Best Feb-JulLeopards & Safari
Yala for leopards at dawn, Udawalawe for elephants in open grassland, and Wilpattu for the quiet version of both.
Yala · Udawalawe · Wilpattu
Plan this trip Travel by interest
What do you want to see?
Pick what you love and we load a route that covers it, priced per vehicle like everything else. Change any stop after.
Best Feb-Jul
Jul-OctThe Great Gathering
Hundreds of wild elephants converge on the Minneriya and Kaudulla lakebeds, the largest gathering of Asian elephants on earth. Your driver picks the right park for that week’s water.
Sigiriya · Dambulla
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Best Jan-Mar34 Endemics
The circuit birding parties actually drive: Kitulgala for the Serendib scops owl, the highlands for whistling thrush, Bundala’s lagoons, then four nights at Sinharaja for the feeding flocks. Every one of the 34 endemics is on this road. We drive it; you bring or hire your own bird guide at each reserve.
Kitulgala · Nuwara Eliya · Horton Plains & World’s End · Bundala · Udawalawe · Sinharaja
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Peak Poson, JuneThe Buddhist Trail
The oldest tree on earth with a planting date, the largest brick building ever raised, a canon written down by five hundred monks to stop it being lost, and the relic that decided who ruled the island. Twenty-three centuries of one unbroken tradition — and one chapter of one chronicle that names the ten places the Buddha is said to have stood. Nine can still be visited. One has never been found.
Anuradhapura · Aluvihare · Dambulla · Polonnaruwa · Kandy · Adam’s Peak · Tissamaharama
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All yearThe Sacred Mysteries
The Sakwala Chakraya star-map carved at Ranmasu Uyana, fountains at Sigiriya that still run after 1,500 years, and one footprint on Adam’s Peak claimed by four faiths. We tell the legends as legends. They are better that way.
Anuradhapura · Sigiriya · Adam’s Peak
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Dec-AprSouth Coast Beaches
Galle Fort’s ramparts, whale season off Mirissa, and the slower bays east of Tangalle.
Galle Fort · Mirissa · Tangalle
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May-SepEast Coast, May-Sep
When the south-west is wet, the east is dry: Trincomalee’s whales, Pasikuda’s shallow bay and Arugam Bay’s surf.
Trincomalee & Nilaveli · Pasikuda · Arugam Bay
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All yearTea Country Immersion
Pluck with the pluckers, walk the withering lofts of a working factory, sunrise at Lipton’s Seat, and a proper high-grown tasting. The coffee-blight story that made Ceylon tea comes free.
Nuwara Eliya · Haputale & Lipton’s Seat · Ella
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All yearThe Ramayana Trail
Follow the epic across the island: Sita Amman temple at Seetha Eliya, Ravana’s falls and cave at Ella, the scorched red earth of Ussangoda, and Rumassala near Galle, one of four places on this island that claim to be the piece Hanuman dropped.
Nuwara Eliya · Ella · Galle Fort · Mannar & Rama’s Bridge
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Festival Jul-AugKataragama Blessings
The pilgrimage our own family has made many times. Evening puja across the Menik Ganga, Kiri Vehera at dusk, and the festival’s fire-walkers in July. Wishes made here, locals say, are kept.
Kataragama · Yala
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All yearMasks & Makers
Ambalangoda’s devil-mask carvers, the last Dumbara weavers of Thalagune village, and the brass workshops of Pilimathalawa. Take home something with a maker’s name on it.
Bentota · Kandy
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All yearGem Country
Down a working gem pit in Ratnapura by morning, the open gem market by noon, and Balasuriya’s factory in Kandy with its life-size puppet museum by the weekend.
Ratnapura · Kandy
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All yearWith the Kids
Orphan elephants fed at Udawalawe’s Transit Home, pony rides at Lake Gregory, the shallow bay at Pasikuda, turtles hatching at Rekawa, and village life at the Martin Wickramasinghe museum.
Udawalawe · Nuwara Eliya · Pasikuda · Tangalle
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