Ceylon
Experience
The Ultimate
Ceylon Experience
Indulge in a Wellness Retreat amidst Serene Landscapes, the full heart and soul of Sri Lanka, unhurried.
— The Journey
What these
fourteen days
look like
Fourteen days is the only length of time that allows Sri Lanka to be experienced without compromise. This tour doesn’t rush anywhere, it gives every destination the time it deserves. Ancient Sigiriya and Polonnaruwa, the extraordinary east coast beaches and whale watching of Trincomalee, sacred Kandy, the mist-covered tea hills of Nuwara Eliya, the Ella scenic train, the Yala leopard safari, three unhurried days on Bentota’s coast, and two full days exploring Colombo. This is the tour for people who don’t want to choose. The complete island, at the right pace, with every experience it offers.
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Airport Pick-Up & Drop-Off
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English-Speaking Driver-Guide
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Tea Plantation & Factory Visit
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Yala National Park Safari
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Private Luxury A/C Vehicle
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3–5 Star Accommodation (BB/HB)
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Scenic Train Ride (Nanu Oya → Ella)
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Культурное танцевальное шоу
— Your Route
Airport → Sigiriya → Polonnaruwa → Trincomalee → Kandy → Nuwara Eliya → Ella → Yala → Bentota → Colombo → Airport
~720 km total
Fully chauffeured
Day by day
Маршрут
Day
01
Airport → Sigiriya
Arrival & The Cultural Triangle
Your guide is at arrivals. The road north from Colombo crosses the coastal plains and climbs into Sri Lanka’s ancient heartland, the Cultural Triangle, a region so dense with UNESCO-listed heritage that the term barely contains it. The landscape shifts quickly, and by the time you arrive in Sigiriya the city feels deliberately placed at the entrance to something important.
En route: Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage, Sri Lanka’s most beloved conservation site, and the extraordinary Golden Temple at Dambulla, five rock-cut cave sanctuaries filled with 153 Buddha statues and ceiling frescoes covering 2,100 square metres. The caves alone would anchor a destination. Here, they’re the warm-up act. Sigiriya’s famous rock waits for tomorrow morning.
Today’s Highlights
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Airport Welcome & Transfer
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Пиннавальский приют для слонов
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Golden Temple — Dambulla (UNESCO)
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Village Tour (optional)
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Bullock Cart & Tuk Tuk Rides
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Hot Air Ballooning (optional)
Day
02
Sigiriya → Polonnaruwa
The Lion Rock & the Ancient Capital
Sigiriya at dawn is a different place from Sigiriya at noon. The morning climb, 1,200 steps through water gardens, past 5th-century frescoes of celestial maidens still vivid, through the carved Lion Gate to the summit platform, is best done before the heat and the crowds. From the top, Sri Lanka’s central plain stretches in every direction. It’s one of the most expansive views the island offers.
Polonnaruwa, the island’s 12th-century royal capital, fills the afternoon. The ruins here are on a different scale from anything in the 9-day tour, a full day’s exploration reveals the royal palace complex, the Vatadage relic house, the Thuparama, and the Gal Vihara: four colossal Buddha statues carved directly into a granite cliff face, considered among the finest religious sculptures in all of Asia. Time here is well spent.
Today’s Highlights
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Sigiriya Rock Fortress (UNESCO)
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Ancient Frescoes & Lion Gate
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Habarana Elephant Safari (optional)
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Polonnaruwa Ancient City (UNESCO)
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Parakrama Samudraya Reservoir
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Gal Vihara Rock Sculptures
Day
03
Polonnaruwa → Trincomalee
The East Coast — Sri Lanka’s Other Shore
Most Sri Lanka tours never reach the east coast. This one does, and it’s worth it. Trincomalee is a coastal town on one of the world’s finest natural harbours, with a character entirely different from the island’s busy south-west. Calmer, more spacious, less developed, the east coast feels like a different chapter of the same story.
Upon arrival, the Koneswaram Temple, a Hindu temple of extraordinary antiquity perched on Swami Rock above the sea, is one of the most dramatic temple settings in Sri Lanka. The day opens into exploring Trincomalee’s beaches: Мраморный пляж and Nilaveli are among the most beautiful stretches of coast on the island, with water clear enough to see the bottom from standing depth. Tomorrow belongs entirely to them.
Today’s Highlights
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Koneswaram Temple — Swami Rock
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Мраморный пляж
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Пляж Нилавели
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Natural Harbour Views
Day
04
Trincomalee (Leisure Day)
Dolphins, Whales & the Indian Ocean
A full free day at Trincomalee, the kind of day the rest of the tour earns. The Indian Ocean here is warm, clear, and remarkably alive. Pigeon Island National Park, a short boat ride offshore, holds some of the finest reef snorkelling and diving in Sri Lanka, coral systems home to hundreds of species of fish, sea turtles, and blacktip reef sharks.
Trincomalee’s waters between May and October are among the best in the world for dolphin and whale watching, blue whales, sperm whales, spinner dolphins and more move through these waters in numbers that make every trip a genuine experience. For those who prefer the shore, the beaches here simply ask you to stay. The afternoon has no obligations.
Today’s Highlights
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Pigeon Island Snorkelling & Diving
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Наблюдение за дельфинами и китами
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Nilaveli Beach (free time)
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Watersports Available
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Leisure Day — entirely your own
Day
05
Trincomalee → Kandy
Sacred Kandy — The Last Royal Capital
The drive from Trincomalee to Kandy crosses Sri Lanka’s full breadth, from the flat, open east coast through the island’s green interior to the cool, ceremonious hill capital. The contrast in landscape, atmosphere, and pace is one of the 14-day tour’s particular pleasures: nowhere else gives you both the east coast and Kandy in the same journey.
Kandy is Sri Lanka’s spiritual centre. The Храм Зубной реликвии holds the Buddha’s sacred tooth, the most venerated object in the entire Buddhist world. The Peradeniya Botanical Gardens, the Kandy viewpoint, and the afternoon’s shopping lanes bring the city’s living culture into focus. The evening closes with a Kandyan cultural dance and fire-walking ceremony, one of the most vivid hours of the entire journey.
Today’s Highlights
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Temple of the Tooth Relic (UNESCO)
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Kandy City Tour & Viewpoint
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Gem & Batik Factory Visits
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Сады специй
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Фабрика резьбы по дереву
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Kandyan Cultural Dance Show
Day
06
Kandy → Nuwara Eliya
Little England — Tea Country in the Clouds
The drive from Kandy into the hills is one of the island’s most rewarding journeys, the road climbing through forest, past waterfalls and rubber estates, until the valley walls turn green with tea and the air has a quality that makes you want to breathe more slowly. The Ramboda Falls are a natural pause; the working tea plantation and factory visit turns Ceylon’s most famous export from an abstraction into a sensory memory you’ll carry home.
Nuwara Eliya is deliberately unlike the rest of Sri Lanka. The British built a hill station here and called it Little England, and some of that character, the cool air, the English-style buildings, the golf course, the horse race track, remains. Lake Gregory, the Hakgala Gardens, the Храм Сита Амман nestled in the hillside, and optional trek to World’s End fill the afternoon with beauty at a proper pace.
Today’s Highlights
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Водопады Рамбода
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Tea Plantation & Factory Visit
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Tea Tasting
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Экскурсия по городу Нувара-Элия
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Lake Gregory
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Ботанический сад Хакгала
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Храм Сита Амман
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World's End (optional)
Day
07
Nuwara Eliya → Ella (by train)
The Train Ride the World Talks About
The train from Nanu Oya to Ella is not a tourist attraction. It is the real train, carrying real passengers through mountains that happen to be extraordinary. Cloud forest. Tea terraces dropping into cloud-filled ravines. Waterfalls glimpsed through open carriage doors. Stations where someone boards with a bag of jackfruit and occupies the seat across from you for forty minutes. Several hours of unhurried travel at its very best.
Ella’s charms are genuine and quiet: the Nine Arch Bridge framed in jungle, the Ravana Falls in full cascade, the hike to Mini Adam’s Peak for panoramic views over three provinces, and the optional Flying Ravana Zipline stretching 1.2 kilometres over the valley at 160 metres of elevation. Ella earns every superlative it receives.
Today’s Highlights
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Scenic Train — Nanu Oya to Ella
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Nine Arch Bridge
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Водопад Равана
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Mini Adam's Peak
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Flying Ravana Zipline (optional)
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Ella Rock (optional)
Day
08
Ella → Yala National Park
Yala — Into Leopard Country
The drive from Ella to Yala takes you through the island’s deep south, through tea country giving way to dry scrub forest and the wide, open skies of the south-eastern coast. By the time you reach the gates of Yala National Park, the landscape has changed completely. This is Sri Lanka’s most famous wildlife territory, covering 979 square kilometres of forest, lagoon, and boulder-strewn savannah that constitutes some of the finest big-cat habitat in Asia.
Yala has the highest density of leopards of any protected area in the world. The safari, conducted by open jeep with an experienced naturalist guide, typically yields leopard sightings, wild elephants, saltwater crocodiles, sloth bears, water buffalo, and an extraordinary variety of birdlife including painted storks, peacocks, and sea eagles. The park operates morning and evening drives. Both are worth taking.
Today’s Highlights
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Yala National Park Safari
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Sri Lankan Leopard Sightings
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Wild Elephants
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Saltwater Crocodiles
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Sloth Bears & Rich Birdlife
Day
09
Yala → Bentota
Galle & the First Day on the Coast
The journey from Yala to Bentota runs along Sri Lanka’s southern coastal highway, a road that offers views of the Indian Ocean between the villages, through Hambantota, Matara, and eventually to Galle. The drive is itself worth doing slowly.
Galle Fort, the 17th-century Dutch walled city on the southern tip, is one of the finest colonial-era sites in all of South Asia and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Walking the ramparts, exploring the cobblestone lanes, visiting the lighthouse and the old Dutch Reformed Church, browsing the boutiques inside 300-year-old buildings, Galle rewards those who give it time. The stilt fishermen at Weligama just down the coast are one of the island’s most iconic images. Bentota awaits at day’s end: check in, breathe in, and let the next three days begin.
Today’s Highlights
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Dutch Fort — Galle (UNESCO)
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Galle Ramparts & Lighthouse
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Stilt Fishermen
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Turtle Hatchery — Kosgoda
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Madu River Boat Ride (60 Islands)
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Bentota Beach Arrival
Day
10 & 11
Bentota (Leisure Days)
Two Free Days — The Sea, the Shore, the Stillness
These two days have no itinerary and no agenda. After eight days of monuments, mountains, wildlife, and trains, Bentota is the right answer to everything. The Indian Ocean here is warm, clear, and extraordinarily blue. The beach stretches in both directions without end. The only decision is whether to do very little or absolutely nothing.
For those who want activity: watersports, jet skiing, windsurfing, wakeboarding, kayaking, are available at the beach. The Kosgoda Turtle Hatchery protects five species of sea turtle and occasionally facilitates releases. The river, the lagoon, and the surrounding villages reward exploration. For everyone else: the beach, the sun, the ocean, a book, and the very deliberate luxury of time.
Today’s Highlights
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Bentota Beach (free time)
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Optional Watersports
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Kosgoda Turtle Hatchery
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Терапия рыбьей стопы
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Bentota River Boat Rides
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Total leisure — your call
Day
12
Bentota → Colombo
Colombo — The City That Contains Everything
Colombo after twelve days of Sri Lanka is its own reward. The city makes more sense when you’ve already experienced the island that surrounds it, the culture, the landscape, the pace. Colombo contains all of those things simultaneously: the colonial buildings from the British period, the Buddhist temples from centuries before that, the modern towers going up beside them, the street markets and the rooftop bars operating within blocks of each other.
The afternoon covers the city’s essential civic and sacred landmarks: Gangaramaya Temple on the lake, Площадь Независимости with its quiet grandeur, and the Красная мечеть marking the old Muslim quarter. The evening opens Colombo’s other side, the market lanes of Pettah, the waterfront at Galle Face Green, and the city’s vibrant seafood restaurants for the last proper dinner of the journey.
Today’s Highlights
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Gangaramaya Temple
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Площадь Независимости
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Красная мечеть
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Местный рынок Петта
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Экскурсия по городу Коломбо
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Galle Face Green at Sunset
Day
13
Colombo (Exploration Day)
Sri Lanka — One Last Time
The second day in Colombo is entirely unstructured. This is a rare thing on any tour, a day with no set agenda in a city that rewards aimless exploration. Colombo’s streets, cafés, markets, museums, galleries, and waterfronts reveal different things at different times of day, and the National Museum alone could occupy a long, useful morning.
Colombo’s food scene is genuinely excellent and deserves time: a proper Sri Lankan rice and curry lunch at a local restaurant, then the city’s surprisingly sophisticated café culture in the afternoon. As the sun goes down, Galle Face Green fills with kite flyers, vendors, and locals doing exactly what you should be doing on a final evening, watching the ocean while Sri Lanka does what it always does: makes you feel entirely at home.
Today’s Highlights
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National Museum Colombo
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Pettah Market (revisit)
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Colombo's café & food scene
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Last-minute shopping
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Galle Face Green at sunset
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Rooftop bar & farewell dinner
Day
14
Colombo → Airport
The Final Morning — Carrying Sri Lanka Home
Fourteen days. An ancient rock fortress at dawn. A 12th-century capital explored by foot. Two days on the east coast with dolphins and clear water. Sri Lanka’s most sacred temple. Tea tasted where it grows. The world’s most beautiful train journey. Leopards in open country. Three days at the beach. Two days in one of Asia’s most fascinating cities. The complete island.
The final morning is yours entirely, one last breakfast, one last walk, one last encounter with the warmth that Sri Lankans bring to every interaction. Our driver will be there with the transfer perfectly timed, the journey ends without logistics, exactly the way it began. Sri Lanka will begin its quiet work of staying with you from here.
Before You Go
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Flexible morning depending on flight
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Private airport transfer
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Our team available until departure
— Not to Be Missed
Top
Лучшие моменты
Trincomalee & the East Coast
The east coast is the exclusive addition this tour makes over every shorter option. Marble Beach and Nilaveli are among Sri Lanka’s most beautiful, and Trincomalee’s waters offer dolphins, whales, and world-class reef snorkelling at Pigeon Island.
Yala National Park Safari
The world’s highest density of leopards in a protected area. A full day in Yala, including both morning and evening drives, gives this tour’s wildlife experience the time it deserves. The park also holds wild elephants, sloth bears, and hundreds of bird species.
Three Days at Bentota
Where shorter tours give you an afternoon on the coast, this one gives you three full days. The difference is everything: time to genuinely rest, explore, swim, try the watersports, and still have a quiet morning left over before Colombo.
✓ What’s Included
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Airport pick-up and drop-off
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Помощь в аэропорту
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Accommodation (BB or HB basis, 3–5 star)
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Private luxury air-conditioned vehicle
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English-speaking driver for entire journey
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Fuel & local vehicle insurance
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City & shopping tours in all destinations
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Traditional Kandyan dance show
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Ceylon Gem, Batik & Handcraft Factory visits
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Spice Garden visit
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Все государственные налоги
— What’s Not Included
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International air tickets
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Sightseeing entrance fees (unless specified)
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Питание, не указанное в маршруте
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Late check-out / early check-in charges
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Camera & video permits
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Travel insurance
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Личные расходы
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Guide & driver gratuities
Prefer something different? The inclusions and exclusions above are our default, but nothing is fixed. If you’d like meals added, entrance fees included, or the itinerary adjusted around your preferences, get in touch and we’ll customise it around you.
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This tour contributes to The Hope Initiative
A portion of every booking supports schools and communities across Sri Lanka. When you travel with us, someone else’s future gets a little brighter.
More time than you have?
Shorter tours available.
Landscape & Coast
Hill Country & Coastal Charm
From misty tea-covered highlands to palm-fringed beaches, this five-day journey captures two of Sri Lanka’s most breathtaking contrasts in one seamless route.
Complete Discovery
Discover Enchanting Wonders
Home to over 80 elephants, Pinnawala is one of Sri Lanka’s most beloved conservation centres. Watch the herd bathe in the river, a moment that stays with you long after you’ve left.
Island Immersion
Sri Lanka Serendipity
Sri Lanka’s name means serendipity, and this eight-day journey earns it. Adventure, culture, wildlife, and stillness, balanced exactly right for travellers who want the full picture.
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/ per person
Tour total:
on double sharing.
Prices are subject to change until payment is accepted. Final pricing confirmed on enquiry.
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No commitment to enquire
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Reply within 24 hours
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Fully customisable itinerary
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Contributes to The Hope Initiative
At a Glance
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14 Days · 13 Nights
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Expert Local Guide
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Airport Transfers
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Round Trip Route
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Private A/C Vehicle
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3–5 Star Hotels
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Breakfast Included
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Культурное танцевальное шоу
Talk to a real person.
A portion of every booking supports schools and communities across Sri Lanka. When you travel with us, someone else’s future gets a little brighter.
Mon–Sat · 9am–6pm IST · Standard call rates apply
Every journey with us contributes to The Hope Initiative | travel that gives back.
