Sri Lanka
One island, several holidays: ancient cities, tea country, wildlife and the coast in a single journey.
Sri Lanka is an island smaller than Ireland, and it holds more variety than its size suggests. Within a few days you can climb a rock fortress in the early morning, walk through tea estates in the cool of the hills, watch elephants gather at a waterhole and finish with your feet in the Indian Ocean.
That variety is the reason to go, and it is also what needs planning. The places are close on the map but the roads are slow, the weather differs from one coast to the other, and the order in which you see things matters. A good Sri Lankan holiday is a route, not a list.
Auria Travel is an independent UK travel agency, and we arrange holidays to Sri Lanka in the way that suits you: an escorted tour from a tour operator, a beach stay and nothing more, or a tailor-made journey with a private driver, planned around what you want to see.
How Auria can help you travel in Sri Lanka
Tell us what has drawn you to Sri Lanka and how you like to travel. Some people want to see as much as they can. Others want a few days of temples and tea country and then a proper rest by the sea. Our travel professionals will tell you honestly how much fits into the time you have.
If a tour operator already has a holiday that matches, such as an escorted tour of the island with a beach stay at the end, we will find it and book it, with your flights. If you would rather go at your own pace, we can put the journey together: the route, hotels in each region chosen to suit you, and the travel between them.
For a trip of several stops we work with trusted local experts in Sri Lanka, and this is where they make the most difference. The usual way to tour the island is with a private car and driver, who meets you at the airport and takes you from one region to the next, so that the journeys between places become part of the holiday. Local guides can be arranged where they add something, at the ancient cities or on a walk through a tea estate, and experiences such as a game drive or a cooking lesson are booked before you go. You are not accompanied every hour of the day unless that is the holiday you have chosen: your time in each place is your own.
A week in one resort needs none of this, and we will simply book it. Where a journey has more moving parts, it means they have been fitted together by people who know the roads, and you do not have to arrange each one yourself.
Ways to see Sri Lanka
- Private touring
- A car and driver for your party, a route planned around you and hotels booked in each region. The way most people who travel independently see the island.
- Escorted tours
- A set itinerary with a tour manager and a group, taking in the main sights with the travel and the entrance arrangements made for you.
- A tour and the beach
- A week or so of touring followed by several nights on the coast. Probably the most popular shape for a first visit.
- Luxury
- Small hotels in old planters’ bungalows and colonial villas, tented camps beside the national parks and resorts on the south coast.
- Family holidays
- Elephants, turtles and beaches, with enough variety to keep the days different. It works well with children old enough to enjoy a few hours in the car.
- Beach holidays
- A resort stay on the south or west coast, or on the east coast in the summer months, with day trips if you want them.
Tailor-made and multi-centre Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka suits a tailor-made journey because so much depends on choices that are personal: how many places, how fast, how much culture against how much wildlife or beach, and what kind of hotel. A set tour makes those choices for you, which suits many people very well. Planning around your brief lets you make them yourself.
These are ideas for the shape of a trip, not fixed itineraries.
The classic circuit
The ancient cities of the Cultural Triangle, then Kandy, the tea country and down to the south coast. Around ten days to two weeks.
A tour, then the beach
A shorter loop through the centre of the island, followed by unhurried days by the sea.
Wildlife and heritage
Temples and ruins combined with game drives in one or two national parks, for elephants and a chance of leopard.
Sri Lanka and the Maldives
A week or more touring Sri Lanka, then a short flight to an island in the Maldives to finish.
A slower south
Galle, the south-coast beaches and a national park, without the long drives of a full circuit. A good choice for a second visit or with younger children.
Combines well with: The Maldives
Places and experiences
The parts of the island a first journey usually links, and what each is like.
Sigiriya and the Cultural Triangle
The dry plains north of Kandy hold the island’s ancient capitals. Sigiriya is a palace built on top of a great rock, climbed by stairways past frescoes and a pair of giant lion’s paws. Nearby are the painted cave temples of Dambulla and the ruined cities of Polonnaruwa and Anuradhapura.
Kandy
The last royal capital, set around a lake in the hills. The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is among the most important Buddhist sites in the country, and the botanical gardens at Peradeniya are a short drive away. Usually a night or two between the ancient cities and the tea country.
The tea country
Higher, cooler and green in every direction: estates around Nuwara Eliya, Hatton and Ella, with walks, waterfalls and visits to tea factories. The railway through these hills is famous for its views. Services can be disrupted, so we check what is running before building it into a route.
Wildlife
National parks are spread across the island. Udawalawe and Minneriya are known for elephants, and Yala and Wilpattu for leopard as well, though no sighting is ever certain. Game drives are in open vehicles, early or late in the day.
Galle and the south coast
A fortified town built by the Portuguese and the Dutch, its ramparts still enclosing streets of old houses, cafés and small hotels. Beaches run east and west of it, from quiet coves to lively bays.
The beaches
Long, palm-lined and often uncrowded. The south and west coasts are the most developed, with resorts and small hotels. The east coast, around Trincomalee and Passikudah, is quieter and comes into its own in the summer months.
- Colombo
- The capital, where most flights arrive. A night here at the start or the end suits some itineraries; others head straight out.
- Food
- Rice and curry in many small dishes, hoppers at breakfast, fresh seafood on the coast and tea everywhere. A cooking lesson or a market visit with a local host is easily arranged.
- Whale watching
- Boats leave the south coast in search of whales and dolphins in the calmer months of the year. It is an early start and a long morning at sea, and sightings cannot be promised.
When to go
There is no single season for Sri Lanka. The island has two monsoons, which arrive at different times on opposite coasts, so somewhere is usually in its drier season. The months below are a guide: the rains do not keep to exact dates, and showers are possible at any time of year.
- The south and west coasts, and the hills
- Generally driest from about December to March, which is also the busiest time. The south-west monsoon brings more rain from around May to September.
- The east coast
- The pattern is reversed. The east is usually at its driest from about April or May to September, and wetter from around October to January.
- The ancient cities
- The Cultural Triangle lies in the drier part of the island and can be visited for much of the year, with most of its rain towards the end of the year.
- The tea country
- Cooler than the coast all year, and cool enough in the evening for a jumper. Mist and rain can come in any month, which is why it is so green.
- Choosing your dates
- Tell us when you can travel and we will suggest the route that suits those months, including which coast to finish on.
Planning your trip
A few things that shape a Sri Lankan itinerary.
- How long
- Ten days covers the main sights of the centre of the island. Two weeks adds proper time on the beach. A week suits the south alone.
- Travelling between places
- Distances are short but journeys are not. Roads wind, pass through towns and climb into the hills, so a journey that looks short on the map can take half a day. A route with fewer, longer stays is usually the better one.
- Car and driver
- Most visitors tour with a private car and driver, not a hire car. It is the easier way to travel here, and the same driver usually stays with you for the whole route.
- The train
- A stretch of the hill-country railway can replace a drive for a day, with your driver meeting you at the other end. Reserved seats sell out early and services are sometimes suspended, so it is something we arrange and confirm for you, not something to leave until you arrive.
- Tour first, beach last
- Most people prefer to do the travelling first and rest afterwards. Which coast you finish on depends on the time of year.
- Flights
- The flight from the UK takes around eleven hours when it is direct, and longer with a change on the way. A change can be turned into a stay, and the Maldives are a short flight from Colombo.
- Booking ahead
- Small hotels and the popular months fill early, and December to March needs the most notice.
Thinking about Sri Lanka?
Tell us what you would most like to see, how much moving around you are happy with, roughly when you would like to travel and who is going. If you already know you want time on the beach at the end, tell us that too. We will suggest a route, and say so if a tour that already exists would do the job.
