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Day 0

Arrival to Colombo international airport and transfer to Dambulla or Sigriya for the night.

Day 1

Sigiriya (Lion’s rock) 7:00 – 19:00 (7am – 7pm). $US30. A large stone and ancient rock fortress or ruins of the fortress dated back to 5th century.
Polonnaruwa $US25. 1000 years old ruins of the second most ancient of Sri Lanka’s kingdoms.

Day 2

Dambulla Cave temple 7:00- 19:00 (7am – 7pm). LKR1300. It is the largest and best-preserved cave temple complex in Sri Lanka
Stop at one of numerous spice gardens between Dambulla and Kandy to see many different types of spices and check handcraft shops on the same road. FREE
Just before Kandy check Mariamman Kovil largest hindu temple in Sri Lanka
The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic in Kandy. 6:00-17:00 (6am – 5pm). Cost LKR1000. It houses a tooth of the Buddha.
Royal Botanic Gardens 7:30-16:30 (7am – 4.30pm) The largest botanic garden in Sri Lanka.
Tea factories on the road to Nuwara Eliya. FREE

Day 3

Nuwara Eliya is small summer resort used by British to escape heat in other parts of country.
Take a train from Nanuoya to Ella. LKR750 Railway pass Horton Plains NP with pictures waterfalls, mountains, tea plantations and view to World’s end,
Take a road B35 to Tissamaharama which passes Yalla National Park. You’ll have good chances to see elephants on the way.
Stop at Kataragama.  It is the most important religious pilgrimage site in Sri Lanka

Day 4

Yala National Park. Safary cost ~$US40.  The park is famous for largest concentration of leopards
Mulkirigala Rock historical temple. LKR200. It has little of Dambulla and Sigiriya.
Take a rest at Mirissa beach which is still not overdeveloped with holiday resorts.

Day 5

Galle is the best example of a fortified city built by Europeans in southeast Asia
Stop at one of turtle hatcheries North of Galle
Take a scenic cruise along Madu Ganga river.
Departure at night.

You can see a lot in 5 days, but…I would suggest to take at least 10 days and make it in much slower pace and definitely you should rent a car with driver, but don’t drive yourself if you don’t have driving experience in Asia. I can recommend our driver Gamunu, who helped a lot with finding accommodation and was working long hours to make sure we will see as much as possible in such short time.

Of course you can use public transport, but then you’ll need even more time.

Check here details of each day:

Day 1. Sigiriya(Rock) – a large stone and ancient rock fortress, Polonnaruwa, wild elephants
Day 2. Dambulla Cave Temple,spice gardens,The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, tea plantations
Day 3. The train trip from Nanuoya to Ella, Rawana Ella waterfalls, Kataragama
Day 4. Spotting leopard in Yala National Park, Mulkirigala Rock historical temple, Mirissa beach
Day 5. Galle fort, baby turtles at turtle hatcheries, Madu Ganga river scenic cruise

The post Sri Lanka in five days. Full itinerary appeared first on Vi Travel Tips.

I was preparing itinerary by using Google Maps as usually.  I saved all points of interest, got distances between these points and split everything into five days. The plan looked perfect – 1000km(~620 miles) in five days, i.e. 200km (~124 miles) per day. It should be enough time for sightseeing and free time. But.. It was one big shortcoming of this plan and I understood it only when we landed in Colombo international airport.

The issue was with timing Google Maps was giving. In countries like US or Australia the mapping application gives very accurate numbers how much time you need to go from point A to point B. Of course it depends on traffic and time of the day you are driving, but usually you can trust those numbers.  The different story in Sri Lanka. You must multiply at least by 2 all numbers Google Maps gives you. For example from Colombo airport to Dambulla it shows you need 2+ hours to drive 140km (~90 miles) and it looks very reasonable. But in reality it took more then 4 hours to get there.  That meant all my plan was in jeopardy. Luckily we had good driver and we saw even more then it was in the plan, but to make it we needed to get up very early and go to bed very late. It was worth it.

In this map I marked all places we visited. Actually I included couple places we didn’t make, as we were short of time, but it can be interested for others.

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In future posts I will write more details of each of five days, so please subscribe for the latest posts to read it first and please leave comment and rate the map if you liked it.

The post Sri Lanka in five days appeared first on Vi Travel Tips.