Length of trip recommendation

Hello there.. usually 14 days is good enough.. it is not a huge place and with 14 days you can visit almost all the major attractions.. cheers

thank you very much! you think 14 days is enough time to enjoy the country? where is your next trip to? blessings to you

hi again... yes.. if you arrange your journey carefully 14 days are more than enough even to enjoy with enough time for a relaxing beach stay of two or three days.. One little advice please do not spend much time in Colombo.. may be just a glance through for the sake of being there. if you are coming in a afternoon or an evening flight you can stay overnight in Colombo and then head out.. most of the popular routs out of Colombo is toward Sigiriya via Pinnawala.. may be a visit to Polonnaruwa ancient city.. actually there are two ancient cities and I think polonnaruwa is a better option.. then you go central to the Kandy.. take a train ride to Ella.. decent toward Udawalawa if you like more elephants.. then probably to Yala for a safari.. head toward Galle for a colonial experience and beaches. then may be last leg of your tour in Bentota for a beach stay.. well about my next trip we had a little baby 12 weeks back and wont be thinking about traveling much for sometime.. anyway I originally comes from Sri Lanka and that's why I can talk about the place all day long.. :-) hope this will help and please let me know if you need anything more..

I think there is a bit of clue in how much time you spent in your other 2 destinations. I guess you don't want a hurried quickie touristy tour. Yes you can see most of the main sites in 14 days, which coincidentally is the length of most peoples holiday. However, I would recommend staying longer if you can.

I have just spent 3 months in SL. Admittedly I ride a bike so I travel much more slowly than most, but I still think you can easily spend a month there if not more. If you get a decent guide book you can work out an all encompassing tour and do a rough day count. Bear in mind that the weather varies from season to season and from different areas during a season. Nonetheless, you can normally travel everywhere at anytime and will often find the so called off season a good time to visit some areas.

One deciding factor on how long you stay may be the visa. You can easily get a 30 day tourist visa on line, but if you want longer, it is a bit of a pain. You may be able to get a longer one from the SL Embassy in your home country, which is the easiest option. Otherwise you will have to do the visa extension in Colombo which takes at least half a day and is a tedious insight into SL bureaucracy.

To sum up, I recommend at least a month, possibly 2, or if you want to do some externded beach relaxing as well, why not have 3.

Congratulations on the birth of your child! Wonderful! My husband and I live in Winnipeg, Canada, where recently we have had -28 C windchill and lots of snow :( I may be able to go ice skating soon but we are dreaming of Sri Lanka. Thank you so much for your very helpful tips. If you don't mind me asking, where do you live now?
I hope you are getting some sleep, with having a baby. Peace to you.

wonderful! We have 11 weeks to see some of southern India and SL. I have been reading and studying the Lonely Planet SL tour book. I was quite perplexed on how long to book, for our flights to SL. My husband and I backpack/travel quickly, as we love to see lots and get to know the countries a bit. Usually we travel until we have had a good look at the sights and the country, ie our time in Argentina, was much longer than we or our friend/advisor thought but there was so much to see and the people and country were so wonderful, Peru too, at 9 weeks and we had to rush the last week... Thank you very much for putting the time and effort into writing. This is most helpful.

Thank you very much. well its a life changing experience and I wouldn't change it for a bit. enjoying the every bit of the parenthood.. well one thing for sure its very little sleep :-) we do it in shifts..

Well I am sure Sri Lanka will be a very different experience when you think of -28C weather. I live in both London UK and Colombo SL. Currently I am in London and hopefully will spend this winter here. The lowest we would experience in London is something around -5. hardly get heavy snow. Colombo in other hand always somewhere around 30 Degrees with very high humidity. But places like Nuwara Eliya has a slightly colder climate and I am pretty sure not good enough to make you pack your heavy jackets for the tour.

Please let me know if you need any more details and surely find anymore information/help regarding your holiday..
kind regards

• It depends on what type of traveller you are. Only to cover well known and famous attractions you might need about 3 weeks. But if you like to blend with the nature and culture here, you will a lot of time (if you have).