1

It nice to visit this link, even i have a 2.5 yrs old son. I also think of going on a long holiday with my hubby. Thanks for the tips and experience you share with us. Srilanka is really very beautiful country.

2

This is EXACTLY the kind of information I've been looking for!! I've been slowly planning a three- or four-week trip to Sri Lanka with our kids for next year. These are some great tips and destination ideas. One of my main considerations was -- are the beaches really as beautiful as they look in photos online?? It sounds like you certainly found some that were. If you have a chance, I would love to know what your daily budget was (for everything except flights, i.e. hotels, meals, tours, rickshaws, etc.).

3

Hi,
So glad the info was of use! To Guacamole4, we tended to spend on average $50 or so/night for a guesthouse/hotel... some places were $40, others $60, and we were happy with the standard (hot water, air conditioning, large enough room, etc). We didn't really take formal tours and the drivers we hired to take us to see specific things would usually stop along the way to see other sights (monuments, temples etc). For meals - usually guesthouses were more expensive than other options in Kandy, and were between 450-700 rupees for a meal, depending on individual guesthouses. The average dish (curry/rice or fried noodles etc) at a guesthouse in Sri Lanka was 400-600 rupees in general. More like 200-250 for smaller dishes like rotis (good option - our kids loved banana rotis!) or egg hoppers. Tuk tuks on short rides around town generally cost 15--200 rupees, more for longer rides. Haggling didn't really seem necessary as drivers always asked for around this amount. I think all up our daily budget was around $100/day including hotels, food, etc for the 4 of us. Take away the beer for us, and endless Sprites for the kids and it would probably be closer to $70. :)
Hope that helps, pm me if I can help answer any other questions!

4

Thanks so much for the great information. We are planning a trip to Sri Lanka with our 3 young kids in July and really enjoyed reading about your trip. Any chance of seeing any of your photos? Also just wondering if you took anti-malarials while you were there? Thanks!

5

Hi dnicholson,
Actually our doctor advised against anti-malarials, for the same reason as not getting the Japanese Encephalitis jabs - we weren't going for more than a month, and not spending much time in rural areas. This aligned pretty much with what we'd read, so we felt fine about it. We did take more caution than usual with using repellent than we usually do in Asia, although almost all guesthouses kept mozzie coils going around rooms/common areas during dusk/dawn mozzie hours.

We do plan to upload pickies to our blog site, but haven't got to it as yet! If you want you're welcome to look me up on facebook, where we have tons. Shall pm you with info!