I am trying to work out an itinerary for Sri Lanka - will have my parents with me ( they have minor mobility issues so there cant be extensive walking). Also flexible with the number of days - I fly into Mumbai and will be in India for 2 weeks, and am planning to go to Sri Lanka between that time, so it can be any length between 7 to 10 days.

Day 1 - Arrive Colombo - Spend night in Negombo
Day 2- Drive to Dambulla - Night in Dambulla. See CAVE TEMPLE (UNESCO World Heritage Site)
Day 3- Spend night in Dambulla - See LION ROCK AT SIGIRIYA (UNESCO World Heritage Site) ; POLONNARUWA (UNESCO World Heritage Site)
Day 4- Kandy - Spend night in Kandy
Day 5 - Spend night in Kandy Kandy - See Temple of the Tooth; Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage
Day 6 - Nuwara Eliya - see Ella Gap; Spend night in Nuware Eliya
Day 7- Yala National Park - do safari - Spend night in Yala
Day 8 - Colombo - Spend night in Colombo.
Day 8 - Fly back to Mumbai

Would love to hear your thoughts or any other alternate ideas. We plan to hire our own driver/car - and will have the flexibility. The only thing we cannot do is extensive walking.

Thanks in advance,

D

I think you are trying to cover too much in your limited time.

You say "The only thing we cannot do is extensive walking." Sigirya requires a lot of walking, especially stair-climbing. I suggest you visit Sigirya and Polonnaruwa on separate days. At Polonnaruwa, your driver can drive you from one area to another and you can get out and explore, not so at Sigirya.

So I would suggest:

Day 1: overnight in Negombo
Day 2: drive to Dambulla, visit Cave temples; overnight Dambulla
Day 3: visit Polonnaruwa; overnight Dambulla
Day 4: visit Sigirya, overnight Dambulla
Day 5: drive to Kandy (can stop on the way to visit Pinnewala, overnight Kandy
Day 6: drive to Nuwara Eliya overnight there

From there, I'd spend a couple of nights in Tea country
Personally, I wouldn't go to Yala - it was so overcrowded ten years ago that it was impossible to sight wildlife, but you can certainly try it. Remember that wildlife sightings are best very early morning or near dusk.

Hiring a car and driver: I HIGHLY recommend you hire your driver through an agency. That way, you will have backup if the driver doesn't work out or the car develops problems. We used Boutique Sri Lanka to hire our driver (as well as booking hotel) and were very happy with them. I know a number of people who had less pleasant experiences with drivers. One person I know used an agency (BSL) and the agency traded out the driver. Another person I know hired an independent driver and had a bad experience - could not trade out he driver or the vehicle as it was a private driver.

We loved Sri Lanka - I hope you will, too

Kathie - your reply was exactly what I needed. Thank you for the suggestions...

Desiree, may I intervene and ask Kathie a couple of questions, in the hopes that you will benefit from the information as well? I know it's not nice to hijack threads, but I think my questions are relevant to your trip as well, so here they are:

1. Kathie, I am putting together my Sri Lanka trip for September, and I read somewhere that you went to Minneriya National Park as part of a day trip from Dambulla. Can you please explain what you combined it with, and provide details about what you did there?

2. I also read, Kathie, that you said you didn't like Kandy. Please explain.

Thank you for the interlude, Desiree, and please post on what you decided, and who you chose as your driver.

Hi CaliforniaLady, We did visit Minneriya (I believe on the same day we visited Polonnaruwa - made for a long day) and did an evening game drive to see the huge herds of elephants and lots of birds - especially painted storks. Our driver arranged it for us and we had a spotter who was great (maybe because he was deaf). If you want to see wildlife, you need to go near dawn or dusk.

Kandy - we loved visiting the Temple of the Tooth, we loved where we stayed (Kandy House), but I had expected to really like the city. I had visions of walking along the lake, wandering the markets, finding interesting items, etc. Instead, I found the city very busy, the markets were nothing special (I guess I'm jaded by so many years of visiting markets in Asia), and it was the only place in Sri Lanka where I felt the shop keepers saw dollar signs when they saw us. That may have just been the couple of places we stopped... I don't want to discourage you from visiting, but you may want to look carefully at how much time you schedule there. The guidebooks all rave about Kandy. I did not.

Thank you so much, Kathie. Your advice helps tremendously, as usual. I now have a tentative Sri Lanka itinerary, and will post it when I get the South India portion sorted out.

Desiree, if you're still around, it will be interesting to hear who you chose as your driver. Kathie and many others used BSL, but susiesan, another poster here, used Camlolanka earlier this year, with great success.

Agree with Kathie that Sigirya required lots of energy. I was very glad I visited on a cooler, overcast day!

I was not especially taken with Kandy either, although I enjoyed the Botanical Gardens.

I don't think Colombo is worth a night. I only visited because my father was there during WWII.

I couldn't find anywhere I was willing to stay in Yala and went to the beach instead.

Sorry for disappearing. Things got busy.
California Lady - I do not mind you hijacking my thread at all. Would love to know what you decided from an itenerary POV
Kathie - I am seriously thinking of not going Yala or a park. We have done the ultimate in safaris so not focused on it. I'd rather do cultural/tea plantations ( though I studied in Darjeeling which is in the middle of tea plantations).
Will keep following this site, still have some months to plan.
Thank you for all your input.

I've been to the tea plantations in Darjeeling as well as in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka wins hands down IMO.

Kathie - Great to know so will include Nuwara Eliya then

do these updates... Go to Pinnawala in the first day it self..as you only seeing dambulla cave temple in your first day you ahve enough time... from Neagmbo to there only 2.5 hours max..so you can do ..try to be at Pinnawala or see feeding and herd follow to river.. do Dambulla temple same day..

2nd and 3rd stay Habarana not dambulla it is a good base than Dambulla... time and money saving ..

you can't go ella on the way to Nuwara eliya,.,..it should other way around...Nuwara eliya is in between Kandy and Ella..so you have to go Nuwara eliya at first.please refer google maps..

make sure you go pinnawala in between Negambo and dambulla