From shark meat to safari, get fired up in Sri Lanka
On this trip we’ve taken Sri Lanka, boiled it like the tea leaves the country is famous for and strained out the most delicious stuff. Wandering past barracuda at the Negombo Fish Market, searching for elephants in Yala, munching a spicy curry in Ella and getting horizontal on the beach in Unawatuna, this 11-day tour is a Sri Lanka snapshot.
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Cruise around in a 4WD on a wildlife safari, searching for elephants and leopards, then relax lakeside at tranquil Tissa.
Shark, squid, barracuda and hundreds of things with fins that nobody knows the name of – visit the sensational Negombo Fish Market.
Learn the benefits of washing down a spicy curry with piping-hot Ceylon tea during lunch in a lush mountain village near Ella.
Leave the imprint of you face on the train window as you stare out wide-eyed from Kandy to Ella – it’s basically a 6-hour movie of amazing scenery.
Two days (and nights) on Unawatuna's golden, palm-lined beaches can cure almost all of life’s problems, including any residual tightness in your photo-taking finger.
Can you feel that tingling in your fingers? That my friend is power! This trip puts it in your hands – there are few inclusions, so you’ll have plenty of freedom to decide what you want to do.
At 6 hours, the train ride from Kandy to Ella is the longest travel day. But the only reason you’ll want to get off this train is to charge your camera after what is basically a long, natural photoshoot.
The road from Ella to Tissa Lake winds down mountains to the coast, which means it can be frustratingly slow. It also means that you’ll get to see the awesome scenery from literally every angle.
Tourism in Sri Lanka is booming, resulting in a huge increase in visitors to Yala National Park. Overtourism and lack of sustainable management practices are of major concern to Intrepid, so in order to reduce our impact on wildlife and the environment we are trialling visits in a less-touristed section of the park known as Block 5 or Veheragala. If we determine that Block 5 is also too crowded to visit responsibly, we will change our itinerary to visit Udawalawe National Park. Udawalawe is home to wild elephants, wild buffalo, sambar deer and leopards. This is the same itinerary we follow from September to mid-October when Yala National Park is closed annually for infrastructure development and rejuvenation.
Trip departures are unavailable.
There are currently no scheduled departures on our Essential Sri Lanka trip. If you are interested in other trips in the region visit one of the links below.
1. A single supplement is available on this trip and is valid for all nights on tour.
2. The Perahera Festival is a 10-day period of evening processions to honour the Sacred Tooth, which is enshrined at Kandy's Temple of the Tooth. Each night features thousands of perfomers, including dancers, drummers, and a parade of more than 50 decorated elephants. Due to Intrepid's stance on elephant cruelty we do not visit the Perahera Festival and cannot purchase tickets on your behalf.
3. Train tickets from Kandy to Ella are in very high demand and tickets for the train from Galle to Colombo cannot be pre-booked.We always try our best to secure tickets, though on the rare occasion that we cannot you will be provided with a private bus to take you to your next destination.
4. PASSPORT DETAILS: Full passport details are required for the train journey. Without them we cannot purchase train tickets. Please advise them at the time of booking.
Want an in-depth insight into this trip? Essential Trip Information provides a detailed itinerary, visa info, how to get to your hotel, what's included - pretty much everything you need to know about this adventure and more.
View Essential Trip Information