Sri Lanka in
two weeks

You'll need more than two weeks to see all the corners of this fantastic island. But if you, like us, only have two, these routes, hotels, restaurants and top tips will guarantee you an incredible journey!

We carbon offset with www.goldstandard.org

SOUTH WEST

THE COUNTRY

Despite recovering from civil war, a tsunami and terrorist attacks, Sri Lanka is one of the most pleasant countries we have travelled around. We always felt safe and the people were incredibly friendly. As an example, we forgot a pair of sunglasses in a tuktuk in Galle and the driver searched for us in a busy market for 20 minutes to return them. He refused a tip for his troubles and just said "no problem, welcome to Sri Lanka!" :-)

THE ROUTE

We decided to stick to Southern Sri Lanka on this first trip, skipping Kandy to fit in a longer coastal stay in Ahangama. We still managed to stay in colonial Galle, beach perfect Talalla, go on elephant safaris in Udawalawa, and hikes in the stunning mountainous Ella. Our two last nights were spent in the capital Colombo (closer to the airport), which was a surprisingly great end to the journey!

South West Coast

The South-West

The 100km coastal stretch from Colombo south to Galle has numerous villages by the beach. You don't have to worry too much about picking, most of them are nice and not "resorty" at all. More like sleepy fishing villages with phenomenal beaches.

We stayed in Bengola which was ok and then with a group of friends in a villa in Ahangama which was superb (pictured).

It first seemed a bit pricey when booking it but we hadn't quite realised that it included lovely Kumadu coming in daily, cooking us fantastic local dishes and looking after us. And a family of monkeys in the trees around the pool wasn't bad either.

You can easily hail a tuktuk on the street to take you to shops, restaurants or other beaches further away. If you like a bit more buzz Mirissa or Weligama is your place. You can surf during the day and have a pick of a greater number of restaurants in the evening.

GALLE

Galle city has 100,000 residents but most tourists spend their time in the peninsula around the Galle Fort, a picturesque world heritage site.

It is very colonial (numerous countries have ruled here), cosy and artsy but quite heavy on the ratio tourists vs local residents. You will definitely not go hungry, there's plenty of great restaurants. We had such an incredible green curry in one place we went back again for lunch the next day and had it again.

TALALLA / DIKWELLA

These smaller places are more quiet but (using our route) a perfect stop gap on the way up to the national parks and mountains.

The beaches are outstanding.

UDAWALAWA

A safari drive in the Udawalawe national park guarantees you seeing wild elephants, crocodiles and striking peacocks. Other than safaris there isn't much to see in the area though, so pick your hotel accordingly.

We stayed at Kottawatta Village Hotel in stilted safari tents overlooking the swimming pool and thousands of bats flying over at dusk which was pretty special. The food was great. PS. The "honeymoon tables" don't cost extra.

ELLA AND THE
HILL COUNTRY

ELLA

A really beautiful hilltop town with a relaxed feel. Lots of bars and restaurants and backpackers. Walking up to Little Adam's peak is fabulous (image above). As you make your way up to the spectacular views at the top, you walk past beautiful tea plantations and workers picking tea.

Also take a walk to the Nine arch bridge. You can walk through the tunnel on the railwaytrack but be aware, this is a working trainline!

We stayed for two nights which we felt was adequate but, could have easily filled another day. From here we took the 9 hour direct train to Colombo

COLOMBO

The initial reason for booking two nights in the capital was that we were arriving late from Ella and therefore added another night to see the city properly. However we were pleasantly surprised and had two great nights here walking around seeing the sites and trying different restaurants, such as Ministry of crab..

The Galle Face hotel (pictured) is a popular sun-downer spot with a bagpiper in kilt "serenading" the sun as it sets. The reason for this is a long story that you'll find out when you get there.

සුන්දර චාර්කාවක් වේවා!

(Have a nice trip!)

Mats & Caroline

GETTING AROUND

Getting from place to place. We would normally hire our own car but this trip we used "Taxi GO" from one hotel to the other. It was simply a case of calling them up the day before, agreeing on a (decent) price and then they turned up on time, with good cars and very friendly drivers.

TukTuks. Everywhere. Just hail one for shorter distances.

Train. From Ella to Colombo we took this famous 9 hour train. You can go by taxi (which weirdly is as fast as the train), but we loved the views (see video below). It got a bit samey samey after a couple of hours of course (and dark :) but we had prepped with 10 episodes of "Mrs Maizel" so that made it fly by.

RESTAURANTS

Best restaurants in Sri Lanka

HOTELS

Bentota - Pandanus Beach resort - Ok. Big pool, on the beach. A bit of noise from the main road.

Galle - Thambili house. Very nice and quirky. Few rooms, small splash pool, in the middle of Fort Galle. RECOMMENDED.

Ahangala - Coconut Grove. Awesome. Not cheap but beautiful villa all to yourself with monkeys in the trees and staff around during the day to help. RECOMMENDED.

Talalla - Handun villas. Separate mini villas. Ok, not great quality rooms but very nice pool, service and a hop and a skip to the outstanding beach.

Uduwalawe - Kottawata village. Stilted safari tents overlooking the swimming pool and thousands of bats flying over at dusk which was pretty special. The food was great. PS. The "honeymoon tables" do not cost extra. RECOMMENDED.

Ella - Zion view Ella green guesthouse. Incredible views, ok rooms.

Colombo - Cinnamon Lakeside. Big standard luxury hotel but the pool, OMG, never wanted to get out of it. Good location for exploring Colombo.