Alright everyone,

My friend and I will be going to Sri Lanka to visit another friend for a couple of weeks. We are all mid 20's and pretty active. It is likely to be July time, so accounting for the weather in regions at this time, I have come up with this itinerary since we will all need to take time off well in advance and he needs to know how many days and where he can join us to..

Day
1 ARRIVE COLOMBO
2 COLOMBO
3 COLOMBO- HATTON (ADAM’S PEAK)
4 HATTON- ELLA
5 ELLA
6 ELLA- KANDY
7 KANDY
8 KANDY
9 KANDY- DAMBULLA- SIGIRIYA
10 SIGIRIYA-TRINCOMALEE (NILAVELI)
11 NILAVELI
12 NILAVELI
13 NILAVELI
14 NILAVELI- COLOMBO
15 DEPART COLOMBO

My friend lives in Colombo so we will spend a couple of days there to start. We are keen to relax the last few days beachside in a quiet picturesque spot which is why I have chosen Nilaveli.

Let me know if the above itinerary is missing anything glaring or if anything should be substituted? Thanks for any suggestions.

Not enough time in the cultural triangle: you really need two and a half or three days there. Too much time in Kandy.

perfect thanks Kathie I will look to spend day 8, 9 and half of day 10 doing the cultural triangle.

I agree with Kathie. You might want to extend your stay in Sigiriya- Dambulla as there is plenty to see. You can pretty much cover Kandy in 2 days. However, if you are planning to cover the knuckles mountain range you'd like that extra time.

Please note that you are travelling to Kandy in the "Perahera" season ( Religeous parade in the month of July) so the city would be quite crowded and hotels might be expensive and fully booked. You should plan well ahead and book in advance.

Good luck!

I liked Kandy, it's a relaxing and lively town - a really nice and inexpensive guesthouse is MADUGALLE'S FRIENDLY GUEST HOUSE photos on http://www.edeltrips.com/reiseberichte/sri-lanka/
and don't miss the colonial bar QUEEN'S PUB ROYALE!
Nilavela Beach Hotel was great also the beach but it's not the cheapest.

I recommend The Ellerton outside of Kandy (if you have a car/driver) and eating at bizarre Helga's Folly in town (if you like the unusual). I was happy with one day in Kandy, one lazy day at The Ellerton.

I recommend staying at the tasteful Ellerton (if you have a car/driver) outside of Kandy and eating at the wonderful Helga's Folly if you have a taste for the bizarre. At least have a drink there and look around. One day in Kandy city was enough for me.

we had a day and a half in Kandy and agree that's probably enough; we stayed at the Theva residence up above the town but you need a car and driver if you choose to stay at any of the many hotels that are in the hills above the city.

We had seen elephants earlier on our trip and opinions seem to be divided about the elephant orphanage so we didn't go there. However I can strongly recommend the Botanical gardens where we spent a whole morning. we then went back to our hotel for a wonderful lunch [the food at the Theva is excellent] and in the evening went down to the town to explore a bit - we had a drink in the Queen's which was fascinating, then walked around the market, did a bit of shopping, and finished by visiting the Temple of the Tooth at about the time that the ceremony takes place.

then we had an excellent english style toasted sandwich in the Queen's [again!] washed down by a pot of tea, and went back to the Theva for an early night. if you want to see the Parahera, be prepared to stay up late. we tried to see one in Galle but gave up at about midnight when the elephants STILL had not appeared.

if you followed that sort of itinerary in Kandy on your days 6 & 7, you would free up days 8 & 9 for the northern cultural triangle area. the Heritage Kandallama at Dambulla is a lovely place to stay and is not too far away from Polunawerra which you should probably aim to see along with Sigirya.