Itinerary - Comments?

Hi there
When will you be arriving to Sri Lanka.If your hoping to climb Adams Peak,the season starts with 03rd of december till 30th May 2018. I also think that it will be better to keep Kandy as the base and do day tours to Sigiriya,Dambulla and Pollonnaruwa.

All the Best

Sam

Dneth, are you going to keep repeating that"small but packs a powerful punch" spiel for every post? I don't know who wrote it, but it is cliche ridden and rarely answers the posters question. It just gives you a chance to advertise you as a driver, which is against TT rules.

I can't see the point in using Kandy as a base for Anuradapura, Sigiriya and Dambulla. It is a long way away and up in the hills. I don't know journey time, but you would be using a few hours each day in travelling.

Sigiriya would be a good base for the lowland stuff and it's a nice place to stay. Then you can go to Polonnaruwa as originally planned, instead of Anuradapura, which I found a bit dull.

Similar to Simon, I don't think it makes sense to base yourself in Kandy. We stayed in Habarana for 4 nights and from there we saw Polonnaruwa, Dambulla Cave Temples, Sigiriya and Minneriya National Park. Its a really good base and we stayed in awesome hotel - Mutu Village. My recommendation would therefore be - head straight to Habarana (Mutu Village organised a transfer for us for around 90US$, but you may be able to get cheaper). Then stay put there for a few nights. If you get a transfer from the airport to Habarana around midnight, you'd get there 4 in the morning-ish. You could go to bed (!), but if arranging with a hotel in advance, you'd be able to book to do something later that day - maybe 1ish to Dambulla Cave Temples and then to Sigiriya for 3ish. Then next day you could do a safari into Minneriya and then next day to Polonnaruwa. So that would give 3 nights in Habarana.

I havent been to Kandy, but loved Ella - taxi between Habarana and Ella would be 5hrs-ish. If you left Habarana early, you could get to Ella lunch-time ish and climb Little Adam's Peak and then stay overnight and climb Ella Rock in the morning and do a tea plantation in the afternoon.... gives you 2 more nights

Then you could do very beautiful train ride from Ella to Kandy or even all the way back to Colombo the next day (google this train ride - just lovely). So this gives either one night in Kandy and then one in Colombo then home or 2 in Colombo... Just an idea ...

(more on Ella - http://2britsabroad.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/what-to-do-in-ella-sri-lanka.html )

• Don't use Kandy as base for Dambulla, Sigiriya and Polonnaruwa, it is a waste of time and effort. There are nice places to stay in Sigiriya and Polonnaruwa.

• Day trip to Nuwara Eliya is totally fine, but coming back to Kandy and travelling again to Hatton is big waste of time (see the map). Instead find a place in Nuwara Eliya.

Hi,

I wouldn't recommend Kandy as base, since there is not much going on there. Pick a nice beach location instead. Especially places near Colombo, should be fine. The bus lines and trains are fine.

For some details about where to stay and what you will spend, check out below links:

Sigiriya lion rock: http://planet2see.com/2017/10/31/getting-dizzy-of-the-sigiriya-lion-rock-fortress-heights/
Dambulla cave temples: http://planet2see.com/2017/10/23/rock-cave-temples-of-dambulla/
Kandy (especially for the tooth temple): http://planet2see.com/2017/10/21/what-to-do-in-kandy-sri-lanka/

General link for your first days: http://planet2see.com/2017/10/09/first-days-in-sri-lanka/