Luxury culture holiday in Sri Lanka
| country: | Sri Lanka |
| departures: | This trip can be tailormade at a time to suit you throughout the year and adapted to your requirements as necessary. Please note we are unable to run our trips in August. |
| price: | From £1000 (14 days)between 1st May - 31st Oct 2009, £1100 1 Nov - 30 Apr 2010 excluding flights, based on 2 people sharing, half board accommodation, internal transfers, airport transfers, entrance tickets for all culture sites and national park with safari jeep hire |
| vouchers: | Gift vouchers can be used with this holiday |
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the amazing things you'll be doing
This tour plan is especially for comfort seekers and it includes star class accommodation.
Sri Lanka’s first inhabitants arrived more than 10, 000 years ago and one known to have engaged in trade in gems, metals and spices with people as distant as China. Visits to some of our most important sites will whet your appetite, and provide some appreciation of one of Asia’s great and vibrant cultures.
Sri Lanka’s recovered history begins in the 3rd century B.C. It is a history full of colorful characters, such as King Kassapa, who after killing his father to take his throne built a castle on top of the rock plateau, now known as the World Heritage Site ‘Sigiriya’. In this trip we will visit sites ranging from the 2nd Century B.C., to the 18th Century A.D., including the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy.
Please note: I would be delighted to telephone you to discuss your individual travel arrangements, so please leave your telephone number when you complete the online enquiry form.
Sri Lanka’s first inhabitants arrived more than 10, 000 years ago and one known to have engaged in trade in gems, metals and spices with people as distant as China. Visits to some of our most important sites will whet your appetite, and provide some appreciation of one of Asia’s great and vibrant cultures.
Sri Lanka’s recovered history begins in the 3rd century B.C. It is a history full of colorful characters, such as King Kassapa, who after killing his father to take his throne built a castle on top of the rock plateau, now known as the World Heritage Site ‘Sigiriya’. In this trip we will visit sites ranging from the 2nd Century B.C., to the 18th Century A.D., including the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy.
Please note: I would be delighted to telephone you to discuss your individual travel arrangements, so please leave your telephone number when you complete the online enquiry form.
day-by-day itinerary
| Day 1: | Arrival and tour of Colombo city including National Museum of Sri Lanka, a treasure trove of articles depicting Sri Lanka's historical and cultural past & present. | |
| Day 2: | Visit to Anuradhapura ancient city and Dambulla World Haritage Cave Temple, one of the most impressive sites in Sri Lanka with colourful and well preserved frescoes and statues of the Buddha inside the caves, which date back to the 1st century BC. | |
| Day 3: | Visit to archaeological sites in the ruined city of Anuradhapura, birth place of Sinhala royalty, home to the oldest historical recorded tree in the world and capital city from 3rd century B.C. to the 10th century A.D. Afternoon drive to Polonnaruwa. | |
| Day 4: | Visit to Polonnaruwa archaeological site and Museum. Afternoon drive to Sigiriya. | |
| Day 5: | Sigiriya ancient rock fortress, the pleasure palace of a single king Kashyapa in the 5th century A.D. Afternoon you can have a elephant back ride. | |
| Day 6: | Drive to Kandy, visiting Royal Botanical Gardens en-route. Afternoon visit to Tooth Relic Palace. Cultural dance and traditional fire walking show in the evening. | |
| Day 7: | Visit a tea plantation and tea factory on the drive to Nuwaraeliya (Highlands) hill station, a ruggedly picturesque location with a soft English spring climate. Afternoon leisure walks in Hakgala Botanical Gardens, where you will find the highland race of the endemic Purple faced Leaf Monkey. | |
| Day 8: | Morning walk in beautiful Horton Plains National Park, a highland plateau comprising mountain grassland and elfin forest where you can see wild orchids, plants and birds. Drive to Tissamaharama (Yala) area via Rawana waterfalls. | |
| Day 9: | Leopard & elephant jeep safari in Yala National Park, comprising a diversity of habitats including scrub jungles, water reservoirs, brackish lagoons and river habitats. Visit to Kataragama ancient Hindu Temple, one of the holiest places on the Island. | |
| Day 10: | Drive along beautiful southern coastal areas of Tangalle, Matara, Unawatuna, Hikkaduwa to Kalutara, visiting the famous Galle Dutch fort , romantic, world heritage city en-route. | |
| Day 11-13: | Leisure time at the luxury beach resort. | |
| Day 14: | Departure. |
travellers' tales
The highlights were coming across a flock of Sri Lanka Blue Magpies feeding noisily in the Sinharaja Rain Forest and seeing the nesting Painted Storks with chicks in Yala National Park. (more)
how this holiday makes a difference
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We buy the service of locals who are trained as guides, trackers, cooks, stewards & etc. The hotels that we go to employ locals. Visitors are encouraged to buy craft products straight from the village craftsperson. We are not a large-scale venture and we will not promote commercial sales aimed at tourists. The aim of this is to improve the lives of the people in the areas that we visit and at the same time to give the visitor a high quality service.
 The visitor is given the opportunity to buy quality hygienic food and beverages from villagers including native herbal drinks, traditional sweets, locally available fresh fruits & etc. If the visitor decides to have no meat products (to avoid health risks & other reasons), we make sure that he gets quality organic vegetarian dishes. |
Tourism can be good and bad for destinations & local people. We carefully screen every holiday against our criteria for responsible travel. 'Look behind the brochure' to find how each holiday makes a difference (see left). We don't claim to be perfect - there is no global accreditation - but we've led the way since 2001 and screened 1000's of holidays. We invite every traveller to write a review about their experiences and responsible tourism. This valuable feedback is sent to the people who run the holidays. We keep a very close eye on it and take off holidays that don't live up to our standards. |