This guided, 13-day tour stitches together amazing experiences and some of the most scenic destinations of Sri Lanka. Join us as we take in the stunning landscape and ancient culture of this country which is often referred to as the 'pearl of the Indian Ocean'.
Zig-zag your way through the west coast of the country and traverse through the island's northern cultural triangle. See wild elephants in Gal Oya National Park during a boat safari, go swimming under cascading waterfalls, discover little visited rural enclaves where time seems to stay frozen and spend the last three days relaxing on golden sand beaches.
Do not miss out on this chance to experience some of the hidden gems that Sri Lanka has to offer. Please scroll down to the itinerary section for more details.
From ancient heritages to bustling cities and stunning beaches to stunning rural scenery, this comprehensive, 20-day Sri Lanka tour will bring you face to face with the best that this country has to offer. Starting from Negombo, you will travel to Anuradhapura, Jaffna, Trincomalee, Sigriya, Kandy and Nuwara Eliya during this tour before heading off to Waskaduwa to relax on the beach.
Get the glimpse of Sri Lanka's history across millennia in Anuradhapura, and Sigiriya among other places and explore the modern cities of Kandy, Nanu Oya and Galle to understand the country's more-recent colonial past.
Along the way you can also choose to explore Sri Lanka's pristine national parks and get a chance to see herds of elephants in the wild. You'll also be able to see rescued baby elephants at Udawalwe’s Elephant Transit Home. Also learn the local way of life during a train ride from Kany to Nuwara Eliya and enjoy an intriguing crab-cooking session in Jaffna.
After experiencing the verdant hills and expansive tea plantation inland, end your trip soaking up some sun on the picturesque beaches of Kalutara.
Experience luxury at affordable rates and within the guidelines of current travel restrictions, This carefully-crafted itinerary takes you to some iconic and spectacular places as well as some lesser-known spots of Sri Lanka and is comprised of carefully selected boutique accommodation that you are sure to love!
Commence your tour from the heritage city, Sigiriya where you will explore a few of the main ancient sites such as Anuradhapura ancient city. Experience a jeep safari at Minneriya National Park as well. Arrive in Kandy after exploring the Sigiriya Rock Fortress and enjoy your stay at the royal city. Afterward, drive to the lesser-known Wellawaya area with few optional activities proposed for you to choose from. Spend a marvelous 3 nights stay at Tangalle. Visit the Udawalawa Elephant Transit Home and explore few other locations suggested optionally as per your preferences.
We look forward to seeing you in beautiful Sri Lanka.
This is a very good trip but fell down on two points: 1) Just half a day in Colombo is woefully inadequate. 2) The current Explore practice on many recent trips of large lunches (In the case of Sri Lanka buffet group lunches in tourist restaurants) followed by large evening meals, also invariably as a group, is crazy. Most group members complained about this. A light lunch sampling local "street type" food, soup or light sandwiches followed by a decent evening meal would be infinitely more sensible. We all agreed that given we were not walking very far on most days no one needs two huge meals a day!
Fabulous walking and touring holiday. Hotels were all decent to very good. Our tour leader, Cham, was excellent - very knowledgeable and always willing to do extra optional things. We were a small group and we wanted to do everything! The tour itinerary was excellent and we felt like we saw nearly everything that a tour only group would see in addition to all the walking in remote locations and seeing beautiful views and remote villages. Highly recommended!!!
A real insight into Sri Lanka’s culture and heritage together with its diverse landscape. The guides wonderful positivity and knowledge really enhanced the trip experience.
Both parts of this trip wee amazing but the tour leader, Nala, for the Sri Lankan part was amazing. We were seeing and doing so much of Sri Lanka but his efficiency and effectiveness at keeping us all informed and inspired throughout was seamless. He was knowledgeable, fun, and thoughtful with all of our group. He was careful to make sure everyone was happy and felt part of the group, and was aware of everyone's particular interests.
Nala made sure that we all knew what to expect in the day's itinerary but also added in extra activities if there was time, or the opportunity arose for example, a large banana market where the cooperative owners were happy to hear our questions and have phottaken.
We would thoroughly recommend Nala as a tour guide- everything he did was designed to keep us all happy and he was exceptional in this.
Looking back at our photos now we've returned to the UK we can't believe the amount we saw and the amazing experiences we had on this tour. Sri Lanka is an amazing beautiful country with some much going on - we only scratched the surface. Our tour leader Cham worked so hard to make sure that we had everything we needed, resolving our problems and sorting out food for our fussy son! His knowledge about Sri Lankan history and wildlife was immense. He even found the best place to buy genuine Sri Lanka cricket shirts for the sporty members of our group. The only thing we'd change was the pace of the second half of the Sri Lanka leg of the trip. The first half gave us time to chill and bond as a group, as well as hang out in the pool at Giritale and play cricket. The second half we moved every night and covered a massive distance, though interesting, this was quite tiring (especially for the kids), so we'd suggest that a two night stop in the middle of this element would resolve this issue easily. This was clear in the notes, however, as was the high chance of not getting the train. The pace did slow considerably for the Maldives element, with a lot of time on our boats travelling between reefs. The snorkelling was quite frankly mind-blowing, and even the more nervous swimmers loved it. The crew were fantastic, and the food was delicious. The guide knew his stuff, and made sure we had great snorkelling experiences. Our only criticism of this part of the trip was that splitting the group when we'd got to know each other and were getting on really well was disappointing. There were larger boats, and we'd have preferred to be on a single boat given how long we spent travelling separately. The crew did what they could to mitigate this by tying the boats together when we moored for snorkels, meals and overnight and that was great. All in all a thoroughly enjoyable trip, and with a few very small tweaks it'd be perfect!
The highlights of Sri Lanka and the Dhoni cruise in the Maldives was excellent. The only complaint I have is that I could have spent two weeks on the boat instead of the 8 days. The cruise needs to be longer!
