tansmets

Thanks all for your help. I've come up with 2 itineraries for my husband to chose from - one including Kandy and the Cultural Triangle, the shorter one is solely Hill County and Galle / Mirissa / Bentota - 3 nights Hill County, 3 nights Galle area.

The longer one is below. The first 3 nights we are in 3 different hotels and have a lot of driving time, which is a bit annoying. After our trip to India I told my husband no more "driving vacations" and vetoed trips to Mongolia and Xinjiang. I guess I lied a bit.

A few questions: Hill Country hotel recommendations? The most high end...except for Tea Trails, so a notch below, but a similiar (relaxing!) resort type experience.

What is Galle like at night? Is it safe and comfortable to walk around? When we were in India, I felt like I couldn't just stroll the street at night, which was not a feeling I liked.

Day 1 -Arrive 8pm, overnight near airport (airport hotel )
Day 2 – Drive to Dambulla, sight see (Heritance Kandalama Hotel)
Day 3 - Sirigaya in the AM, drive to Kandy (Kandy Hotel)
Day 4 - Botanical Gardens, Drive Kandy to Nuwara Eliya (Tea Trails type hotel )
Day 5 - Horton’s End (Tea Trails type hotel)
Day 6 - Nuwara Eliya leisure (Tea Trails type hotel)
Day 7 - Nuwara Eliya to Galle area, possible stop at Uda Walwale reserve en-route (Galle area / beach hotel)
Day 8 – Galle area leisure (Galle area / Bentota beach hotel)
Day 9 - Drive to Mirissa, whale watching (Galle area / beach hotel)
Day 10 – Galle leisure (Galle area / beach hotel)
Day 11 - Galle to Airport leave in the evening on red eye (sleep on plane)
Day 12 – arrive home

Kathie

The first part of your itinerary is a killer. You would be better off to add a day either at the Kandalama or in Kandy.

You will find Sri Lanka quite different from India in many ways: It doesn't have the litter everywhere that India does and in general, is simply much cleaner. There isn't the level of poverty you see in India.

By all the accounts of friends who have stayed in Galle, it is a safe place to walk, even at night. The old part of Galle has many little shops, restaurants, etc. and is a charming walking area.

I can't help with a hotel suggestions in tea country. Look at the BSL website, as they have info on lots of hotels. Once you decide on an agent, get recommendations from them.

You are traveling at the busiest and most expensive time of the year, so do get reservations soon. An agent like BSL may well be able to get you reservations at places that show full on booking site.

crellston

We spent about 4 nights in Galle and loved it. Great restaurants at all levels as well as delicious street and market food. We found it perfectly safe to wnder the streets at night both within the walls of the old town and elsewhere. Along the south coast Mirissa is a good place to spend a night or two as it has one of the best beaches. We kept on going through Bentota as it seemed way too commericailised for us. It is relatively easy to get to Galle from Mirrissa.

We travelled with Reddot but would not recommend them as we had more than a few problems. They do have a very informative website though. We took a different route through the Tea Country as part of the reason for going was to try and locate the tea plantation my grandfather ran in the 1930s. If you can, I would try and get your operator to incorporate a train ride in the hill country, especially the route from Hatton to Haputale. That way you will experience the scenery you just won't see by road. It is easy enough to get your driver to drop you off at one station and then pick you up at the other end.

For more detail on our time their a few years ago here is a link to my TR

http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...-and-curry.cfm

annhig

What is Galle like at night? Is it safe and comfortable to walk around? When we were in India, I felt like I couldn't just stroll the street at night, which was not a feeling I liked.>>

we wandered around the streets of Galle at night and lived to tell the tale. The first night we just went out within the old town itself, but the 2nd night we wanted to see the perahera [religious parade with elephants] so we walked over to the new town and strolled along the streets with everyone else. we kept to the areas with lights but really there were no problems and we felt perfectly safe. we stayed out until about 11.30 pm and then got a tuk tuk back to our hotel.

we also went out at night in Colombo and similarly had no problems at all.

if you can manage another trip report, just click on my name to find it, but really Kathie and crellston have done very good TRs which i found very helpful for my trip planning.

tansmets

Thanks again everyone for the advice. Glad to hear SL seems a bit 'calmer' than India. We took a vacation from our vacation at Devi Garth during the last 4 days of our trip to India. I think if we go with the longer itinerary, I'll cut a day from Galle and add it to the Cultural Triangle. I'm also going to see if there are any holistic / ayurvedic / spa places. A day or two of detox and yoga would be nice.

I have a feeling my husband will just want 3 nights in Hatton / Nuwara Eliya and then Galle and shorter, easier to plan trip (that omits Kandy and the Cultural Triangle), but I'll contact BSL regardless. I typically don't use agents because I like to book my own hotels and generally it's cheaper, but I trust the recommendations here.

annhig

tansmets - the BSL website is a great resource with lots of suggested itineraries and ideas for trips and accommodation. once you've got your ideas together, you can e-mail them your proposed itinerary and they will send you a quote; they will then happily alter it in any way you please until you get it right.

once you confirm, you pay a deposit for the accommodation you are booking through them, and settle up with the hotel on departure in the normal way. You pay for the driver and vehicle including petrol [very reasonable, IMO] when he picks you up from the airport or your hotel preferably with U$. [you cna pay by c/card but there's a surcharge]

Your driver takes you to the accommodation, makes sure that your accommodation is sorted out properly, and generally smooths your way [at least ours did!] He also acts as a guide, suggesting things to do en route to your next base, pointing out places of interest, wild life, etc.

for a first trip I think it would be difficult to rival the service they give.

tansmets

Hi all,

Thanks for the invaluable advice. I'm still waiting to get an itinerary from BSL but on my own I've sketched out one and reserved some hotels just in case they are not available by the time I hear from BSL. We've cut the Cultural Triangle; we would have liked to go to Sigiriya but it would have involved an extra 2-3 nights and a lot of driving to get there from what we wanted to see in the south. Unfortunately we don't have the time to do it on this trip without feeling rushed.

Due to traveling at high season, reversing our direction and starting in Galle and working our way north to Nuwara Eliya seems to make more sense. I have better hotel options in Galle earlier on in the trip.

Day 1 - arrive, airport hotel (suggestions??)
Day 2- Airport area to Galle (Jetwing Lighthouse or Galle hotel)
Day 3 - Galle area or Whale Watching (Jetwing Lighthouse or Galle hotel)
Day 4 - Galle (Jetwing Lighthouse or Galle hotel)
Day 5 - Galle(Jetwing Lighthouse or Galle hotel)
Day 6 - galle to Uda Walawe (hotel suggestion for safari???)
Day 7 - Uda Walawe - see elephants in the morning, then head to Nuwara Eliya (Tea Factory)
Day 8 - Horton's Plains (Tea Factory)
Day 9 - Nuwara Eliya activities or hiking (Tea Factory Hotel)
Day 10 - Tea Factory hotel drive to Airport for 1am flight.

annhig

tansmets - we didn't stay at the Lighthouse, but it was where our driver wanted to take us when we decided not to stay on the coast and wanted to stay in Galle town itself. of course the Jetwing isn't in Galle, so we guided him away from that idea and got him to take us into the town. All the reports I read about it suggest that it's fabulous; it's not in Galle itself, but if you're OK with that, a tuk tuk into town won't cost much.

In NE, I can recommend visiting the Victoria Gardens in the centre of town :

http://www.srilankatravelnotes.com/N...riaGarden.html

very interesting and the cafe is excellent and cheap. a visit to a tea factory is a lot of fun too.

tansmets

Annhig - thanks for the Garden suggestion. I will check it out. I'm debating splitting the nights up - 2 IN Galle, 2 on the beach, but I looked at some maps and the Jetwing Lighthouse is quite close to the town of Galle. The other beautiful Jetwing Property, ERA Beach, which looks nicer than the Lighthouse is a bit far. I think the Jetwing Lighthouse will allow us to easily go into Galle for lunch / dinner / walking around. At least I hope so! I have yet to book it.

annhig

tansmets - i looked up the position of the Lighthouse hotel, and it's only 5 mins drive outside the old walled city - very easy in a tuk tuk. [the hotel will be able to tell you what the going rate is]

the ERA beach is a bit further away but the directions function on google maps still says that it's 7 minutes into Central Galle. I'd allow 10. so it might tick both of your boxes. I'm sure that they would arrange whale watching for you if that's important to you. [we were there at the wrong time of year].

if you want to have lunch in Galle, you could do worse than the Fort Printers as the food there is very good..