bjamie

Hi! This is very preliminary, but we are hoping to use miles for this trip so need to book airfare in just a month or two! My husband and I are looking at 2 weeks in Sri Lanka, either in mid-late February or early-mid April (any thoughts?) in 2021. I am trying to get a better idea of trip cost, but that seems hard without a basic itinerary idea! For some background, we have traveled quite a bit, want to mix in some rest/relaxation days instead of trying to hit every landmark, like moderate hikes, and are somewhere in between budget and luxury travelers! We are planning on hiring a driver for most of the trip, and maybe leaving them behind the last few days when we hit the beach.

Day 1: Arrive around 8:30am after very long flights, drive to Sigiriya and take a nap. Polonnaruwa in the afternoon
Day2: Sigiriya rock at 6:30am, Dambulla caves in afternoon, some free time to rest
Day 3: Drive to Kandy ( maybe stop at Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage? I am torn on this and need to research more)
Day 4: Kandy
Day 5: Train to Ella
Day 6, 7, and 8: Ella ( tea plantations, hikes, some free time at a beautiful hotel in the mountains is my goal)
Day 9: Drive to Yala..... afternoon safari? Or are we better off doing a morning safari the next day? Avoiding crowds would be our biggest goal. We have been on safari in Africa a few times and have no major animal-sighting goals. Leopards or sloth bears would be cool, but we understand the odds!
Day 10: Drive to Mirissa
Day 11, 12, and 13: Mirissa beach break, whale watching, possible day trip to Galle
Day 14: Train to Colombo, afternoon to look around, dinner at Ministry of Crab, flight out at about 2:30am

What am I missing? Does this order make sense? We can cut a day from Ella or Mirissa ( or cut day 4 in Kandy if we can see it in one afternoon - we will see Temple of the Tooth, but don't need to see a lot of others) if we are better served adding it elsewhere. Thanks!

tripplanner001

Your itinerary is typical of the main Sri Lankan tourist circuit.

You don’t have much time in the Cultural Triangle. I would probably add a night or two to give yourself more time to enjoy Sri Lanka’s archaeological sites. Anuradhapura takes a full day and worth a visit. You can easily spend more time in Polonnaruwa.

Conversely, if you’ve been on an African safari, skip Yala. Sure you will see animals there, but the experience will be less desirable than in Africa. And you won’t be able to avoid crowds. To see leopards or any of the larger animals, you’re talking several vehicles causing a jam in front of the sighting. The timing won’t make much of a difference.

Unless you are interested in visiting the botanic gardens outside of town and / or the medieval temples, then you could reallocate your time in Kandy too. You could visit the Temple of the Tooth on your way from the Cultural Triangle to Ella, although it would be a long day.

Car with driver is cheap in Sri Lanka compared to many other destinations. It will be easier to have the same driver for the entire trip, even if you want to give the driver a couple of days off. Distance is by far the largest driver of rates, with number of nights being more marginal.

progol

I completely agree with tripplanner's advice! We went to Sri Lanka last year, and in February, it was quite warm at the sites so keep that in mind when visiting. Both Anuradhapura and Pollonnaruwa are very spread out and the temps can get quite hot while touring, especially later in the day. I don't know what April is like, but I imagine it would be significantly hot, so I would choose February over April. You mention wanting to see Pollonnaruwa on the day you arrive, but you might not really want to visit a large, spread out site the day that you arrive, either.

Another comment - we didn't visit Sigiriya because of the many steps needed to walk up a long, narrow staircase. And Dambulla is also quite a hike uphill, though the steps are wide and easy to move to the side to rest. I wouldn't want to do both in one day as it would be exhausting!

We stayed several days in the cultural triangle in Habanara and, if you really want to do a safari-style trip, you could consider Minneriya or one of the parks in that region. We did an afternoon safari at Eco Park and saw a lot of elephants. It was great fun, though I wouldn't compare it to an African safari!

You could easily give Kandy a miss - the Temple of the Tooth is an interesting stop, but truthfully, it's not essential. I think it depends upon what you're own interests are.

In Ella, we stayed at the very lovely 98 Acres, which is beautifully sited in the hills, with great views. It was a bit of a splurge for us, but we thoroughly enjoyed staying here.

The best tea estates are not actually in Ella, but in Nuwariya Eliya. We drove through this area before getting the train to Ella, which we got at the Nanu Oya station just outside of Nuwariya Eliya.

bjamie

Thank you! Progol - the photos of 98 acres are one of the things that got me interested in Ella as it just looks beautiful! We don't care that much about tea, we will probably take a look at one estate, but we would rather be well situated for some smaller hikes and beautiful scenery. I had thought about spending one night in Nuwariya Ella though!

Do I need a driver in Ella and Mirissa? I am wondering if I can hire a driver for the Cultural Triangle part of the trip, then have them basically drop us at the train station in Kandy and go our own from there. Obviously, we would need a tuk tuk a few times in Ella to get around, and one long taxi ride to Mirissa, but it seems like that would be significantly less than having a driver for about a week who is just sitting around the vast majority of the time?

thursdaysd

I based in Nuwariya Ella, and if you do the World's End hike I would think you would need two nights. I also liked the botanical gardens, which were wilder than Kandy's. I thought the scenery around Ella looked even better,although didn't stay there. I had a car and driver for the whole trip, although that is certainly not my usual style.

https://mytimetotravel.wordpress.com...02/worlds-end/

progol

bjamie, I’ll have to finally finish last year’s trip report or at least organize my photos so you can see 98 Acres. It’s very pretty. The walk up Little Adam’s Peak, one of the views from the hotel and a short distance away, was wonderful - not too hard or very long, but on top of the hill, there are glorious views.



On top of Little Adam’s Peak


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Whether it’s better for you to hire a driver for a specific period of time or use a taxi or other car service to go from one point to another is something I can’t answer. I can tell you what I did. We worked with an agency, Boutique Sri Lanka, and had a driver throughout the trip. I didn’t want to be spending my limited amount of time figuring out the logistics of travel, and have come to terms with the idea that paying for a driver, whether they are sitting and waiting or actually driving us somewhere, is part of our expense of travel in some plants of the world. It’s not everyone’s choice, but I’d rather have the security of knowing someone is there.

stephanoko

whether they are sitting and waiting or actually driving us somewhere, is part of our expense of travel in some plants of the world. It’s not everyone’s choice, but I’d rather have the security of knowing someone is there.

bjamie

Do we need to do the train trip all the way from Kandy to Ella? Or are the highlights in one of the two 'sections' (Kandy - Nurawiya and Nurawiya-Ella) so we could take the train for one segment and drive for the other?

thursdaysd

A car and driver is so not my usual style, but I, too, used Boutique Sri Lanka (click on my name for my SL TR).

progol

We took the train from Nanu Oya, which is just a short distance from Nuwara Eliya, and took it to Ella. I’m told this section is one of the best for vistas. Unfortunately, we were in deep fog for half the trip, but what we saw was beautiful and the experience was great.

crellston

Like Thursdaysd, using a driver is not my normal style but in Sri Lanka it certainly made life a lot easier and as, triplanner suggests, is not that expensive. A link to my own trip report fro 2011 Sri Lanka - Tea, floods, cricket and curry which covers many of the places mentioned.

I would definitely recommend taking a train ride where possible. We had our driver drop us off at one station and pick us up at the other end - seems to be the norm. Much more fun with the local people in 3rd Class than in first!

We did several hikes including Adam’s Peak at night from Dalhousie - not sure where that fits in to your route. Worth considering if you like climbing mountains in the middle of the night though! We also did Little Adam’s - from Ella I think

bjamie

We are looking at the train from Kandy to Ella and then Mirissa to Colombo. I am definitely up for reserved 2nd class, but I'm hesitant to do 3rd class. We will be going in peak season, and I really don't want to end up standing for 7 hours!

progol

We were there in peak season and there was no availability in first class, so we ended up in 3rd class. It was absolutely fine. I was worried it would be a problem, but there were available seats in the car we were in even that day. Most of the passengers were tourists - maybe a handful of local people.

gertie3751

Just looking at a trip to Sri Lanka for April. Very early thoughts. There is a lot of info out there.
Can anyone give me a rough idea of hiring a car and driver? For one day or several days? And is it necessary to book train trips ahead of time? I would much rather not....

shaunrand

Just few thoughts.
1. Make sure you make the reservation well in advanced if you are planning to stay at 98 Acres. Even for 2021, the hotel must have 50% occupied. Please note that month of April is local school holidays.
2. I would not suggest you to get the entire train trip from Kandy to Ella as it take around 6- 7 hours. The scenic part start after couple of hours from Kandy. May be you could drive to Nanuoya or Navalapitiya.

My final thought is the above itinerary is the most common itinerary to travel Sri Lanka. If you are a person would like to try something different, just have a look for Knuckles, Elkadura, Belihuloya / Beragala, Kitulgala.

bjamie

shaunrand thank you for your feedback! Once we get flights booked, we'll look into 98 acres next, and I agree that 6-7 hours sounds long even for a scenic train journey. I looked at Kitulgala and it looks amazing - I think we'll try to work that into our itinerary so thanks for the suggestion! It seems to make the most sense driving-wise to do Colombo - Kegalle (Elephant Freedom Project) - Sigiriya - Kitulgala - Nuwara - Ella - Udawalawa - Mirissa - Colombo.

shaunrand

bjamie, I am sorry to interfere on this but I am wondering why you have specifically mentioned Elephant Free Project in Kegalle which promote animal cruelty in a decent name. Pinnawala elephant orphanage is managed by the goverment's tourism ministry of Sri Lanka has number of issues when it comes to the procedure to rehabilitate the elephants. But there are number of other dodgy places around the Pinnawala area in different names which are using some tamed elephants to rip off money from the tourists. Alternatively elephant transit home in Udawalawe is the only genuine place which use scientific method to rehabilitate and re-home them in the jungle.

bjamie

shaunrand - I have read a lot of reviews of Elephant Freedom Project and nobody has expressed concern about the elephant welfare there (unlike some at Pinnawala Elephant Orphange) which is why we chose it. It is good to hear another opinion and it looks like I have some more research to do now!

shaunrand

bjamie - Just for your information, the problem in Sri Lanka is domescating the wild elephants. Tamed elephants are using for cultural events, tourism activities etc. There might be some places that they do not allow elephant riding, but still they are being tamed. These tamed elephants are hired from the wealthy elephant owners in Sri Lanka. These types of tourism activities promote the domesticating elephants. It is so common to see wild elephants in Sri Lanka in most of the national parks if you love the elephants.