8-Day Sri Lanka Highlights Tour with Sigiriya, Yala and Galle

• On arrival, meet and greet at the airport and transfer to your hotel in Negombo.

• Check in to the hotel and relax to recover from jet lag.

Dinner and overnight stay at a hotel in Negombo.

• After breakfast at the hotel, set off to explore the history of the dynamic city of Negombo with your Sri Lanka guide-chauffeur. Indulge in a diverse experience by visiting the famous fish market in Negombo, known as the 'Lellama'. Walk on the beach, watch fishermen untangle their fishing nets, and witness fish being auctioned and sold to retail and commercial customers alike.

• Leave for Pinnawala.

• Visit the elephant orphanage in Pinnawala, established in 1975 to care for abandoned and orphaned baby elephants. These giant yet gentle creatures wander around the sanctuary, being fed and bathed by their foster human parents. The herd is led to the nearby river for a two-hour bath twice a day. You are welcome to join and interact with them while feasting your eyes on the largest gathering of tame elephants. Baby elephants are bottle-fed a unique formula milk by their mahouts, the caretakers, and if you are curious, you can even join in feeding them at the daily feeding times of 9:15 am and 1:15 pm.

• Leave for Dambulla.

Dinner and overnight stay at a hotel in Dambulla / Sigiriya.

• After breakfast at the hotel, visit Sigiriya Rock Fortress. This UNESCO World Heritage Site is one of the most dramatic, inspiring and beautiful historical locations in the world. A mythical past of feuding dynasties suits Sigiriya's striking setting - it was built in the 5th century AD by King Kasyapa as a fortress-palace. The palace complex at the foot of the rock still has four indoor swimming pools where the king's 500 concubines bathed. The palace structure was built with complex water arteries in the walls that provided natural air conditioning in the hot climate. On the summit, reached with the help of metal staircases and ladders, you can see the remains of the palace walls, gardens and ponds. The mirror walls of Sigiriya Rock still retain the world-famous frescoes of the king's concubines, who originated from all parts of the world.

• Later, continue to one of the great ruins of ancient Ceylon - the UNESCO World Heritage City of Polonnaruwa, which was the capital of Sri Lanka from the 11th to 13th century. Polonnaruwa was a well-planned medieval city defended by enclosing walls, around 5 km of which remain, and graced by palaces, shrines, monasteries, pavilions, parks, ponds and irrigation lakes. Polonnaruwa is strewn with ruins in a glorious state of preservation. The 'Gal Vihara' consists of recumbent, standing and seated Buddha statues cut from a single granite wall, and they rank among the true masterpieces of Sri Lankan art.

Dinner and overnight stay at a hotel in Dambulla / Sigiriya.

• After breakfast at the hotel, visit Dambulla Rock Cave Temple, also known as the Golden Temple of Dambulla. It is the largest and best-preserved cave temple complex in Sri Lanka, and the rock from which the caves were carved towers 160 meters (520 ft) above the surrounding plains. A total of 153 Buddha statues, three Sri Lankan kings, and four statues of gods and goddesses also stand on the site.

• Continue your journey to the hill capital of Kandy, renowned as the centre of Buddhism and the capital of the last Sinhalese kingdom.

• En route, visit a spice garden in Matale to see the many different spices Sri Lanka is famous for. You will be introduced to other herbs and shown how some of these spices are grown and processed. The gardens are open to visitors and are a delightful place to stroll through fragrant greenery while learning about nutmeg, pepper vines, clove trees, curry, cinnamon and the precious cardamom, a relative of ginger. It grows in the shade of high jungle trees and can only be harvested by hand.

• Enjoy a traditional cultural dance performance, featuring vibrant fire and harvest dances accompanied by ceremonial drums and a drum orchestra rising and falling to a lively tempo. The show's highlight is the fire-walking performance, where the artists walk barefoot through a specially prepared fire pit, roughly 8 feet by 3 feet and covered with red-hot charcoal.

Dinner and overnight stay at a hotel in Kandy.

• After breakfast at the hotel, visit the Temple of the Tooth Relic for the morning ceremony. The stunning 17th-century Temple of the Tooth, or Sri Dalada Maligawa, is believed to house the left upper canine tooth of Lord Buddha himself. Every day, this precious relic attracts white-clad pilgrims bearing lotus blossoms and frangipani.

• Enjoy a sightseeing tour of Kandy, visiting the upper lake, the oriental marketplace and a bazaar.

• Visit the Royal Botanical Gardens at Peradeniya, the largest of Sri Lanka's botanical gardens, displaying over 4,000 different species of plants and regarded among the finest in Asia. The focal points include the superb orchid collection and a powerful avenue of Royal Palm Trees. In addition to a plethora of flowering plants, there is also an extensive collection of medicinal plants and spices, which can be spotted as you meander across the gardens.

Dinner and overnight stay at a hotel in Kandy.

• After breakfast at the hotel, transfer to Kandy Railway Station.

• Enjoy a scenic train trip to Nuwara Eliya, also known as Sri Lanka's "Little England", the country's prime hill resort. At approximately 2,000 m above sea level, the city has an abundance of lush tea plantations and jaw-dropping scenery. Its nickname comes from the many English-style bungalows and buildings still in existence today.

• The train journey weaving through the scenic hill country is one of the most beautiful explorations in Sri Lanka. From the edge of soaring mountains, you will overlook branching valleys, mist-capped mountains, sloping lush green tea plantations, villages dotted with houses, thick forests and whooshing waterfalls.

• Pick up from Nanu Oya Train Station.

• Visit a tea plantation and a tea factory on the island where some of the best tea in the world is produced. Watch the tea pluckers pick two leaves and a bud with deft hands.

• Then continue to the factory, where the all-important conversion to "made" black tea takes place. The machinery used is of traditional British design, some of it as old as 100 years, and the process is highly artisanal, unchanged for a century. Observe the method of manufacturing tea, tea grading, and taste a cup of pure Ceylon tea.

Dinner and overnight stay at a hotel in Nuwara Eliya.

• After breakfast at the hotel, leave for Tissa / Yala (approximate transfer time: 4 hours).

• Visit the spectacular Ella Gap in the southern mountain wall, where the land falls away in a dizzying drop of 3,000 ft (915 m) to the southern plains and the sea, which is visible in the far distance on a clear day.

• Witness the Rawana Ella Waterfall.

• In the afternoon, enjoy a jeep safari at Yala National Park. Yala is the second-largest and most visited national safari park in Sri Lanka, known for its numerous types of wildlife, variety of ecosystems and rich biodiversity. It is situated in a dry semi-arid climatic region that hosts ecosystems ranging from moist monsoon forests to freshwater and marine wetlands. Yala is home to 44 mammals and 215 bird species, seven of which are endemic. Among its more famous residents are the world's highest concentration of leopards, as well as majestic elephants, sloth bears, sambars, jackals, spotted deer, peacocks, crocodiles and wild buffaloes.

Dinner and overnight stay at a hotel in Tissa / Yala.

• After breakfast at the hotel, leave for the beach hotel.

• Travel through Tangalle and Matara.

• See the stilt fishers on poles in Koggala, a traditional fishing method practised by many fishermen along the southern coast of Sri Lanka.

• Visit Galle Fort. Galle Fort is the finest and most intact fortified city built by the former European colonial powers in Asia. The narrow streets of Galle Fort are lined with Dutch merchant villas, pillared verandas, carved doors and windows, while British and Dutch period offices are still in use. This is a living World Heritage city, with residents walking the 300-year-old ramparts at sunset.

• As you stroll along the high rampart walls, you will see the old Dutch and English churches, the Governor's House, the massive VOC warehouses, the Square of Courts, the elegant pillared facade of the Old Dutch Hospital, the Portuguese Black Fort, the lighthouse, the Clock Tower and much more.

• Visit a turtle hatchery.

• Transfer to the airport for your onward flight or to your selected beach hotel for a continued beach holiday.