My experience - 2 weeks in SL, November.

I've just returned from 2 weeks trip over SL. Thought of sharing my experience with you guys.
My initial post is here.

1. To go or not to go?
Definitely go. I've enjoyed every single day of my trip.

2. Safety:
We've stayed away from North and East. Only sign of civil war are the roadblocks. Oh, and we missed Yala, becouse it was closed, due to couple of armed Tamil guys "lost" there. So it's safe as long as you don't go looking for troubles.

2.Weather:
Although I was concerned about weather conditions in November, we've got only like a 2 or 3 hours of heavy rain on south coast and night rains in Hill Country. Otherwise it was always sunny.

3. Prices:
Low-end to Midrange hotels (accomodation and meals) approx. doubled, compared to LP 10th ed. Hi-end pretty much stayed the same.

4. Places to stay:
Negombo - don't spend much time there. Go elsevere straight from Colombo if you can. Beach is soaked with oil or whatever that black sticky stuff from the tankers is. However, if you must stay, then go for Sunset Beach hotel. Rooms are light, airy. Delicious rice and curry. Double bb - $40, hb - $50.
Pollonaruwa - theres a Heritance Kandalama hotel not far from there. If you have wheels thats it. I't is a bit pricey, so we've spent only one night there, but it was worth every $$. Built in-rock, superb view, good meals, pool with the view over the great lake, jacuzzi, etc. bb - $120.
Kandy - Hotel Topaz. nothing special, dull place. bb - $58.
Nuewara Ellya - Rising Lion hotel. Great place, nice view, very good food. bb - 3500 rs
Ella - AVOID Ambiente. View is superb, but service is terrible and spoils all the fun. We constanly had troubles with the food and it was not only us, but also other guests as well. Look for other place to stay, there's plenty. bb - $40
Dickwella - AVOID Dickwella village resort. Dull, overpriced, no choice of meals at all. However, Dickwella IS a place to stay at South, it has the best beaches of all that we've saw and is very quiet. hb - $112
Unawatuna - UBR (Unawatuna Beach Resort). Package hotel. Good one. Lots of Duch, Germans, busy place. Food is nice, room also is good. hb - $72

Places to see:
see the original post. Almost everything is worth visiting. Piece of advise - Don't take a guide in Pollonaruwa or Sigirya, explore the places on your own. You can spend a day at Pollonaruwa easily, while the guide will drag you from one place to another, making you miss the very spirit of the ancient city.
DO's: Pollonaruwa, Sigirya, Dambulla, Ella - stay there for at least couple of days - the place is beautiful, National parks.
DONT's: the spice garden, turtle hatchery, botanical garden - touristy crap.
We didn't go to the Adams Peak or worlds end.

Guide:
We went with Nimal (Nimal@mother.earth-srilanka.com, ndsilva67@yahoo.com)
I do recommend him, theres a lots of praises for him on the TT, and all of it is true. Good character, drives fast, knows a lot. He showed us more of the country than we would see on our own. Charged us $40-$60 a day, depending on how far we had to drive.