The rock, the leopards, and the line down to Ella.
Which Yala jeep leaves early enough to find a leopard. What a reserved seat on the hill train costs. Whether Sigiriya or Dambulla wins your one spare morning. Reviews of every tour you can book in Sri Lanka.
A leopard at dawn, the rock by nine, the train down to Ella.
Four bookings a first Sri Lankan fortnight is built around. What each costs, and what the travellers who took it say.
01The 4.30am startYala National Park Safari Tours: Morning/Evening/Full DayJeeps queue at the Yala gate in the dark. The park holds one of the densest leopard populations anywhere, and the first hour is when they move.
02The rock daySigiriya Rock & Dambulla Cave Temple AdventureSigiriya at opening, the painted caves at Dambulla after. One driver, two world heritage sites, back in Kandy for dinner.
03The hill lineKandy to Ella Train Tickets – Reserved SeatsA reserved seat from Kandy to Ella. Seven hours of tea gardens and viaducts for less than a taxi across Colombo.
04The kitchenTraditional Sri Lankan Cooking ClassTen curries built from scratch in a homestay above Ella, coconut grated by hand, and then you eat the lot.
Yala for leopards, Udawalawe for elephants, Minneriya for the Gathering.
Sri Lanka keeps its wildlife in a handful of parks and each one sells a different animal. Three kinds of game drive, what a seat in the jeep costs, and which one deserves the early start.
Colombo, Kandy, the rock country, and the coast you finish on.
An arrival city that runs on three-wheelers, a hill capital holding the Buddha’s tooth, a palace on a fortress rock, leopard country in the south east, a hill town at the end of the train line and a Dutch fort on the sea wall. Six starting points, and the best day out in each.
Sri Lanka left its old capitals in the dry zone, an hour apart.
A royal palace on a two hundred metre rock, five caves of painted Buddhas at Dambulla, brick cities at Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa with the jungle held back around them. Two early starts out of Sigiriya or Kandy covers the lot.
Colombo is one good day, and the three-wheeler is how you spend it.
Everything in Colombo →
Pettah market, the Red Mosque lanes, Gangaramaya on the lake and Galle Face green at sunset. A driver with a tuk-tuk covers more of that in four hours than a coach does all day, and the entry tickets are usually in the price.
Colombo by three-wheeler
The loop most drivers run: the market halls, the mosque, the temple on the lake and the seafront. No doors, no timetable, and it parks where a car cannot.
The guided city loop
The colonial quarter, Independence Square and the National Museum with somebody explaining what you are looking at. The better option when the monsoon is on this coast.
Getting in from Katunayake
The airport sits up by Negombo and the road in is slower than the map promises. Arrange the car before you land rather than bargaining at the rank at 3am.
The days out more travellers book than anything else in Sri Lanka.
Every Sri Lankan tour we have reviewed →Leopard jeeps, the rock climb, a seat on the hill train and a tuk-tuk driver who has done the Colombo loop a thousand times. These fill up first.
1
Private Tuk-Tuk City Tour with All Entry Fees
Explore Colombo by private tuk-tuk with guides such as Ranjith, Joseph, Ranji, and Nawzad. In four hours, you’ll see temples, markets, colonial landmarks, Galle Face Green, and the Lotus Tower, with king coconut water, tea tasting, hotel pickup, and room to adjust the route.
From · $23
Read our review →
2
Kandy Private Guided City Tour by Tuk Tuk
from $6
3
Whales and Dolphins Watching-Luxury Super Grade Cruiser(Hotel Pick up offered)
from $65
4
Sigiriya and Dambulla Day Trip with Safari
from $53
5
Yala National Park Safari Tours: Morning/Evening/Full Day
from $25
6
Traditional Sri Lankan Cooking Class
from $19
7
Sigiriya Rock & Dambulla Cave Temple Adventure
from $29
8
Sri Lanka Personal Tour Driver in private vehicle
Above Kandy the map turns green and the train slows right down.
Tea covers everything from Ramboda up to Nuwara Eliya, and the Ella line runs straight through the middle of it. Factory tours finish in the tasting room, the Nine Arches Bridge is a twenty minute walk out of Ella town, and the seats are the part to book early.
Every tea and train day →
Sri Lanka finishes at the sea, somewhere between Bentota and Tangalle.
Galle for the ramparts and the fort lanes, Mirissa for blue whales from November to April, Hikkaduwa and Unawatuna for reef and turtles, Bentota for the mangrove river. It is all an hour or two apart on the coast road, and the train runs beside it.
- 1Whales and Dolphins Watching-Luxury Super Grade Cruiser(Hotel Pick up offered)from $65
- 2Traditional Gems & Jewellery Workshop with Transfersfrom $13
- 3Sea waves sri lankan cooking classfrom $59
What a day out in Sri Lanka actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs. A jeep seat, a cooking class and a train ticket all land under the price of dinner at home.
Jeep seats, train tickets, cooking classes, temple entries and the tuk-tuk city loops.
Full days out: two parks on one drive, Sigiriya and Dambulla together, the whale boats from Mirissa.
A car and driver for a week, private guides, and the multi-day loops of the whole island.
Three things that only happen in Sri Lanka.
Beaches and temples turn up all over the tropics. A blue train climbing through tea gardens, a milk feed for orphaned wild elephants, and a three-wheeler used as a touring car do not.
The Kandy to Ella line
The British laid the track to move tea down to the coast, and it now carries more travellers than crop. Reserved second class opens about a month ahead and the observation car goes almost at once; unreserved carriages never sell out, which is why the doorway seats belong to whoever climbs on first. The line tops out above eighteen hundred metres before it drops into Ella.
- 1Kandy to Ella Train Tickets – Reserved Seats★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 523 reviews
- 2Ella Unfogettable Day tour & Train Ride Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 62 reviews
- 3Ella Private Day Trip with Train Ride & Tea Factory-All Inclusive★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 61 reviews
The Elephant Transit Home
Orphaned calves are raised beside Udawalawe and released back into the park, so nobody rides them and nobody scrubs them in a river. Visitors watch the milk feed from a platform at set hours, the calves walk back into the scrub afterwards, and that is the whole visit. It is the opposite of the elephant attractions you were warned about.
- 1National Park Safari & Elephant Transit Home Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 183 reviews
- 2National park safari & Elephant Transit Home Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 50 reviews
- 3Sri Lanka Ella Private Day Tour Nine Arch & Elephant transit home★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 22 reviews
The tuk-tuk day tour
A bench seat, a canvas roof and no doors turns out to be the right vehicle for a country of narrow lanes and short hops. In Kandy and Colombo the entire day tour runs on them, the driver holds the entry tickets, and you stop wherever you point.
- 1Private Tuk-Tuk City Tour with All Entry Fees★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 2,154 reviews
- 2Kandy Private Guided City Tour by Tuk Tuk★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 1,307 reviews
- 3Colombo Tuk Tuk City Tour -Sightseeing Entry Fees & Food Included★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 678 reviews
Four Sri Lankan bookings that will not wait.
Most of this island can be arranged the night before from a guesthouse veranda. These four run on train reservations, park gates and a monsoon that keeps its own calendar.
- 01Kandy to Ella Train Tickets – Reserved SeatsReserved seats on the hill line open about a month out and the observation car goes in minutes. Miss them and it is seven hours standing in a doorway.
- 02Yala National Park Safari Tours: Morning/Evening/Full DayThe morning drive is the one that finds leopards, and the jeeps are spoken for the night before. Block 1 also shuts for several weeks each dry season.
- 03Whales and Dolphins Watching-Luxury Super Grade Cruiser(Hotel Pick up offered)Blue whales pass Mirissa roughly November to April. Outside that window the boats stay tied up, whatever the calendar on a booking page offers.
- 04Sigiriya and Dambulla Day Trip with SafariThe staircase up the rock is single file, so a ten o’clock start is the whole morning queued on hot stone. Gates open at seven for a reason.
When the monsoon is on your coast, go inland and get under a roof.
Sri Lanka runs two rainy seasons on opposite sides of the island. The south west takes it from May to September, the north and east from October to January, so one half is usually dry while the other is not. When your half is the wet one: a kitchen, a tea factory, a cave temple, a workshop.
Rice and curry means eight bowls, and somebody will teach you all of them.
Classes run out of homestays in Ella, village kitchens near Kandy and rooftops in Colombo. You grate the coconut, you grind the spices, you sit down to the result. Plenty of them start with the market.
By place, coast to hill country
By kind of day, jeep, train, kitchen or reef
Colombo, Sigiriya, Kandy, Ella, Yala, Galle: the loop almost everybody drives first.
The newest Sri Lankan tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Bentota beach, River Mangroves lagoon, Wildlife Tour
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Budget Yala Safari with Accomadation & Meals Included
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Bentota/Kalutara/Hikkaduwa/Galle/Mirissa: Day Trip to Ella
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Bentota River Safari -Ahungalla/Bentota/Aluthgama/Kosgoda
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Bentota River Safari: Discover Wildlife & Mangroves by Boat
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All Inclusive Galle Dutch Fort & Madu River Safari
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Authentic Sri Lankan Cooking Class in Kandy by Local Family
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Arugam Bay: Lagoon Boat safari with Safety Measures
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