11-Day Sri Lanka Heritage and Culinary Tour with Safari and Cooking

• 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.

Overnight stay at a hotel in Negombo.

• Start with breakfast at the hotel.

• Enjoy a diverse culinary experience by visiting the famous fish market in Negombo with your culinary guide, known as the "Lellama" (except on Sundays, as the population here is predominantly Christian).

• Walk along the beach and watch fishermen untangle their fishing nets, while witnessing fish being auctioned and sold to both retail and commercial customers.

• Let your culinary guide choose the fish that you will prepare together for lunch.

• In turn, experience how the fish is cut, marinated with ingredients, and cooked for lunch.

• Afternoon at leisure.

Overnight stay at a hotel in Negombo.

• Eat breakfast at the hotel.

• Continue to a coconut plantation to discover why this "superfood" is so central to life in Sri Lanka. Learn how all three parts play an essential role in daily life, sip the water of a king coconut, watch "toddy tappers" extract palm wine from the coconut sap, and taste the results.

• Leave for Minneriya.

• See why the afternoon makes for a thrilling jeep safari at Minneriya National Park. The park is home to the large and ancient Minneriya Tank, and it boasts an enormous variety of habitats and wildlife, including dry tropical forest, grasslands, and wetlands.

• On safari, you can often spot large numbers of Sri Lankan elephants gathering around the grass fields on the edges of the reservoir during the dry season, offering visitors an unforgettable sight. These elephants gather to socialize, bathe, feed, and mate. Minneriya also hosts more than 160 species, a few of which are endemic to Sri Lanka, such as the Sri Lanka Hanging Parrot, the Sri Lanka Jungle Fowl, and the Sri Lanka Grey Hornbill. Large mammals, including sloth bears, sambar deer, and axis deer, as well as smaller mammals such as the Purple-Faced Langur, Toque Macaque, and Grey Slender Loris, together with saltwater crocodiles and other reptiles including monitor lizards and snakes, add another dimension to this rich ecosystem.

Overnight stay at a hotel in Dambulla / Sigiriya.

• Breakfast at the hotel.

• Visit the Sigiriya Rock Fortress. Sigiriya Rock Fortress is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and 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 mirror walls of Sigiriya still retain the world-famous frescoes of the king's concubines, who originated from all parts of the world. 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.

• Make a village visit in Hiriwaduna.

• Experience ancient transportation methods, farming and paddy fields, irrigation systems, chief farmer's houses, and countryside living styles.

• Encounter the traditional Sri Lankan transportation system on a 30-minute bullock cart journey through the green paddy fields of Hiriwaduna Village.

• After that, take an approximately 15-minute canoe ride to reach the farmer's house, where you can experience typical Sri Lankan countryside hospitality. Afterwards, walk through the farm and discover different cultivation methods and vegetables.

• In the end, enjoy a typical Sri Lankan countryside lunch at the farmer's house.

Overnight stay at a hotel in Dambulla / Sigiriya.

• Savour breakfast at the hotel.

• Visit Dambulla Rock Cave Temple. Dambulla Cave Temple, also known as the Golden Temple of Dambulla, is the largest and best-preserved cave temple complex in Sri Lanka. The rock from which the caves were carved towers 160 meters (520 ft) above the surrounding plains. A total of 153 Buddha statues, three statues of 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.

• In the evening, join a family for a cooking class and Sri Lankan dinner. Try your hand at crafting the perfect hopper, and learn to make a chicken curry with spice-infused coconut milk, lunu miris (chilli and onions), and pol sambol (shredded coconut, chilli, and lime).

Overnight stay at a hotel in Kandy.

• Consume breakfast at the hotel.

• Visit a local house to prepare two traditional sweets. These sweets are made in homes using precise techniques and hard labour, and are not regular homemade treats.

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

• 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 highlight is the fire-walking show, where the artists walk barefoot through a specially prepared fire pit, roughly 8 feet by 3 feet, covered with red-hot charcoal.

Overnight stay at a hotel in Kandy.

• Wake up to breakfast at the hotel.

• Leave for Nuwara Eliya, also known as Sri Lanka's "Little England," the country's prime hill resort. At approximately 2000 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.

• Visit a tea plantation and factory. The visit generally begins in the plantation itself, where you learn how tea is cultivated, followed by the factory, where old machines predating the Industrial Revolution wither, roll, and dry the tea.

• At the end of the tour, enjoy a tea tasting, either of one specific type of tea or various specialities from that particular factory. Like a wine tasting, a traditional tea tasting involves drinking the tea, swilling it around the mouth to appreciate the flavour, and then spitting it out into a spittoon.

• In the evening, visit a traditional Indian restaurant to taste conventional Tamil cuisine, including dosa, a crispy rice pancake, and idli, a savoury steamed rice cake served with curry sauces or chutneys.

Overnight stay at a hotel in Nuwara Eliya.

• Rise for breakfast at the hotel.

• Travel through a beautiful landscape and see Sri Lanka's widest waterfall, "St. Clair," while enjoying the rich natural surroundings.

• At Kitulgala, visit the famous site where the Oscar-winning film "Bridge on the River Kwai" was filmed.

• In the evening, go on a tuk-tuk excursion and take part in a village tour to enjoy a Sri Lankan Rotti Night. You can enjoy a village walk and join a culinary activity to prepare different types of roti, including Pol Roti, Kothu Roti, and Kurakan Roti.

Overnight stay at a hotel in Galle.

• Enjoy breakfast at the hotel.

• 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, and British and Dutch period offices that are still in use. This is a living World Heritage city, with residents walking the 300-year-old ramparts at sunset.

• While strolling 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.

• Continue to the bustling Galle market, where you will meet your host chef, who will talk you through the core ingredients of Sri Lankan cuisine such as curry leaves, coconuts, local fruit and vegetables, pandan leaves, and spices.

• Travel to a local house for a traditional cooking class experience. Here, you will learn how to prepare for your favourite challenge.

Overnight stay at a hotel in Galle.

• Begin with breakfast at the hotel.

• Day at leisure.

Overnight stay at a hotel in Galle.

• Enjoy breakfast at the hotel.

• Transfer to the airport for your onward flight.