Over Christmas and New Year we spent two weeks in Sri Lanka with our three kids 13,13 & 14. Well taking into account the overnight flights each way it was actually 12 nights/13 days in Sri Lanka. We had a fantastic trip and so many of you asked me what I booked, how much things cost and what we loved that I’m sharing all the details here.

We started by booking our driver Prabath from BesTours Lanka. We booked with him directly rather than using a company like Trailfinders etc (who in reality sub contract to someone like Prabath) and take a cut.

I reached out to Prabath initially via his Facebook page and then by What’s App (+94 71 842 0160) to plan our trip.

Initially I suggested the two weeks we were likely to be in Sri Lanka and he sent over a plan of what we could do during that time and his suggested ideas. I was so impressed that we didn’t actually deviate from the plan at all.

Our quote for the 5 of us was $820 which included:

• Airport pick up and drop off
• English speaking driver
• Guides fee for a number of sites including Sigiriya, Polonnaruwa, Temple of the Sacred Tooth (tips on top)
• Private vehicle with aircon
• Fuel
• Train ticket reservation which is very hard to do (ticket cost on top)
• Wifi in the car
• Water bottles whilst travelling
• Tolls and car park fees
• Drivers accommodation and food
• All applicable government taxes

You can find our post about travel in Sri Lanka with a Baby here too.

• Tips
• Snacks, snacks and more snacks for the car
• Hand gel, wet wipes and tissues – toilets on the journey were mostly always clean but didn’t always have paper and/or soap.

Day 1 in Sri Lanka

We arrived into Sri Lanka on an overnight flight from Manchester via Dubai. We had considered before our trip staying in Colombo to deal with the jetlag and tiredness but were persuaded by Prabath to push on and head straight to Sigiriya/Dambulla. This made for a really exhausting day but was definitely the right decision.

The drive from the airport to the hotel took circa 3 hours 30 minutes. We stopped for lunch en route and arrived at the hotel around 2pm.

We spent the afternoon relaxing at our hotel – Amaya Lake Dambulla (stay 3 nights). We had two of these little cottages for the 5 of us and paid $800 B&B for 3 nights. A family of four would have easily fit into one but we’ve got used to having to book two rooms now we have three children over 12 (which seems to be the standard age to start charging adult rates!)

We really liked the style of the hotel, with two huge pools, golf buggys to get you around if you needed them and a good buffet breakfast.

You can read our longer review of Amaya Lake here.

Day 2 in Sri Lanka

Our first day of adventuring involved a drive to the ancient city of Polonnaruwa. We hadn’t really been in the car for more than 15 minutes of the 1hr 30 minute journey and we’d seen an elephant by the roadside! I’m not sure there is anything better than driving along and just seeing elephants.

Wen we arrived at Polonnaruwa, Prabeth had booked a guide for us to take us round the musuem and then the ancient city.

The museum was fairly underwhelming but it’s included in the ticket price so you might as well do it.

Polonnaruwa Entrance Fee – $30 per adult x 3 and $15 for children x 2.

A bike tour was then proposed of the ancient city sites. I have to say as it was 30 degrees I was sceptical, but on balance decided it would be easier than walking and we could cover more ground quicker. They had bikes that are small enough for children, but no helmets.

We paid 1500 LKR per bike (£4) to hire the bikes for a few hours. I’m sure we could have negotiated harder but we didn’t.

It was a great way to see the ancient city and I really loved cycling along the pathways. We were there for a couple of hours.

After Polonnaruwa we stopped for lunch on the way back before we went to Hurulu Eco Park for a safari drive.

$160 for the jeep safari and entrance fees for all 5 of us.

I’m not quite sure how to review the safari at Hurulu Eco Park – we did end up seeing an awful lot of elephants but it was exceptionally busy. We had to queue to get into the park and when we found the elephants there was an awful lot of safari trucks around them. We’ve been incredibly lucky to see elephants on safari in Africa before and the experience there was calmer, with less people. I wouldn’t say the experience wasn’t good, it’s always amazing seeing elephants, but it was perhaps not the experience we were expecting. I think to be honest I preferred the experience finding them on the road, and that would have been an awfuol lot cheaper!

We finished the day with dinner at the hotel and a night swim.

Day 3 in Sri Lanka

One of my favourite days of the trip but also one of the most exhausting!

Lion’s Rock

We got to Lion’s Rock for 7.30am to meet our guide booked and paid for by Prabath. Looking up at the rock I did wonder how hard it was going to be, but the guide took it easy and we had regular breaks. All in we climbed the steps, spent some time at the top, and walked back down via the paintings in 2 hours.

Tip – It’s really worth going early as the day before the guide said starting at 8.30am meant the whole climb took 4 hours due to the volume of people on the steps.

Lion’s Rock Cost – $36 per adult $18 for 6-12 year olds.

Village Tour – Sigiriya

The village tour included a short trip in a cart pulled by bullocks, a river trip and a lesson in how to prepare and use coconut by a local lady. It was incredibly contrived in some ways, but we really loved that hour and a half and ate coconut sambala on every curry buffet we had after that. Good weather and kind people all along the way.

Village Tour Cost – $100 for 5

Pidurangala Rock for sunset

We thought we’d climbed quite a lot of steps in the morning at Lion’s Rock (2404) but nothing quite prepared us for the climb to Pidurangala Rock to see across to Lion’s rock for sunset.

We arrived with A LOT of other people and whilst the climb was a little challenging, scrambling over rocks, it was the amount of people trying to get up and down that was tricky! With no-one really wanting to give way! What a view though when we finally made it to the top!

Tip – At the beginning of the trail, you pass through a Buddhist Temple. This means you MUST cover your shoulders, knees and remove your shoes.

Cost – The entrance fee to Pidurangala Rock in Sri Lanka is LKR 1,000 (£2.75) per adult, LKR 500 per child which is a donation to the Pidurangala Raja Maha Viharaya temple

Dinner at Rastarant

Day 4 in Sri Lanka

After breakfast we drove from Amaya Lake Dambulla to stay at Amaya Hills Kandy (2 nights) a drive of around 2 hours 30.

After our hundreds of steps yesterday climbing both Lion’s Rock and Pidarangula Rock we decided to set off a little later and not climb up to see the Dambulla cave temple. None of us could contemplate the steps. We did however stop off to see the huge Golden buddah which was very close to our hotel and an incredible sight.

Spice Garden Tour

En route we also stopped at a Spice & Herb Garden where we did a tour, learnt about spices and had a short massage (all of us), we also had a curry buffet lunch at the restaurant (£8 per head)

Cost – No charge for the spice tour or the massage, but we tipped the guide and the massage men. We also bought some oils from the shop (again no obligation).

Batiq demonstration

We also stopped at a Batiq shop and had a really cute free demonstration of what it takes to make the Batiq clothing and art.

Amaya Hills Kandy

We arrived at Amaya Hills Kandy mid afternoon and spent the rest of what was Christmas Eve by the pool.

You can read out full review of Amaya Hills Kandy here.

Amaya Hills put on a fabulous Christmas Eve buffet (including turkey and trimmings) and even did Christmas carols and mince pies in the lobby, and put Christmas cake and stockings in our room. Scroll through the instagram post below to see.

We had a few issues with the hotel, confusion over what had been paid for and what hadn’t but it was a brilliant location with great facilities.

Cost – $782 for 2 rooms for 2 nights B&B

Day 5 in Sri Lanka

Kandy on Christmas Day.

Royal Botanic Gardens

We started with the Royal Botanic Gardens which were stunning. We could have spent hours there as it was a beautiful morning but we probably spent an hour and a half there.

Cost – 3500 LKR adult; 2300 LKR student 1700 LKR under 12.

Kandy City Tour

We visited the viewpoint across the city and followed that with the markets in Kandy itself which was chaos but fun!

After lunch of burgers, and chicken shawarma (different Christmas lunch for us!) we made our way to the temple of the scared tooth relic for 3pm which was perfectly timed as there was no queues and when we’d been in the area earlier in the day there were hundreds of people waiting to get in. The temple is a very sacred place for the people of Sri Lanka but it’s not somewhere I would queue to get into. Especially with kids.

We ended the day at a traditional Kandy dance show from 5pm-6pm which was completely full but Prabath had reserved seats for us.

Scroll through the Instagram post below for pictures.

Costs – 2000 LKR per adult for Scared Tooth Relic Temple – no charge for kids

2000 LKR pp for the traditional Kandy Dance Show

Day 6 in Sri Lanka

After breakfast at Amaya Hills it was time to travel to Nanu Oya for the onward train to Ella.

Tea Plantation and Factory visit – Labukele

En route to Nanu Oya for our train at 12.05pm we visited Damro tea plantation and did a short factory visit. You had the opportunity to taste some tea and if we had had longer we might have done some tea plucking (however we ended up fitting this in in Ella later in the trip).

Nuwara Eliya

Prabeth had initially planned for us to do some sightseeing and maybe even have high tea in Nuwara Eliya (or Little England as it’s affectionately known) but as the train we had managed to get tickets on was earlier we didn’t have the time. Instead we just did a bit of a drive through.

Train ride – Nanu Oya to Ella (Demodara)

The main event of the day and in fact one of our trip highlights was the train from Nanu Oya to Ella (in fact Demodara) which took around 3 hours. Train tickets for this route sell out within minutes of them being released a month before and it’s notoriously hard to get tickets. We were very lucky Prabath achieved them for us and it was the only time we heard him working on other clients holidays during our trip, as he asked for time to pull over and book train tickets for other guests who were following on from our trip.

The tickets you want are 2nd class tickets. You don’t want first class with air con and shut windows and doors, you (probably) want to be able to hang out the doors and widows as you trundle through the countryside.

Cost – Train tickets Nanu Oya to Ella for 5 people in 2nd Class 26,000 Lkr (£70)

We loved this trip – you can scroll through to see some pics. Prabath had managed to book us tickets to Demodora which is actually the stop after Ella which means you can go over the famous nine arch bridge on the train. Most of the people in our carriage got off at Ella and missed this.

After Prabath collected us at Demodora station, he drove us the ten minutes to stay 3 nights at O2 Villas Resort & Spa

O2 Villas Resort & Spa

O2 Villas wasn’t our first choice in Ella. We had originally booked the Ella Flower Garden resort but they cancelled our booking 4 weeks before we were due to travel due to building works. The location of Ella Flower Garden would have been easier and it was definitely cheaper but I think on balance it was nicer to stay at the 02 villas, even though we had to pay a lot more than I wanted to as there was very limited availability so close to our trip.

O2 villas are beautiful and the staff there do there utmost to try and do everything they can to make your stay amazing. The breakfast and food we had was good, and it’s an easy 10 minute tuktuk into town (500 LKR max).The downsides to the villas are well documented in their Tripadvisor reviews and that’s noise. Whilst we didn’t hear any noise at all from our fellow guests (we stayed in an Executive Villa suite for 5) the large windows aren’t double glazed and we did hear a lot of animal noise and birds through the night.

Cost – O2 Villas Resort & Spa £800 for 5 people for 3 nights B&B

Ella Flower Garden Resort was going to be £500 for 2 rooms for 5 people for 3 nights B&B

Day 7 in Sri Lanka

Today we treated ourselves to a lazy morning by the pool and then visited Little Adam’s Peak and Ravana Zip Line. Prabath had suggested we try Ravana Pool Club but we decided with such a nice hotel and pool it made more sense to hang out at our own hotel with less people!

Little Adam’s Peak is free easy to walk up, but it was slightly nerve wracking watching them all zip line down. I think it would have been much easier to have done it myself!

Cost of Ravana Zip Line – $33 for adults and $22 for children U15.

Tip – Kids need to be 30kg to ride and this is strictly enforced with two separate weigh ins.

Scroll through to see the videos of the zip line:

For dinner Prabath had recommended Cafe Chill and we invited him to join us. When we arrived people were queuing down the street – but in true Prabath style we had a reserved table in a perfect spot. The food was excellent and I didn’t think it could get any better until the end when not only had Prabath arranged for a cake to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary but he’d bought us a picture of elephants as a gift too!! 

Day 8 in Sri Lanka

Lipton Seat had been planned for today but as that was an hour and a half drive and required an early start to ensure you miss the fog we decided to skip it.

Halpe Tea Tour

Today we went tea plucking on the plantation at Halpe Tea. So for $10 each we learnt some more about tea, and then had a go at picking it ourselves. Spoiler – we weren’t very good!

Cookery Class – Grand 39

We then had an afternoon by the pool before heading out to a cookery class in town which was making food 5pm-7pm and then eating said food 7-8pm! Food was exceptional, and would highly recommend eating at this small unassuming restaurant even if you can’t get onto the class.

We loved @chillcafeella and @cafeonelove in Ella but for a true Sri Lankan food in Ella you should definitely try somewhere like Grand 39. 

Photos of both Halpe Tea plucking and the Cookery Class in the instagram post.

Day 9 in Sri Lanka

After breakfast we drove to Udawalawa safari park via a short stop at both Ravana Waterfall and Diyaluma Waterfall.

We also saw 6 elephants on the road on the way to the safari park and stopped for every one!

We arrived in time to visit the Elephant Transit Home – Udawalawa for 2.30pm (feeding times are 10.30am; 2.30pm and 6.30pm). This place gets a variety of views on Tripadvisor about its elephant friendliness and whether the elephants should really be there or not, but we didn’t see any cruel behaviour on our visit. Just lots of very cute elephants being fed by the staff.

1 Night stay at Grand Udawalawe Safari Resort

Day 10 in Sri Lanka

We had intended to do Morning Safari in Udawalawa National Park – and that was obviously the main reason for our stay at the Grand Udawalawe Safari Resort however five things made us decide not to do the morning safari. These may well be different for you.

• 1.Cost – I hadn’t looked at this properly and it was going to be around $500 for all of us.
• 2. Elephants by the road – We had seen lots and lots of elephants by the road and had already done the Elephant Transit Home and Hurulu Eco Park.
• 3. Experience at Hurulu Eco Park – the busyness of Hurulu Eco Park put us off the safari experience at this time of year when visitor numbers were at their peak.
• 4. Previous Safaris – We’ve been very very lucky to have done safaris in Africa which are very different.
• 5. Opportunity to get to the beach earlier.

So instead of doing the safari we left at 8.30am and drove to the beach to stay at Sergeant House Boutique Villas a beautiful oasis on Unawatuna beach.

We were relaxing on the beach by 10.30am and saw the most amazing sunset.

Sergeant House Boutique Villas

Sergeant House was a last minute booking for us as we had really hoped to stay at The Nest which is Karen from Travel Mad Mum’s Boutique family villa they are building in Hiriketiya but it wasn’t quite ready.

We were however delighted with our stay at Sergeant House. It was stunning, the staff couldn’t do enough for you and was the size of hotel we love with just 6 rooms. 3 of those were ours in the bungalow.

We stayed on a half board basis with breakfast and dinner included and they even served marmite and white toast for breakfast!! All the food was a great standard.

The location was brilliant with a small private beach but only a ten minute walk to all the restaurants in Unawatuna too. We tried the Hideout and Koha for lunch, both recommended by friends.

You can read our full review of Sergeant House Boutique Hotel here.

Day 11 in Sri Lanka

We had intended to do nothing today and get up late but then Karen from TravelMadMum who now lives in Sri Lanka told us about an amazing beach where huge turtles swim right by the beach and you can wander into the sea with them. It was absolutely INCREDIBLE.

You can read Karen’s amazing article about Sri Lanka with Kids here.

The beach Wijaya Beach, also known predictably as Turtle Beach, was a 5 minute tuktuk from our hotel. We bought a bag of local seweed from the men on the beach and fed the turtles, making sure not to touch them unless they swam close to us. I can’t say everyone was as kind.

Lily and I caught up with the lovely @travelmadmum for a drink before dinner whilst the @twinsthatrun found the gym!

We then had a lovely NYE dinner @sergeanthouse before trying very hard to stay awake until NYE for Izzy mainly. She was right to make us as we went down to a very busy beach for NYE with loads and loads of fireworks which was great fun!

Scroll for pics of NYE on the beach too.

Day 12 in Sri Lanka

Whale watching today, or perhaps more appropriately named whale searching. Rumour has it that you can sometimes see Blue Whale in the seas at this time of year but we didn’t see any whales just a few dolphins and some turtles mating. It was worth a go, but ultimately not the most successful.

For the chance to see blue whales I probably would give it a go. Take sea sickness tablets though this is an Ocean, definitely not the flat calm mediterranean.

Rest of the day was eating, reading, catching up on missing sleep from last night (a 5.45am start after bed at 1am was tricky) and massages for me and Lily at Sergeant House Boutique Villas which were brilliant!

Day 13 in Sri Lanka

Our last day before our overnight flight at 10pm tonight.

We’ve had an incredible trip thanks to all the planning and organisation by Prabath of @bestours_lanka if you’re planning a Sri Lanka trip please do reach out to him and tell him I suggested him. You won’t regret it.

Even on our last day we saw turtles again, had a trip into Galle, visited the Buddha gifted by Japan after the 26.12.04 tsunami and did a Madu River islands tour.

It was a simply AMAZING trip! If you’re wavering over a trip to Sri Lanka I’d say just go for it. You won’t regret it.

Although, if you want to take the stress out of planning your own itinerary, an Asian cruise allows you to discover this area with the planning done for you

Oh and if you’re still reading this well done! It tells me it’s 3450 words and will take around 20 minutes to read. Really really hope it’s helpful!