Incredible Sri Lanka
A 12-day Sri Lanka adventure tour — cloud forests, reef sharks, elephants, tea country and colonial forts.
Overview
This 12-day Sri Lanka adventure tour goes up before it goes anywhere else — into the Knuckles cloud forest, then out to the reefs at Pigeon Island, through elephant country at Maduru Oya, and along the tea ridges at Lipton’s Seat and World’s End. It finishes on the south coast, in the Dutch streets of Galle.
Experience Highlights
At a Glance
Take a look at this example travel flow to understand the pace and experiences included in this trip.
You start high. The Knuckles massif is named for the fist-shaped ridgeline you’ll be looking at all day, and the trails run through cloud forest, past waterfalls most people never see, and through villages that still farm the slopes.
Northeast to the coast. Fort Frederick was built from coral and stone in the 17th century and is still in use, which is why there are spotted deer wandering the grounds as though they own it.
A day with nothing scheduled. Nilaveli is long, soft and shallow, and the water here is calmer than anything on the south coast.
A short boat ride offshore to one of the healthiest reef systems left on the island. The water is clear enough that you’ll see the blacktip sharks before you are properly in.
South into the dry zone, to a park most itineraries skip. Fewer jeeps, and the elephants gather at the reservoir in real numbers.
Into Ella. The climb up Little Adam’s Peak is gentle enough to do before breakfast, and the bridge below is the one everybody photographs — a stone viaduct built without a gram of steel.
Up before dawn at Haputale. Thomas Lipton surveyed his estates from this ridge, and on a clear morning you can see across seven provinces before the cloud closes in.
A nine-kilometre loop across high grassland and cloud forest, ending at a cliff that falls away for most of a kilometre. Go early — by ten the whole thing sits inside a cloud.
Down to the south coast. Coconut Tree Hill is a red-clay headland stacked with palms, and Secret Beach is the cove behind the rocks that takes a little finding.
West along the coast to the best-preserved colonial fortification in Asia. The ramparts are the walk to do at sunset; the streets inside are cobbled and full of small shops.
A day left deliberately open, on the bays between Galle and Mirissa. Surf at Weligama if you want to; do nothing at all if you don’t.
One last morning on the coast, then the expressway north to Colombo.
*All itineraries are fully customizable. We will send you a personalized variation that reflects your interests and travel dates
What’s Included / Not Included
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