Sri Lanka is an island that everyone loves at some level inside themselves. A very special island that travelers, from Sinbad to Marco Polo, dreamed about. A place where the contours of the land itself forms a kind of sinewy poetry.

-Ramesh Gunesekara

A very interesting quote by Victor Kiam: ‘Procrastination is opportunity’s assassin’ summarizes pretty well how I feel about writing after a tad bit more than a year! A lot of things happened in this past one year : yet another lockdown, a couple of trips, adjusting to life in India, attending bazillion weddings, picking up some new skills, trying to continue pursuing my old hobbies and of course continuing my new chapter in Pune. But hey, I am back and that’s all that matters to me, and here I am with my new blog on my trip to Sri Lanka ! 🙂

Why should you visit Sri Lanka?

A lot of us might think Sri Lanka is similar to India, the terrain, the food, the culture, maybe? Well, you’re partially correct, but you can imagine it being a cleaner, less populated, smaller version of India having diverse landscapes(ranging from tea plantations to sandy beaches fringing with palm trees), beautiful Buddhist temples, crazy surfing opportunities, affordable places to stay, lots of opportunities to shop for beautiful gemstones, land of elephants, mouthwatering food and I can’t emphasize enough : having THE FRIENDLIEST (this is not an exaggeration) people I’ve met while traveling! <3

My dad has a great way of describing how beautiful and clean a place is by looking at the skies: either they are HD quality where you’ll find it painted sky blue with fluffy clouds sail through or the usual dull gray which clearly shows how polluted the place is; and Sri Lanka was definitely HD Quality for me!

Now that you are probably inclined towards visiting Sri Lanka, let me help you plan your trip!

What time of the year should you visit Sri Lanka?

We visited during the last week of November (planned it around my BIG 30th birthday, and I couldn’t have asked for a better one!) and the weather was ideal in every city/town we visited with the exception for 1-2 days when it rained. December to April is the peak tourist season to visit Sri Lanka for the places we visited (West & South Coast as well as the Cultural triangle) and May to October is the ideal season to visit the east coast of Sri Lanka. I would recommend you to avoid the summer as well as the monsoon months.

How many days should you plan your trip for?

We planned our trip for 8 days, but we saved the last 3 days to only relax at a beach because that’s what we wanted to do before we get back to reality. I think the question around your trip might be best answered by you depending on the type of activities you’d want to do, but saying that, from our experience all the major sites in cities/towns can be covered in 1-2 days in each city/town to begin with.

How much should I budget for my trip?

Sri Lanka has various types of accommodations you could choose depending on your budget. Hotels in major cities like Colombo will have a higher nightly rate than small towns. We stayed in various kinds of accommodations : standard and upscale hotels, a homestay as well as a boutique hotel. Our most expensive stay was ~Rs. 4400 per night for a couple and the least expensive was ~Rs. 2500 per night for a couple.

Food was surprisingly pretty affordable, even in the best of the restaurants we visited. Our most expensive meal which was my birthday meal (including cocktails and sushi) at a $$$$ restaurant right by Hikkaduwa beach was ~Rs. 2500 per person and the least expensive was ~Rs. 300 per person.

Itinerary : Traveling through the Cultural Triangle and exploring the beaches on the South Coast of Sri Lanka

During our trip, we visited Kandy from the cultural triangle, some towns/cities traveling towards the south coast of Sri Lanka as well as some beaches in the south. Some of you might be wondering what the Cultural Triangle is since I’ve mentioned it at least twice up until now, so let me try to give you a crash course of the Cultural Triangle, and it’s significance.

Buddhism is the largest religion of Sri Lanka, and a tour within the Cultural Triangle situated in the center of the island will help you understand the ancient Buddhist Culture of Sri Lanka. The Cultural Triangle includes three major sites that form a triangle (hence the name) : Anuradhapura to the north, Polonnaruwa to the east and Kandy to the south-west. It has many Buddhist Temples, Sculptures, Ancient Monasteries and Stupas while some of them date as back to over 2000 years. The area also covers some UNESCO World Heritage Sites including the ancient cities of Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Sigiriya, Dambulla and Kandy.

I’ve briefly listed out our itinerary below, but I’ll be providing more details more about each city/town, and places to cover while traveling between these cities/towns in my next blog:

• Day 1: Land in Colombo, Explore Colombo
• Day 2: Travel from Colombo to Kandy, Visit the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage on the way
• Day 3: Travel from Kandy to Ella, Visit the Damro Tea Plantation on the way
• Day 4: Travel from Ella to Hikkaduwa, Visit the Udawalawe National Park on the way
• Day 5 – Day 8 : Explore Galle, Mirissa, Unawatuna, Hikkaduwa
• Day 9 : Travel back to Colombo to catch a flight home 🙁

Travelling within Sri Lanka

We were honestly confused about how we should plan our travel within Sri Lanka, and our mode of transport. We would’ve loved to rent out a car and explore, but being new to the country and unsure of the terrain and having limited days, we chose to rule out this option. Instead, we selected SL Driver Tours, which was THE BEST decision we’ve never regretted, and I would recommend any of you planning your trip to pick SL Driver Tours! They provide you with a driver and a car to go around all the places you plan in your itinerary, and charge you by the number of kilometers your trip would cover. Get in touch with Mr. Hasantha (one of the sweetest people I’ve met) who’ll provide you a quote for your trip as well as guide you with planning your trip. We had Mr. Roshan as our driver for the trip and Mr. Roshan, if you ever read this blog, you are UNFORGETTABLE! Thank you for introducing us to Sri Lanka, not just through the places we had planned, but also helping us explore the often unexplored parts of the places we visited. 🙂

A lot of tourists choose to travel by public transports (Buses and trains – especially the very popular train ride from Kandy to Ella) but be prepared for delays in train travel, and do check train schedules/cancellations before traveling.

Currency Exchange & accepted payment methods in Sri Lanka

We chose to carry USD from India and exchange them for Sri Lankan Rupees (SLR) in Sri Lanka once we landed, which ended up being a good choice for currency exchange rates. Before traveling to Sri Lanka, we exchanged Indian Rupees to get USD at our bank in India. Almost all banks have this option, but you’d have to put in a request to exchange currency at the bank a few days in advance, since the bank sometimes needs a couple of hours or a day to get the currency in hand. Then, once we landed in Colombo we exchanged USD to Sri Lankan Rupees, where we got a pretty good exchange rate of 1 USD = 205 SLR. Please don’t exchange any money at any Indian airport because the exchange rate is pretty bad.

Due to the current economic crisis in Sri Lanka, you’ll find a lot of the businesses (hotels, restaurants, tours) are ready to exchange USD or even INR surprisingly at pretty good exchange rates but do keep Sri Lankan Rupees handy because you’ll need them at shacks and small businesses in Sri Lanka.

If you do have an international credit/debit card, do activate it for traveling, so you could use it in Sri Lanka if you do end up making a big purchase (read big purchase as SHOPPING! :p)

Should you buy a SIM card in Sri Lanka?

I would definitely recommend at least one person in your travel group to purchase a Sri Lankan SIM Card once you land in Colombo with a data plan. There are multiple ones you could choose from, but we chose Dialog. The reason why I would suggest you to buy a SIM is because you might need it to navigate or call your tour guide or someone local if needed. All hotels do have Wi-Fi, but while you’re sightseeing or traveling between hotels, there are times when you might require a phone. Do not buy the most expensive plan, but instead choose a plan which will suffice you for your trip duration.

Can I communicate in English in Sri Lanka?

Yes, most of the people you’ll be interacting with on your trip will know English, so you’re in good hands. 🙂

While traveling, make sure to use these two Sinhalese phrases (taught by Mr. Hasan to us): Aayu-bo-wan : Hello ; and Iss-too-tee : Thank you! I am sure you’ll be greeted with big smiles, and you will be appreciated for the effort you are trying to put in to immerse yourself in the beautiful country! 🙂

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That’s all folks, I’ve tried my best to provide you all details on planning a trip to Sri Lanka in this blog but as always, if you have any more questions, feel free to shoot out those in the comments below.

Stay tuned for my next blog which is going to be super exciting because it’ll be full of details on the places I visited as well as some delicacies and restaurants you should definitely try!

If you have any more questions, feel free to shoot out those in the comments below.