How to holiday in Sri Lanka

Small island. Big adventures. Sri Lanka goes beyond the fly, flop and forget the daily grind break.

When there are multiple pieces to the holiday pie, we can step in and make the process a breeze. To start, we need to know what floats your boat. Crazy for culture or more wild world coded? Bit of both perhaps? Are bougie hotels your vibe or are you just looking for a comfy bed for the night as you’ll be out all day exploring? 

A journey like no other
Adventurers listen up: Sri Lanka is the textbook touring destination. It has a buzzing capital, a heritage-packed Cultural Triangle and an eye-poppingly gorgeous Hill Country, and its chock full of wildlife-rich national parks too. And then there’s the coastline (insert heart-eyed emoji here). And you’ll want to see it all. As a starter for 10, you should ponder on what kind of holiday you’re planning and peep our themed trips.

Go your own way
To make it easy, we’ve got a suggested honeymoon trip for the newlyweds, family adventures (for teens or younger kids) and a break that’s all about wellness. There’s also a holiday packed with boutique stays, an all-out luxury journey featuring only the best addresses in Sri Lanka, and a trip that’s made for wild things. They’ve all been shaped by our experience but none of them are set in stone. We can tweak how long you stop at each spot for, the places you stay and how you get around. No holiday will ever the same and you’ll be back for second- and third-in-a-lifetime trips in no time.

One stop’s enough
If doing your own thing (or very little) in one spot is more your bag, we can set up simple transfers between the airports and hotels. Then it’s all up to you – pull up poolside for a couple of weeks or more, challenge yourself to make your way through the spa menu, or head into town to conduct your own extensive research on the best local places to eat. If you add on an experience or two, your guide will pick you up, show you what’s what, impart their knowledge and then drop back when you’re done.

Sweet dreams
Where do your preferences sit on a scale of all-in resorts to character-packed little gems? Wherever they are, we’ll find you the perfect places to stay. We’ve worked with some of our hotel partners in Sri Lanka, like Jetwing, Cinnamon, and Uga Escapes, for decades. This means we get the best offers to pass on to you and we know exactly which rooms you should pick and the top table at dinner.

We can arrange some incredible trips from one to the next: perfect if consistency is the key. Go from Cinnamon Life at City of Dreams in Colombo to Cinnamon Lodge Habarana in the Cultural Triangle to the west coast’s Cinnamon Bentota Beach; or from Sigiriya’s Jetwing Vil Uyana to Jetwing Kandy Gallery to Jetwing St Andrew’s in the Hill Country, and finally to Jetwing Yala, the perfect set off point for leopard tracking in the national park.

We’ve also picked plenty of boutique hotels that are all worth shouting about. They give you a sense of place and a feeling of being ‘at home’. There’s Maniumpathy, a hidden gem in Colombo’s Cinnamon Gardens district; Water Garden Sigiriya which is a fab place to base yourself in the Cultural Triangle; Kandy’s Kings Pavillion which is a short drive from the bustling town; and Ceylon Tea Trails that puts you right at the heart of the Hill Country’s tea plantations. The hillsides above south coast have their fair share of tiny retreats like Haritha Villas + Spa, Tabula Rasa Resort & Spa and Malabar Hill. Over on the east coast, you can nab your spot at Karpaha Sands, Kottukal Beach House or Jetwing Surf.

Double up the fun
Who says that you need to stick to one country on one holiday? It would never be us. Look at a map and see how close the atolls of the Maldives are; it would be shame to come all this way and not pop over (aka fly just an hour and a half) to yet another paradise. Or you could break up the journey in one of the United Arab Emirates where you’ll find gold-gilded masterpieces of architecture, balmy temps and shopping malls that seem to never end.