Sri Lanka – 2 Week Itinerary

Itinerary

Day 1 – Arrive in Columbo, Ministry of Crab

Day 2 – Travel to Ella, Mountain Heavens Hotel

Day 3 – Tea plantation, lunch in Ella & train to Budella

Day 4 – Leave Ella, safari in Udawella National Park, arrive in Galle

Day 5 – Travel to Mirissa

Day 6 – Paradise beach club

Day 7 – The Doctors House

Day 8 – The Palm Hotel pool Day

Day 9 – Blue whale trip

Day 10 – Weligama beach

Day 11 – Turtle release at Mirissa beach

Day 12 – Travel back to UK

Getting there:

Sri Lanka is a 10.5 hour direct flight from the UK, using Sri Lankan airways from Heathrow.

There are many in-direct options which can actually be more kid-friendly.  For example, we used to live in Dubai and used Emirates a lot and know how good they are when traveling with small ones, especially on the A380.  For example, the space you get not only around your seats, but also in communal areas at the back of the plane where you can often spend hours of your flight if your child is a livewire like ours!  The stairs up to first class make for excellent jumping and slinky games, as long as you don’t obstruct anyone too much!  The toilets are huge and usually all have change tables and the entertainment system is the best in air entertainment I’ve experienced. The staff love kids and engage with them so nicely, often taking Polaroid pictures when you board as a keepsake and handing out great activity packs, Ella’s pouches and toys and blankets, making it a very pleasant experience.  The only downside of Emirates is their strict turbulence rule, whereby you have to remove your sleeping baby from the bassinet if the seatbelt sign comes on, which can be infuriating if you have just got them to sleep!

Based on the above reasons, we chose to go in-direct with Emirates, 7.5hrs from Heathrow to Dubai, a short 1.5hr transfer for a stretch of the legs and then back onto a 3.5hr flight to Colombo which felt like a breeze.  The chance to get off the plane and have a run-around really helped with the kids and meant they passed out on the 2nd short leg, which was very welcome.

Transport within Sri Lanka:

I had done a lot of research prior to the trip as it was for my Dad’s 70th birthday and I had suggested Sri Lanka as the destination, so wanted it to all go smoothly!  In my search I had come across a lovely blog post that recommended a transfer company to use, so I arranged for an airport pick-up which was very smooth and stress-free.  The company is called Kings Tours and my contact was a lovely man called Sujeewa.  We chatted via whatsapp before we arrived, arranging loads of transfers involving mini-buses, normal cars, a bus for 17 people!  Whatever we needed he could provide and sent pictures of the vehicles and was super responsive.  He came to meet us when we arrived in Colombo and bought a bag of tea from his family’s tea plantation which was a lovely welcome.  

If you would like his contact, drop me a message on the blog and i’ll send you his mobile number.  He contributed a lot to the success of our adventures around the country and enabled us to see as much as we did, even with some very little people in tow!  On that note, he also provided car seats for babies and toddlers and all the drivers were very safe, which is also important as the roads are rather busy.