Sri Lanka itinerary help needed
 

Hi al,
I'm thinking of travelling to southern India and Sri Lanka in Jan. The southern India trip will be about 14 days on the ground. and will begin in Chenna and end in Bangalorei. Before starting this part of the trip, I thought i would add some time in Sri Lanka.

We would fly BOS to Chennai on one ticket and fly, within a few hours of arriving,, Chennai to Columbo on a second ticket. . I am mainly interested in architecture and culture. I'm not interested in beach time or shopping. I thought of spending 3 nights in Habanara or Dambulla, 2 nights in Kandy and 2 nights in Ella. My question is whether to add 2 nights in Yala and 2 nights in Unawatuna which would double the cost of this add on and double the time involved. Any comments that might help me decide whether to add the extra days would be appreciated as I don't want to exhaust us before beginning our southern India 2 week itinerary.

If you are mostly interested in architecture and culture, the cultural triangle is the main place you want to visit. I'd opt for four nights in the cultural triangle, one in Kandy, then two in Ella.

I wouldn't add in Yala and Unwatuna as they aren't really the focus of your trip, so I'm not sure they are worth the extra cost.

Hi Kathie-Thanks for your prompt reply. I always value your input.

1-Do you know if there is a way to incorporate a train ride in the tea country into our itinerary?

2- How long should it take to get from Ella to the airport? Do we need to overnight at the airport, or can we book an evening flight to Chennai, if available.

I only thought about adding Yala and Unawatuna (Galle Fort) as I did not know if these were on a 'must see' list of sites in Sri Lanka. I know that we will not be returning to SR, so if we don't see it on this trip, we won't be seeing it.

Any other comments would be appreciated.

If you're not into beaches I would definitely skip Unawatuna. I stayed there and visited Galle, and wasn't impressed. I skipped Yala because I had left it too late to get a reservation anywhere I was willing to stay, but it doesn't sound like it is a high priority for you.

The roads are generally not conducive to fast travel. I haven't done the Ella to airport leg, but it took a long time to do Ella to Unawatuna (even longer since we started from further north). For train info see: http://www.seat61.com/SriLanka.htm

If you are interested in Galle, it makes sense to visit Galle and stay inside the old town, but I wouldn't go for Galle and stay at the beach.

As far as Yala is concerned, the park has gotten increasingly crowded with vehicles, enough so that I wouldn't want to go. If you want to see wild elephants you can do so while you are staying in the cultural triangle at one of the small parks there.

Are you using an agency to book hotels and a car and driver? If so, they will be able to give you accurate drive time estimates.

I can't believe this!!!! you already have SR up and going and its 4 months before you even step foot into japan...

good for you

Kathie-We'll be using Boutique Sri Lanka for car, driver and hotel bookings. We've decided to skip Galle and Yala.

Bob-We get back from Japan the end of Nov and this trip would begin early/mid Jan. I think the 2 trips might be too close to each other, but Jim feels we should do this trip while we still can walk, lol, (and who knows how long that will last).

shellyk - looks like a good plan. if you can manage 4 nights [therefore 3 days] in Dambulla, then you will have ample time to see the cultural sights, plus relax a little, see a few elephants, etc.

if you can stretch Kandy to 2 nights, you should leave time to spend 1/2 a day at the botanical gardens which are really worth seeing.

finally 3 nights in the hill country will give you time to take a walk or two, visit a tea plantation, and take a train trip.

if you aren't particularly interested in Yala or Galle, IMO there''s really no point in enduring the very long journeys that are needed to get there.

jim is always right.... you can always do Miami beach when you get old..

I've received the following itinerary suggestion from BSL.



01st day Airport/Habarana

02nd day Visit Anuradhapura (approx. 1.5hrs drive one way)

03rd day Visit Sigiriya Rock Fortress and ancienct city of Polonnarwa

04th day Visit Dambulla cave temple and proceed to Kandy, on the way visit a spice Garden

Visit Temple of the Tooth and the Cultural show

05th day Visit Elephant Orphanage in Pinnawela and the botanical garden in Peradeniya

06th day Transfer to Ella (by train or by vehicle)

07th day Visit a tea plantation/tea factory , and proceed to Colombo/Negombo(we would suggest staying the last night closer to the Airport due to the long driving time)

08th day Transfer to the Airport

We are not interested in seeing the elephant orphanage. Instead, I would like to do:

On Day 5 I am thinking of seeing the botanical gardens and continuing on to Ella.

On Day 6 we would have a day in Ella for tea factory tour and a walk..

On Day 7 we would drive back to and overnight at the airport.

BSL said we could take the train from Kandy to Ella, but it is a 6 hour train ride as opposed to 3-3.5 hours by car. Any suggestions on how to take a shorter train ride in tea country.

Any suggestions on how to improve this itinerary would be appreciated.

Tha botanical garden took me a good half day, you may want to ask how long the drive to Ella will take.

If you do the spice garden thing, make sure you will get to see the actual trees, otherwise it's just a shopping op.

What time does your flight arrive in Colombo? What time does your flight leave?

Do you want to see a herd of wild elephants while in the cultural triangle? If so, you could probably squeeze it into your time there, or you might want to add another day to the cultural triangle.

Yes, skip the spice garden, and I agree about skipping the elephants orphanage.

I think I'd add a day to tea country, then get up early and drive to the airport (if you have an evening or night departure).

Overall, it looks good. I think you will really like Sri Lanka.

hi ShellyK,

that seems to me to be a very full itinerary! I'd reckon on its taking at least 90 mins each way to Anuradhapura from Habarana, which after your 4 hour trip from the airport the day before is not going to be terribly welcome.

Frankly, unless you are an expert on ancient Sri lankan sights. I would forget about Anuradhapura, and concentrate on Sigiriya and Polonnarwa, which you can combine with Minneriya to see the elephants. This would free you up a day later on to spend in the Hill Country which i think you are short-changing a little.

you could do this:

01st day Airport/Habarana

02nd day Visit Polonnarwa and Minneriya for the elephants

03rd day Visit Sigiriya Rock Fortress and Dambulla Caves

04th day, Drive to Kandy, see botanical garden in Peradeniya

Visit Temple of the Tooth and the Cultural show

05th day Transfer to Ella (by train or by vehicle)

06th day Visit a tea plantation/tea factory , go for a walk

07th day Proceed to Colombo, tour. [depending on your departure time, and how long it'll take from the hill Country to Colombo

08th day. Transfer to airport.

i think that Dambulla would be a better base for this trip than Habarana.

Thanks so much for your replies. Giving you a little: more information:

We haven't booked plane tickets as yet as I wanted to figure out how many days I needed in India and Sri Lanka before booking the flights. Sri Lanka will be our first stop after flying from BOS-Chennai-Columbo with 2 or 3 plane changes. I'm sure we will be exhausted, so I plan to spend one night in either Chennai or Columbo before beginning our touring. I don't know whether it would be easier to spend that night in Columbo because of the Indian restriction on how many times you can enter India within a 2 month period. Frankly, I'd rather spend it in Chennai.

I don't think I want to see the elephants in the cultural triangle. I've been to Africa and saw hundreds of elephants there, so I've had that experience, which I enjoyed, but don't feel the need to repeat on this trip.

I would like to concentrate on the temples and ruins, without getting temple overload. I know we will be seeing many more temples in India.

I would be inclined to go on to Colombo. I don't see any point in leaving Chennai airport and then going back again. The city is huge and you'd probably want an airport hotel anyway. If you go on to Colombo you can stay in Negombo, which will be a LOT more peaceful. I don't know whether you have been to India before, but if not it is best approached well rested.

Shelly, I agree with Thursdays. Go on to Colombo and stay a night in Negombo, then drive to Dambulla the following day.

We didn't get to Anuradhapura, but will do so next time we go to Sri Lanka.

If you can add a couple of days, it will make it a more leisurely trip - you will be doing a lot of sightseeing in the cultural triangle. And it would be nice to have another day in the cool of tea country.

shelly - if you can add an extra day or two, then definitely do so.

whether you should spend a night on the coast before driving up to the cultural triangle is very much down to what time you arrive at the airport and how tired you think you'll feel.

i can only say that having arrived off an 11 hour flight from the UK at just after midday, we felt that the 4 hour+ road trip up to Dambulla was a very good use of time when we really weren't up to doing much more than looking out of the car window as out driver miraculously negotiated the Sri Lankan roads and traffic.

We were able to arrive at Dambulla [just about] in daylight which made a difference - if that isn't the case with you, then I would agree about staying on the coast for your first night, then driving into the centre. What you do not want to do, IMO, is to follow a day which involves a lot of driving [which getting to the cultural triangle inevitably does] with another heavy day of driving eg to Anuradhapura. Polunnawara, though not easy, would make an easier first day, with or without elephants.

We are coming from Boston. The flights from Bos to Chennai are 20-24 hours. Then we'll have a 3.5 hour layover in Chennai before a 1;20 minute flight to Columbo. So for us, it is about 30 hours in airports, not including 5 additional hours we'll need to get to the Boston airport from our house, before the flight ever takes off. So I am sure we will need that first day in Negombo before beginning our tour. I suppose we could be picked up immediately after our flight lands and sleep in the car on the way to our first stop, but I'd still need an extra day there before beginning the actual tour.

I agree it makes sense to spend the night in Negombo. And plan to take it easy your first day in the cultural triangle. Plan to visit the Dambulla cave temples that first late afternoon, which involves little driving if you are staying in Dambulla.

I was going to stay in Habanara because a hotel there looks very interesting to me. BSL said there is not much difference in travel times between Habanara and Dambulla, and the sites in the cultural triangle. Is this true?

Would anyone suggest switching the order of the trip to make the first few days easier. It doesn't matter to me what order we do the trip. Kandy or tea country first or leave the order as is?

Shelly - given the awful journey you're going to have to get there, i think that i would definitely consider doing the trip the other way round. do the tea country, then Kandy, then the cultural triangle.


01st day Airport - overnight Colombo

02nd day - travel to hill country. spend 2 nights.

4th Day - train to Kandy. overnight there with cultural show and temple of the Tooth.

5th Day - morning at the botanical gardens. afternoon drive to Dambulla/Habanara

Day 6 - visit Polunnawara and Dambulla caves if staying at Dambulla.

day 7 - visit Sigiriya Rock Fortress early am then drive down to coast. overnight at beach resort near to Airport.

Day 8 - go home.

03rd day Visit

04th day, Drive to Kandy, see botanical garden in Peradeniya

Visit Temple of the Tooth and the Cultural show

05th day Transfer to Ella (by train or by vehicle)

06th day Visit a tea plantation/tea factory , go for a walk

07th day Proceed to Colombo, tour. [depending on your departure time, and how long it'll take from the hill Country to Colombo

08th day. Transfer to airport.

if you could extend your trip even by a day, it'd make it a lot easier.

Ann's idea makes sense, but I'd add in a couple of days to make it more humane.

Overnight at Negombo,
drive to Hill country, spend three nights so you get two full days,

drive (or train) to Kandy - you may want to spend two nights there just so you don't have two days in a row of travel

drive to cultural triangle, spend 3 or 4 nights there. Depending on the time of your flight, you may be able to drive to the airport from the cultural triangle.

Thank you Ann and Kathie. It definitely seems like it would be more relaxing going to hill country first. Kathie-I don't want to add too many extra days to SL as this is supposed to be an add on to our main trip to southern India. From Columbo we will be flying to Chennai to begin the India portion of our trip, although maybe I will cut out part of that trip to lessen the number of travel days in India. I'd like to keep this SL/India trip to about 3 weeks on the ground. I have not booked airfare yet, so i can add days. I just don't know if I should, as it may be too tiring. I remember reading thursdayd's TR concerning her SL/southern India trip and feeling it would have been too many days on the road for me.

If we extend the SL trip, the part of the India trip I am thinking of cutting is Mysore for 2 nights, and/or Cochin for 2 nights. I think I will start a new thread on the India portion of this trip and see what Fodorites have to say about that.

shelly, i can't help you with the india part of your trip.

I ca tell you that SL is a fantastic place with loads to see and do, but the roads and traffic can be extraordinarily bad in places. if you've been to India you're probably used to it, but we were amazed for most of the first week at how long it took us to get anywhere [3 hours from Dambulla to Kandy] and how anyone survived without losing life and limb. but survive we did and we came to see the road journeys as part of the SL experience.

with what you have in mind, if you could spare one or two more days, I think that you would get a lot more out of this part of your trip. you could go up to Anuradhapura for example, [i would suggest staying near there overnight] and then go down to the airport from there.

ann - actually the roads in SL are a breeze compared to India, lol!

shelley - Mysore and Cochin should be the more peaceful parts of your Indian trip, if you're doing the temple towns in Tamil Nadu. The palace in Mysore is over the top, and it's one of the greener Indian towns. Cochin is really interesting - see http://wilhelmswords.com/asia2001/index.html - Cruising Kerala.

ann - actually the roads in SL are a breeze compared to India, lol!>>

another good reason for prolonging ones time there then thursdays!

thursdaysd- Thanks so much for your input. I guess we'll keep Mysore and Cochin in the trip as I don't think we'll be returning to India any time soon. ann and kathie- Thanks so much for your advice. You've given me really useful suggestions and it is certainly appreciated.

I guess we'll just have to remortgage the house and take as long as we need to have an unrushed, quality trip. lol Our 3 week trip may morph into a one month journey. This is why I do not book my airfare until I settle on an itinerary.

shellyk - i feel your pain, honestly I do. we are trying to squeeze a quart of NZ into a pint pot at the moment and I'm wishing that we had more than 17 nights in NZ. But we don't, and I;m just having to work round it. if you don't have to book flights until you've worked things out, then don't!

Talking about flights, it is possible to take internal flights that can cut out a load of driving. I know this because people we met at Nurawa Eliya had done just that, flying from Colombo into Kandy on what I have learnt is called a "float plane". it had cost them about £50 each.

here's the link:

http://www.flysrilanka.lk/

Hi shellyk -

Just jumping in now, random thoughts.

- Remortgage. The great/frustrating thing about SL is that it's so diverse
- I spent 2 nights in Cochin, that was sufficient
- If you like the odd and bizarre, eat at Helga's Folly in Kandy
- What annhig said: it takes forever to get anywhere, and then you can't believe you made it alive
- I had a car and driver: he dropped me off at Hapatule and I took a 3 hour train ride to Hatton (or maybe it was the other way around) and he picked me up at the other end. First class was inexpensive and enjoyable: less harrowing then by car, with better views

Have a great trip.

What annhig said: it takes forever to get anywhere, and then you can't believe you made it alive>>

we were thrilled when we got to the south and saw our first dual-carriageway road in SL, but we soon returned to our usual state half-way between hysteria and terror as we realised that the concept of dual-carriageways was so new to most drivers that they treated it like 2 separate roads and were happily driving along on the wrong side as usual. this was even more dangerous than on normal roads as some people DID know what to do and weren't expecting other vehicles to be driven straight at them.

getting back to the old single-track roads was a bit of a relief after that.

I just found out that one of the flights I was planning to use has been discontinued, so I'd like some advice on which of 2 new plans would be better.

My 23 hour flight from Boston arrives in Chennai at 11:59PM. (The 3:40am flight from Chennai to Columbo that I was going to take has been discontinued). I can get either a 9:30am, 2:15PM or 8:30 PM flight to Columbo.

Plan 1-Overnight at Chennai close to the airport and continue on to Sri Lanka the next day.

Plan 2-Overnight at Chennai, and do the part of my India trip covering Mahalapurum and Kanchipuram (each about 1.5 hours from Chennai, and then return to Chennai airport and fly to Columbo to begin my Sri Lanka trip.After 9 days in Sri Lanka I would fly back to Chennai airport and continue on to Pondicherry to finish up the India portion of my trip.

Any thoughts on what would be preferable?

I would still go on to Sri Lanka the next day. You don't want to visit those sites in a jet lagged haze. (I take it you change planes somewhere - that's not 23 hours on one flight?!)

I agree. It makes more sense to go to Sri Lanka the next day rather than breaking up your India trip.

thursdaysd-I'm leaning toward using a Lufthansa/United flight(BOS-MAA) that requires a change of planes in Germany. That's on one ticket. The flight Chennai to Columbo is on a seperate Sri Lankan Airlines ticket.

I was thinking of splitting up the trip because I thought that since I had to exit the Chennai airport to get to the hotel, I'd use the next day to do/see something rather than sit around waiting for an afternoon flight to Columbo. I've discounted the 9:30am flight to Columbo as I feel we won't get to the hotel to get to sleep until 2 or 3 in the morning. Also, I am now thinking that if I do split up the trip I will not fly back to Chennai, but will fly Columbo to Trichy and resume the trip in Tanjore. This would alleviate some of the driving (Chennai to Tanjore) in India, although it will also mean not going to Pondicherry which I would have stopped at, but is not a high priority. I value both your and Kathie's input so I will have to give this more thought before making a decision.

I value

I might just buy my way into one of the lounges in the international terminal and take the first flight out. I would think that will avoid any difficulty with re-entering India, as I would expect that you would stay airside. I haven't checked lately on the "stay out for two months" requirement, but you might want to. Although there is the issue of luggage if you're on separate tickets.

would there be a better schedule flying from jfk or Newark??

i'd be inclined to fly on and do my flt recovery after arriving in SL by adding an extra day or two

thursdaysd-Spending the night in an airport lounge is an interesting idea. The first flight out in the morning is at 9:30am, so we'd have many hours to spend in the lounge. I don't know whether the lounges in the Chennai airport are open throughout the night. Many in the US close from late evening til early morning. I believe the restriction on reentering India within 2 months has been lifted, but I will recheck this.

Bob-Most of the flights arrive in the evening, too late to connect on the same day. Plus, I really want to fly out of Boston to an overseas destination to avoid having to deal with a possible east coast snow storm at 2 airports rather than just in Boston.

a random search on expedia shows many flights at differing times of the day..

I do appreciate the snowstorm situation..

Re: snowstorm. You could plan to take Amtrak, or does snow shut that down too?

Re: lounge. I have no idea what the Indian ones are like, but the seating is usually comfortable enough for at least a nap, plus I think the listing I saw mentioned showers.