Panoramic Sri Lanka
The whole island in eleven days: Sigiriya and Polonnaruwa, Kandy, the tea country and Horton Plains, a game drive in Yala and two nights on the beach at Bentota.
Price on request
12 days
Beach Holiday Getaway
Priced on request, to your dates and hotel tier
- Length
- 12 days
- Places you sleep
- 6
- Travel
- Private car and driver guide
- Driven, in total
- 412 km
- Regions
- West coast, South coast
- Best months
- December to April. The west and south coasts take the southwest monsoon from May.
Why this shape
Some stretch of Sri Lanka’s 1,300 kilometres of coast is always in season. This package follows the southwest in its good months, from the fishing town by the airport to the crescent bay at Mirissa and back, with something on the water most days and nothing that needs an alarm clock except the whales.
Pace. Unhurried. Two or three nights in most places and never more than three hours in the car.
Day by day
12 days, in order
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Day 1. Negombo
Drive 12 km · 25 minMet at the airport and driven twenty minutes to a beach hotel in Negombo, the island’s first beach resort. The day is yours.
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Day 2. On the water at Negombo
No transferA day at leisure: snorkelling, wakeboarding, or the hotel pool. Swim where the lifeguards are, because some stretches of this coast have a strong undertow.
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Day 3. Dolphins
No transferA morning boat out to sea for dolphins, which travel in large pods off this coast. Whales are sometimes seen too, but they are the reason to go out from Mirissa later in the trip rather than from here.
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Day 4. South to Mirissa
Drive 190 km · 3 hThe expressway south to Mirissa: a crescent of sand backed by coconut palms, where the sea shelves gently and the sunsets are the reason people stay longer than they meant to.
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Day 5. Whale watching
No transferAn early boat out of Mirissa harbour. Blue whales and sperm whales feed in the deep water close offshore between November and April.
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Day 6. Mirissa
No transferA free day on the beach, or the short walk up to Coconut Tree Hill at the end of the bay.
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Day 7. Hikkaduwa
Drive 60 km · 1 h 30West to Hikkaduwa, the coast’s surf and dive town, with a shallow reef sheltered behind an outer line of rock. The coral garden is at its best on a bright morning, when the water is clearest.
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Day 8. Bentota
Drive 40 km · 1 hOn to Bentota, between the sea, a river and a lagoon: jet skis, windsurfing and parasailing, or a river safari at a slower pace.
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Day 9. The Madu River
No transferA boat on the Madu River through the mangroves, stopping at a cinnamon island and a temple, and a turtle hatchery in the afternoon.
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Day 10. Kalutara
Drive 35 km · 1 hNorth to Kalutara, a long beach with the white dagoba of Gangatilaka Vihara at the river mouth. Two nights to do very little.
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Day 11. Kalutara
No transferA last full day on the beach.
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Day 12. Home via Colombo
Drive 75 km · 2 hUp the coast through Colombo to the airport.
Distances and drive times are typical for an unhurried private car, not a promise. Sri Lankan roads outside the expressways are single carriageway through villages, so a hundred and fifty kilometres is usually three hours. Every figure here is an estimate.
Along the way
Places on this route
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Coconut Tree Hill, Mirissa -
A blue whale off Mirissa -
The reef at Hikkaduwa -
Bentota -
Aluthgama, beside Bentota
Included
- Accommodation in the hotels listed for the package, or their equivalent
- A private, air-conditioned vehicle and a chauffeur guide for the whole trip
- Airport pickup and drop-off, whatever time the flight lands
- Local government taxes and service charges
- Meals as stated for the package
Not included
- Entrance fees to sites and national parks, and camera and video permits
- Optional tours and activities
- International flights and airport taxes
- Travel insurance
- The Electronic Travel Authorisation
- Tips, porterage and anything of a personal nature
Other trips
If this one is not the shape
Cultural and Historical
Nine days through two thousand years: Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Sigiriya and Dambulla, then Kandy and the tea country, and two days at Bentota to finish.
Price on request
Culture and Wildlife
A week from Colombo through the ancient cities and the hills to Yala: Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Sigiriya, Kandy, the tea country and a jeep safari.
Price on request
Ask about Beach Holiday Getaway
Tell us your dates and how many of you there are. We will send this itinerary adjusted to both, with the reasoning, inside two working days.