sri lanka two places, two hotels
 

Hi me and mrs are going in mid sept 17 . We would like to see cultural triangle, a safari, trek through jungle then a nice rest on beach. Can you advise me on what areas to stay and what sights/tours to see or go through may be dumbulla base for cultural triangle and hikkaduwa for beach. also how do I get a driver and how much will it cost from airport then for cultural triangle

How long will you be there? This is way more than 2 places and 2 hotels. Not enough information here to give you any help.

I will be there for two weeks and only want to stay at two hotels with luxury but jot breaking bank

If you want just two bases, you won't be able to do all of the things on your list. You need to set your priorities. Frankly, in such a marvelous country just packed with opportunities, I'd cut the beach. You can get beach time anywhere.

From your list, I'd opt for a place in the Cultural Triangle, perhaps Dambulla or Habanara. The place I loved most was Tea Trails, high up in tea country, but there are also places to visit where the focus would be on wildlife.

The route that we did in the same amount of time would more or less fit your needs, except that we moved around more than you want to.

We did this:

Dambulla 3 nights, [for that part of the cultural triangle]
Kandy 2 nights, [botanical gardens and the Temple]
Nuwara Eliya 3 nights [for walking and relaxing in the Hill Country]
Yala 2 nights [safari]
Galle 3 nights [interesting city and beach]
Colombo 2 nights [city and cricket]

though the distances between some of these places may seem small, the travel times are a lot longer than you would expect, so it simply isn't possible to have a base and do day trips. But as you will have a driver and a car, travelling from one place to another is not as tiring as you might think and your driver will stop when there is something interesting to see or when you want him to.

if you really don't want to do this, then perhaps 3 centres would be possible - say Dambulla, Kandy and a beach resort on the west coast.

Thanks for you advice both of you Kathie you helped me before. I'm going to skip the beach as too much to see. I like your itinerary, So do I book all accommodation through an aggregator and then go about sorting a driver through boutique perhaps? Do i book one for the entire holiday, never had a driver before. How would you both go about it please a dummies guide would be helpful, lol.

Speaking for myself, we booked everything, including the car and driver, through Boutique Sri Lanka. You can use their on-line planning tool to work out an itinerary, choose hotels that you would like to stay in, and then to do the booking. They ask for a 10% deposit, which they then use to book the hotels; you pay the rest direct to the hotel, usually on arrival. So far as we were concerned the system worked very well and there were no problems with hotels not being booked or rooms not being what we were expecting - they were as good or better than we had imagined.

https://www.boutiquesrilanka.com/hig...VIEW&sugId=102

BTW, they do have some suggested itineraries which can be a good start, but you can organise your own itinerary as well.

We also had BSL book everything for us. You certainly can book some of your hotels yourself, but we found we got prices as good as the aggregator prices - sometimes better.

I had Camlo Lanka book some of the hotels for me and provide the driver. Some hotels I got myself through booking.com. Be sure the hotels have driver accommodations or you will have to cover his lodging separately.

Is there any tips hints you can give me on where should go must stay Accommodation and anything else which you thought made your holiday

I am headed to Sri Lanka in September, but for a shorter trip of only nine nights, en route to South India. I tried contacting BSL, but their car and driver rates were double the other quotes I was getting. I also tried susiesan's Camlo Lanka, but the owner has gotten busy in the last year with other commitments, and I had to write to him several times for each reply, and then he didn't seem to be listening to me about the itinerary. I don't want to sound like a whiner, but you may have better luck with these two agencies. I did, however, find a driver from a small agency that comes well recommended. I can give you his name if you like, with the caveat that I have not used him yet.

Regarding hotels, I made my own reservations for my four hotels. I used a combination of the Rough Guide, and various other online sources. I prefer to contact the hotels directly. Some hotels have driver accommodations, and some do not. My driver told me that he would like $10 for any night where he has to find his own accommodation. I told him that I would gladly give him the $10 if he finds the accommodation to be inadequate in any way.

Sri Lanka is one of those places where there is so much to see, and everyone seems to adopt their own itinerary based on their interests. I don't do beaches on vacation, but I like to do a combination of culture and nature. If you click on my name, you can see my planning thread, that has my itinerary.

We spent a month in SL a few years ago, half was with a driver guide provided by Reddot ( not recommended) where we covered the highlands. They then dropped us off on the southern coast where we worked our way along to Galle. For the diy sections we just hired tuk tuk or taxis to go from town to town and found accomodation on arrival. Pretty straightforward.

The hill country was a different proposition and we were glad we had booked via an agency (even if we did have a lot of problems). The advantage of booking via an agency is that if things do go wrong the agency will sort it out - eventually.

As for "what made our holiday" Highlights of our trip were:

Dambulla and the Cultural Triangle ( esp. climbing sirigya rock) .

The train rides in the hill country. Easily arranged even if you do have a driver, they drop you off and pick you up at the other end. We saw amazing scenery we just would have missed by road.

Climbing Adams Peak at night was a great, if tiring and cold experience.

The ceremony at the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy was a unique experience and well worth the effort - as I recall one of th train rides we took was from there.

If ending up on the south coast there are some nice beach resort and Siem pretty awful ones. Choose carefully. Mirrisa and Goyabokka were nice an Galle is worth a visit if only for a night. If you click on my screen name you should find my trip report from a few years ago.

thanks crellston , going to go in October now as can get another week then. what is best coastline to be at for weather and bliss.

leroyjenks - this link from a travel company may help:

https://www.experiencetravelgroup.co...o-go-sri-lanka

Hey guys still yet to book anything what's the best beach on East coast please near to cultural triangle? My partner just wants the beach and few day trips all your advise would be great

just tried to press the yellow triangle on this obvious advert and it come up as 404, page not available.

Did I miss something? how does one get something removed now?

annhig: Take a look at this thread http://www.fodors.com/community/foru...onger-work.cfm

Explains the problem. Amanda's post on Jul 13 suggests how they are dealing w/ it temporarily until the new platform is implemented.

We have decided to go to sigiriya for cultural triangle then on to passakudah on east for beachrest then it's an open book as we have yet to book anything else we thinking of Kandy then Ella's. Still open to suggestions please

We are in Sri Lanka having a wonderful time went to sigiriya now at pasikuda. Want to go to kandy next hotel want to charge 160 dollar !! Journey from sigiriya to pasikuda was 7500rupee. Any suggestions of how i can find cheaper transport?