Trip report: Sri Lanka
Visited in February 2022
Sri Lanka was a country I had been looking forward to for a long time. After all, the small island state in the Indian Ocean became a popular destination in recent years, attracting more and more tourists every year. Sri Lanka is an “India light” many travel blogs claim. A similar culture, but without all the hustle and bustle and noise that exists in India. It sounded exciting to me and I could hardly wait to travel to the country.
In February 2022, I spent 9 days in Sri Lanka together with my buddy Matt, traveling the typical itinerary that most travelers do. From Colombo (respectively Negombo, a small city north of the capital, where we spent the first night) we did the loop that took us first to Sigiriya, then to Kandy, from there to Ella and finally to the south coast before heading back to Colombo.
We did not see the capital, though. Although Colombo is probably exciting for those who have not seen a city on the Indian Subcontinent yet, we did not have enough time. Having already spent three days in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu and Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka before arriving in Sri Lanka, I was also not entirely unhappy about not seeing another big city.
Apart from our first night in Negombo, you can divide our itinerary into three parts. The first part was the Cultural Triangle from Sigiriya to Kandy. The second part was the nature part between Kandy and Ella. The third and last part was the beach part at Sri Lanka’s south coast.
We traveled mainly by car and booked a driver for the first three days of our round trip in advance. After that we continued by train from Kandy to Ella. And for the transfers from Ella to Tangalle and from Tangalle to Colombo we booked a driver again the day before the trip. The drivers cost 70 dollars per day each (gasoline and tolls included).
Part I: the Cultural Triangle
After our first night in Negombo, we drove three hours towards the center of the country. Sigiriya was our destination for the next two nights. It is basically a tiny village consisting of one main street with a few restaurants and hotels. It’s a village that probably wouldn’t exist without tourism.
Sigiriya is known for its Sigiriya Rock, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which is probably the most famous landmark of Sri Lanka. Furthermore, other UNESCO sites, temples as well as safari parks are located in the immediate vicinity. For this reason, it is almost a must to make Sigiriya part of any Sri Lanka itinerary.
To be a bit more precise, we visited the following places in this region:
- the Golden Temple of Dambulla (day 1)
- Sigiriya Rock (day 1)
- the Avukana Buddha Statue (day 2)
- Anuradhapura (day 2)
- Hurulu Eco Park (day 2)
- Pidurangala Rock (day 3)
- Polonnaruwa (day 3)
Most of these places are a few minutes to about an hour and a half away from Sigiriya, so you can easily visit several of them in one day.
Highlights for me were on the one hand Pidurangala Rock, where we hiked up early in the morning and watched the sunrise. Pidurangala is in my opinion clearly the better rock to climb than Sigiriya Rock. On the other hand, I found the stupa in Anuradhapura quite impressive. Also cool was the Avukana Buddha statue.
Since Sri Lanka is one of the best countries in the world to see elephants, you should definitely visit a safari park. The most famous park near Sigiriya is Minneriya National Park. However, the supposedly best choice is Kaudulla National Park. Unfortunately, both of these national parks were flooded when we were there, so the elephants moved from these parks to Hurulu Eco Park. In fact, all three parks are connected to each other.
The Hurulu Eco Park is the smallest of these three parks, but in the end it was also worth it, because we saw many elephants and also got quite close to them. If you don’t have time for a safari in this region, however, you don’t have to worry. There are other parks in the south of the country, for example the Udawalawe National Park or the Yala National Park. If you are lucky, you can also see leopards there.
In summary, this region is the cultural heart of Sri Lanka. Here you will find the most jaw-dropping temples and monuments of the country. We finished the cultural part of Sri Lanka not in Sigiriya but in Kandy, where we visited our fifth UNESCO site, the Temple of Tooth.
However, Kandy was also the start of our second part. The nature part.
Part II: the nature part from Kandy and Ella
Days four to six were all about seeing Sri Lanka’s beautiful nature. The area between Kandy and Ella is perfect for this.
The drive from Sigiriya to Kandy took about two and a half hours. We saw relatively little of Kandy itself except for the Temple of Tooth, since we only had one night there and our hotel was about twenty minutes from the city center. However, the view of the hotel got us a taste of what we would experience in the next few days.
The next day we traveled by train to Ella. This train from Kandy to Ella has gained enormous popularity in recent years and is partly a reason why more and more young people travel to Sri Lanka. I even think that pictures of this train ride also made me aware of Sri Lanka’s tourism for the first time a few years ago.
The train ride between the two cities, which some people call the most scenic train ride in the world, takes about seven hours. IF the train is on time. In reality, there is often a delay. The train then passes through spectacular landscapes consisting of jungles, lush-green hills and tea plantations.
In my opinion, however, this train ride is overrated. Of course, the scenery is stunning, but after a while it becomes monotonous. Especially, since the duration of this ride is seven hours. Unless you haven’t seen only desert in your life, it gets a bit boring after a while.
Besides, you have to imagine the train ride as follows:
- Half of the passengers are tourists.
- Even before the train starts, there are first fights about who is going to sit on which side. The right side (in the direction of travel) is supposed to be the better. I can only partially confirm this. The left side is also good.
- When you’re sitting on your seat, and it does not matter where, the train runs backwards. This makes some people feel sick.
- A Go-Pro or a filming cell phone hangs out of every window.
- There is a constant scramble for the spaces by the doors where you can lean out at your own risk. Certain passengers block these spaces for half an hour or more.
- The train stops somewhere every five minutes.
I would say that this train ride is suitable for one thing above all, and that is to have a cool photo taken of yourself. That’s no secret, but whether it’s worth driving seven hours across the country to get it is another question.
If I could decide again, I probably wouldn’t do the train trip again, or only part of it. Since the train stops regularly, it is also possible to get out after one hour. And one hour on the train is probably more than enough.
We spent two nights in Ella after that. In Ella, you can enjoy some great natural sights and on our only full day we visited Ravana Falls, Nine Arches Bridge and Little Adam’s Peak.
You can easily visit all these three places in one day, probably even in half a day. For this reason there is no recommendation from me, which ones are worthwhile and which ones are not. Just do them all. This is especially true for Little Adam’s Peak. Don’t be lazy, the climb is relatively easy and the view is incredible.
For me, Little Adam’s Peak was one of the highlights of Sri Lanka. This was surprising because I considered Little Adam’s Peak a bit of a consolation prize for those who skipped Adam’s Peak, another famous tourist site near Nuwara Eliya. After all, compared to Adam’s Peak, where the climb takes around three hours, Little Adam’s Peak only takes one. The views are apparently similar, though.
On our way from Ella to the south coast we took a little detour and made a stop at Diyaluma Falls, the second highest waterfall in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has a lot of waterfalls and Diyaluma is definitely one of the most spectacular to visit.
Ideally, you start your visit to the falls at the top and then walk down. You should plan about two to three hours for this.
Part III: beach life in the South
The last part of the Sri Lanka trip took place on the south coast. Sri Lanka has a great selection of beaches and we chose Mangrove Beach near Tangalle for our last two nights.
There are several nice beaches around Tangalle and theoretically, it would have been possible to visit more beaches in one day. However, we wanted to relax at the end of this trip, so we decided against beach-hopping and spent all our time at Mangrove Beach.
Beach-hopping was not necessary anyway. Mangrove Beach was pretty empty, so we had it to ourselves. For swimming, there would probably have been better beaches, because the current in the water was quite strong. However, this seems to be the case with many beaches in the south of Sri Lanka. The strong waves are also the reason why the south coast of Sri Lanka is a popular destination for surfers.
On our last day, we made a stop in the city Galle on way back to the airport. Galle Fort was the sixth UNESCO World Heritage Site that we saw in Sri Lanka. In total, Sri Lanka has eight of them.
Galle is quite small, but I liked its small charming streets, the European influences and also the culinary offer. In hindsight, I wouldn’t have minded spending an extra night there, although it only takes one or two hours to see everything.
The characteristics of a Sri Lanka-trip
In the introduction I wrote that Sri Lanka is often referred to as an “India light” and I was eager to see how similar the two countries are. After this trip, my answer would be: not similar at all. Aside from some of the meals and the appearance of the people, Sri Lanka had nothing at all in common with the India I had seen in 2015.
I found Sri Lanka much more comparable to classic Southeast Asian destinations like Malaysia, Bali, Laos, Thailand or the like. This on the one hand because of the nature and the many temples, but on the other hand also because of the way you travel in Sri Lanka.
In general, Sri Lanka is a very easy travel destination. You need to organize relatively little in advance and can decide day by day what to do next. Traveling in the country can be done either with a car and driver, as we did, or you can travel by bus or train. You can also easily organize a driver the day before you need him. Just ask either the hotel or a cab on the street. In our experience, the prices varied only slightly when we asked a few people to give us a quote. However, it is certainly not worth taking the best offer right away. Just ask around and choose then.
If you do not want to travel far, it is best to take a tuk-tuk. You have to negotiate the price with the driver, but I did not have the feeling that the driver were shamelessly overcharging us. This applies not only to tuk-tuk drivers, but also to street stalls where you can buy snacks. The Sri Lankan people are friendly and honest. Sometimes, they might try to charge 100 rupees more, but we are talking about 50 cents here. So it’s not a big deal.
What also reminded me of Southeast Asia was that you meet the same people over and over again in other places of the country. Most tourists take a similar route, so you see familiar faces in hotels, restaurants or on tours every now and then. Like back in the days when I traveled the so-called banana pancake trails of Southeast Asia.
By the way, tourism in Sri Lanka is very much geared towards backpackers. That means there are many hostels, guesthouses, laundry services and cheap restaurants. If you are looking for luxury hotels, you will have trouble finding decent ones in certain parts of the country. The majority of the hotels in Sri Lanka are rather basic. In this respect, I expected the country’s tourism infrastructure to be more developed.
The price level in Sri Lanka is generally rather low. Room rates in the cheapest hostels and hotels start at a few dollars per night. For mid-range accommodations you usually pay between 20 and 40 dollars per night and even the few luxury hotels are affordable. For food, depending on the restaurant, you will pay 500-1,500 LKR, which is about $2.50-7.50. Snacks on the road usually cost 100 LKR. We paid $70 each for our drivers and $12 for the train ride from Kandy to Ella because we booked it online. At the train station, the price would be about $2-3. However, some trains are fully booked and we did not want to risk it.
On the other hand, entrance fees to the sites are quite pricey. When you visit the UNESCO sites, expect to pay $20-30 for the entrance ticket. This will actually sum up after a while, especially if you visit two or three sites a day. The two-hour safari at Hurulu also cost $35 per person.
There is a little trick, though, to increasing your purchasing power in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is in a foreign currency crisis and there is a large black market where you can change dollars to rupees. While you get 197-200 LKR per dollar at a bank or ATM, you get 240 on the black market, which is 20% more. This way you can easily save $200-400 on a 2-week trip to Sri Lanka.
So how can you find the black market? Basically, it’s various stores that offer a good exchange rate. Jewelers for example. Or souvenir stores. But it can also be other shops. For example, we exchanged our first dollars in a carpet store. You can just walk into stores and ask if they change dollars and what rate they offer. In the smaller places like Sigiriya or Ella it is a bit more difficult. Therefore, I would recommend to change a large amount in Colombo (or as in our case in Negombo).
A word about the food in Sri Lanka. The food was all in all very good and delicious. However, I found that most restaurants offered the exact same selection of local food. Because of this, the local food became a bit monotonous for us over time. Fortunately, the tourist places each have a good selection of international dishes.
Apart from the restaurants, you can also eat snacks on the street. The stalls usually sell fruits like mango, pineapple or papaya, vegetables, corn and most importantly coconuts. The snacks cost as mentioned earlier in most cases 100 LKR.
Is Sri Lanka worth a trip or not?
So, how was Sri Lanka?
In one sentence I would describe the country as follows: fantastic temples surrounded by jungle, tea plantations, green hills and waterfalls, plus beautiful beaches, coconuts, spicy food, little monkeys as far as the eye can see and lots of stray dogs.
Sri Lanka is, in my opinion, a perfect starter country for people who have little travel experience outside the western world. The country is safe, quite easy to travel, the locals are nice and helpful and the country is not expensive either. However, Sri Lanka is not only a country for newbies but will also appeal to people who have already seen other countries in the region.
I have divided this trip into three parts: culture, nature and beach. Of these three parts, I would argue that the first two parts belong on any Sri Lanka itinerary, while the beach part is optional. The beach part is basically interchangeable with other countries and probably it is even the better option to skip it altogether and add a few days in Maldives. After all, the beaches in Maldives are even nicer and you can easily connect the two countries due to many daily flights.
The cultural part could also be shortened a bit, because in my opinion the same applies to Sri Lanka as to other countries: at some point you will have enough of the historical sites and temples. For example, I found Polonnaruwa rather underwhelming. But the fear of missing out did not allow me to skip anything. In retrospect, I could have done that with one or the other sight.
By the way, keep in mind that Sri Lanka has relatively strict dress rules when you visit the sites. That means you have to wear long pants for all religious tourist attractions. Some of you will now say that this is a matter of course. However, there are also some countries that are much less strict in this regard. Even when walking up Pidurangala rock you have to wear long pants, as it is a monastery. Add the mandatory masking outdoors (which will hopefully be a thing of the past soon) to that and you spend your days walking around in long pants and wearing a mask, while temperatures are above 30°C.
Despite this, I would generally rate Sri Lanka as a cool destination. I liked the country, although I must also say that Sri Lanka offered relatively little new, which I have not already seen somewhere in another country. However, this is not Sri Lanka’s fault. It’s just that after 129 countries, you eventually reach the point where some countries become a little repetitive.
What appealed to me was the nature, the people and the aforementioned simplicity or lightheartedness when traveling through the country. On the other hand, the country was also the busiest I’ve seen since the pandemic began. This means that the sights were crowded and there was competition for the best photo spots in each of the beautiful places.
I wasn’t used to something like this anymore, as other touristy countries like Costa Rica, for example, were practically empty when I was there last year. But again, this is neither Sri Lanka’s fault. After all, it’s good for their plagued economy when many tourists come to the country.
Nevertheless, this is another reason why I would say that I liked Sri Lanka, but I am not completely blown away. In the end, it is small things that I criticize and that hardly play a role for other travelers. Therefore, I remain with the conclusion that Sri Lanka is a country that I can definitely recommend and in which an overwhelming majority will have a pleasure.
Thanks so much Philippe! This is great!