Sri Lanka for families: elephants, the hill train and the beach

Arrive in Negombo

Bandaranaike International Airport to Negombo, about 10 km

• Repas du soir
• Nuit : Negombo
• Environ 30 min de route

Soir

Long-haul flights land at all hours, so nothing is planned before the evening: children can sleep off the flight, swim in the pool or dig on the beach, which faces west for the sunset. In the early evening your See Sight Tours guide gathers everyone, children included, to walk through the plan: which mornings start early, how long each drive is, and what to wear at temples. Dinner together follows, with mild curries, rice, fried fish and hoppers for children who want something plainer.

Compris

• Pick-up at Bandaranaike International Airport (CMB)
• Early-evening family get-together with your guide
• Welcome dinner

Inland to Sigiriya: bikes and a bullock cart

Negombo to Sigiriya, about 165 km, then a village afternoon

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Sigiriya
• Environ 4 h de route

Après-midi

We reach the Sigiriya area around midday and sit down to lunch with a farming family in a village nearby: rice and several curries cooked over a wood fire, served on lotus leaves, with something mild for children. After a rest through the heat, at about 3:30 pm we set off by bicycle on quiet lanes between the paddies and the village tank, the reservoir that waters the fields. Children who would rather not ride sit in the support vehicle or on the bullock cart, which then carries everyone, slowly and noisily, along a farm track.

Soir

We are back at the hotel before dark, and the evening is free by the pool.

Compris

• Village lunch with a farming family near Sigiriya
• Bicycle ride through the paddy fields, with children's bikes and helmets
• Bullock cart ride

Sigiriya at opening, elephants by jeep

Sigiriya Lion Rock, then a jeep safari in Kaudulla or Minneriya National Park

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Sigiriya
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Matin

We are at the Sigiriya gate when it opens, about 7 am, before the heat and before the queues build on the upper stairs from mid-morning. King Kashyapa built his palace on top of this rock in the late fifth century, and children tend to love it: the water gardens with their old fountains, the painted women of the frescoes reached by a spiral stair, the polished Mirror Wall and the giant stone paws of the lion gate, before the brick ruins of the summit, nearly 200 metres above the plain. The climb is about 1,200 steps and we take it slowly.

Après-midi

We are down by about 10:30 am, back at the hotel for a swim and lunch, and rest through the hottest hours. At about 3 pm we head out by open jeep to Kaudulla or Minneriya National Park, chosen by current herd reports, and look for elephants grazing by the reservoir until the park closes. Herds are smaller than in the July to October Gathering.

Compris

• Sigiriya Lion Rock at opening, with a local site guide and entry
• Lunch at the hotel or nearby
• Jeep safari in Kaudulla or Minneriya National Park, with park fees, two jeeps for the group

Dambulla's caves and Kandy

Sigiriya to the Dambulla cave temple, then Kandy, about 95 km

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Kandy
• Environ 3 h de route

Matin

A slower morning after yesterday's early start: breakfast at 8, then about 20 km to Dambulla, where five caves under a granite overhang are filled with painted ceilings and more than 150 Buddha statues, the largest a reclining Buddha about 14 metres long. Children like the walk up the rock, past monkeys, and the cool of the caves after the heat outside. Shoes come off at the entrance, so bring socks for the hot stone.

Après-midi

Then we drive south into the hills, about 75 km and two and a half hours, with a sit-down lunch on the way.

Soir

In Kandy, the last royal capital until 1815, we first see an hour-long show of Kandyan dancing and drumming that ends, at most venues, with fire walking, then walk to the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic for the evening ritual, about 6:30 pm, when the drummers play and the shrine doors open. Dinner is free by Kandy Lake.

Compris

• Dambulla cave temple, with entry
• Sit-down lunch on the way to Kandy
• Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, with entry
• Kandyan dance and drumming show

Tea country and the hill train to Ella

Kandy to Nanu Oya by road via Nuwara Eliya, then the train to Ella

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Ella
• Environ 3 h de route

Après-midi

An early sit-down lunch follows in Nuwara Eliya, the old hill station at about 1,870 metres, cool enough for a jumper. At Nanu Oya we board an early-afternoon train, about 1 pm, with reserved seats.

Soir

It climbs past Pattipola, the highest station on the line, then runs down through Haputale and Bandarawela with tea on both sides and tunnels to count, reaching Ella around 4 pm, before dusk. This is about six hours of travel, over our four-hour cap, because the train is the point: children can stand, look out and move about, and the road part is broken by the falls, the factory and lunch. We confirm each season whether the Kandy line runs; if the train is cancelled, our vehicle drives you.

Compris

• Ramboda Falls viewpoint
• Working tea factory visit with a tasting
• Sit-down lunch in Nuwara Eliya
• Reserved seats on the train from Nanu Oya to Ella

A tea-picking morning and the Nine Arch Bridge

Ella: a tea estate, the Nine Arch Bridge and a free afternoon

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Ella

Matin

This morning we join tea pickers on an estate near Ella. They show children how to pick two leaves and a bud, the only part used for good tea, and let them fill a small basket before we weigh the morning's harvest together, the way the pickers' own leaf is weighed each day. It is a gentle hour on terraced slopes, done before the sun gets strong. Then we walk to the Nine Arch Bridge, completed in 1921, which curves across a ravine on stone and brick arches about 24 metres high. Your guide knows the train times, so we can watch a blue train cross from the hillside rather than wait on the track.

Après-midi

After a sit-down lunch in Ella, the afternoon is free: a swim, a nap, or a cafe on the main street. Families with energy left can climb Little Adam's Peak with the guide in the late afternoon, about an hour up on a good path through tea, for the view down the Ella Gap.

Compris

• Tea-picking morning on an estate near Ella, with the pickers
• Walk to the Nine Arch Bridge
• Sit-down lunch in Ella

Activités en option

• A cooking class in Ella, paid locally

Down to Udawalawe: orphaned elephants and a jeep safari

Ella to Ravana Falls and Udawalawe, about 110 km

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Udawalawe
• Environ 3 h de route

Après-midi

After a sit-down lunch and a rest through the heat, at about 3 pm we head into Udawalawe National Park by open jeep, two jeeps for the group so every child has a window. Wild elephants feed here year round in the grassland around the reservoir, with water buffalo, crocodiles, peafowl and eagles.

Soir

We stay out until the park closes near sunset.

Compris

• Ravana Falls
• Udawalawe Elephant Transit Home at a feeding, with entry
• Sit-down lunch in Udawalawe
• Jeep safari in Udawalawe National Park, with park fees

The south coast: stilt fishermen and Galle Fort

Udawalawe to Koggala and Galle Fort, then Bentota, about 220 km

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Bentota
• Environ 4.5 h de route

Après-midi

Galle Fort is half an hour on: the Dutch walled town begun in the 1660s, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, where we eat a sit-down lunch and walk the ramparts to the lighthouse while children look for the old cannons and the monitor lizards in the moat. Then about an hour north on the Southern Expressway to Bentota, a beach town where the Bentota River meets the sea. We arrive in the late afternoon, in time for a swim before dark.

Compris

• The stilt fishermen at Koggala
• Galle Fort, a walk on the ramparts with your guide
• Sit-down lunch in Galle Fort

A river boat and a beach day in Bentota

Bentota: the Bentota River by boat, then a free afternoon

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du soir
• Nuit : Bentota
• En bateau

Matin

We are back by late morning, and the rest of the day is free: swim, build sandcastles, or try the water sports on the river mouth.

Après-midi

Lunch is your own, at the hotel or a beach cafe.

Soir

In the evening we meet for a farewell dinner by the sea, the last evening together.

Compris

• Bentota River boat trip through the mangroves, with a boatman and life jackets for children
• Farewell dinner

Activités en option

• Water sports on the river mouth, booked locally
• Lunuganga, the garden estate of the architect Geoffrey Bawa, a short drive from Bentota, on a guided visit paid locally

Back to the airport

Bentota to Bandaranaike International Airport or Colombo, about 110 km

• Petit-déjeuner
• Environ 2 h de route

Matin

A last swim before breakfast if you want one, then we drive you back to Bandaranaike International Airport (CMB), about 110 km and two hours, longer in Colombo traffic, on the Southern Expressway, the Outer Circular Highway around Colombo and the airport expressway to Katunayake. We time the departure from Bentota to your flight and plan to reach the airport about three hours before it leaves, so book a flight leaving after about 2 pm.

Soir

Many long-haul flights to Canada and the United States go via the Gulf or East Asia and leave in the evening, which leaves time for a slower morning on the beach. If you are staying on in Sri Lanka, we drop you at a hotel in Colombo instead, about two hours from Bentota, or your guide can help arrange a few more beach nights. Your guide says goodbye at the hotel, with a short written note of the places your family went, for the children to keep.

Compris

• Drop-off at Bandaranaike International Airport (CMB) or a Colombo hotel