14-Day Sri Lanka Photography Tour with Safaris and Scenic Train Ride

• On arrival, meet & greet at the airport and transfer to hotel in Colombo.

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

• In the evening, meet with your experienced photographic guide for an information briefing on your photographic tour in Sri Lanka.

Dinner and overnight stay at a hotel in Colombo.

• Start with breakfast at the hotel.

• Continue on a Colombo city walk to capture pictures at the Dutch Hospital Shopping Complex and walk along the old colonial streets to see the floating market, Pettah bazaar, the primary market for fruits and vegetables in Colombo.

• Afterwards, proceed to capture pictures of Seemamalaka Temple, Independence Square, BMICH, Galle Face Green, where you can capture great images of street food children flying kites along with fantastic sceneries.

Dinner and overnight stay at a hotel in Colombo.

• Eat breakfast at the hotel.

• Leave for Galle.

• Visit the Dutch Fort in Galle. Click pictures at various points during Sri Lanka’s colonial history, and they have each left a unique imprint on its fabric. As you navigate through the fort’s charming alleyways at a leisurely pace, a fascinating blend of local design traditions and European colonial influence become evident in the architectural style of its many exciting structures.

• Leave for Koggala.

• Check-in at the hotel.

• In the evening, enjoy a short walk to take photographs of the stilt fishers fishing on poles with the sunset. Stilt fishing is a traditional method of fishing practised by most fishermen along the southern coast of Sri Lanka.

Dinner and overnight stay at hotel in Koggala.

• Appreciate breakfast at the hotel.

• Leave for Tangalle.

• Visit a Sea turtle hatchery in Rekawa to take pictures of Sea turtles, protected enclosures to nurture the eggs and release the young back into the ocean to increase the probability of survival and support against a threat so extinction.

• Leave for Kataragama.

• Capture the images of worshipers, Pooja ceremony in Kataragama. Kataragama is one of Sri Lanka’s holy places where Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims visit religiously. It is a large Complex with the ‘Mahadewala’ – the main Hindu shrine being the most important place. This shrine of God Skanda, the Hindu war God who is worshipped as the Kataragama Deviyo, is revered by pilgrims of all three religions.

Dinner and overnight stay at hotel in Tissa / Kataragama.

• Pack your picnic breakfast and lunch.

• Savour a full-day safari from 6 AM to 6 PM in Yala National Park, exploring various wildlife and newer, more innovative ways of taking pictures. The safari will be interspersed with highly insightful real-time guidance on photography by the Skipper. You can capture the Sri Lankan leopard and the Sri Lankan elephant can emerge from the enchanting, enigmatic depths of the jungle and render themselves into frames that you will cherish for a long, long time. Apart from these most-loved mammals, there are a lot of other endemic mammals, reptiles and birds that Yala contains in its lovely confines, and making images of them can be nothing short of meditative experience.

Dinner and overnight stay at hotel in Tissa/Kataragama.

• Savour breakfast at the hotel.

• Leave for Ella. Ella is a tiny, picturesque village in the highlands of the country. It is a place for those seeking an offbeat experience.

• The highlight of your photo adventure to Ella may very well be shooting the famous Demodara 9 Arches Bridge. It is just a 35-minute walk from the Ella train station. The bridge was built without any steel bars and is a true engineering feat and a spectacular structure. We will be photographing the bridge from unique angles.

• Capture images of Dunhida Waterfalls which is easily accessible and famous because of their misty-like spray of water that falls along with the stones.

Dinner and overnight stay at the hotel in Ella.

• Early morning at 5.30 am, climb Little Adam’s Peak to capture the breathtaking sunrises from the east coast over the mountains.

• Return to the hotel for breakfast.

• Transfer to Ella Railway station.

• Onboard the train, you will have plenty of opportunities to take photographs of people and pass landscape, small village hill train stations, etc. The train travels slow, so there will be excellent opportunities to park yourself at exit doors to get uninterrupted views of the scenic beauty.

• Pick up from the Nau Oya railway station and transfer to hotel.

Dinner and overnight stay at hotel in Nuwara Eliya.

• Savour breakfast at the hotel.

• Walk through tea plantations and take shots of “Tea Leaf Plucker Ladies” and plantation workers as they go about their daily workday. Tea plantations also offer panoramic views of the surrounding hill country, which is excellent for taking landscapes.

• The surrounding countryside is nature’s paradise, followed by a Nuwara Eliya city tour. The salubrious climate has branded Nuwara Eliya into a sanatorium that attracts Sri Lankan tourists and foreign travellers. Golf tournaments, horse racing, motor cross, clay pigeon shooting and carnivals are some of the main festivities.

Dinner and overnight stay at hotel in Nuwara Eliya.

• Eat breakfast at the hotel.

• Leave for Kandy, the last capital of the Sri Lankan kings and a UNESCO World Heritage Site mainly due to the temple of tooth relic.

• Visit Upper Lake View and arts & craft centre, the oriental marketplace for photography.

• In the evening, visit the Buddhist temple Sri Dalada Maligawa Temple or the “Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic”. It is located in the royal palace complex of the former Kingdom of Kandy, which houses the relic of the tooth of the Buddha.

• Watch an unforgettable show photographing Traditional Kandyan Dancers with all their vibrant colours.

Dinner and overnight stay at hotel in Kandy.

• Start with breakfast at the hotel.

• Make a photographic tour in Peradeniya Botanical Gardens. The garden is home to over 4,000 species of plants, ferns, shrubs, palm trees, spices and medicinal plants, all complemented by an array of butterflies and bird species. Take time to admire the incredible collection of over 300 varieties of orchids; certainly one of the garden’s highlights. The giant bamboo and double palm trees, both of which are imports to the island and many are over one hundred years old, create a natural canopy. A leisurely stroll through the immaculate lawns and along the quiet paths.

• Leave for Dambulla.

• En-route, stop in Matale to click at a Spice Garden. You will be introduced to different spices and shown how some of these spices are grown and processed. Gardens are open to visitors, a delightful place to stroll in fragrant greenery and learn about nutmeg, pepper vines, clove trees and curry, cinnamon and the precious cardamom, a relative of ginger.

• Visit Dambulla Rock Cave Temple with a history leading back to the first century BC; the rock ceiling of the Dambulla Cave Temple is a large canvas of colourful paintings and murals and is the largest collection within a cave temple in Sri Lanka. It is not always easy to capture these shots in semi-darkness.

Dinner and overnight stay at hotel in Dambulla.

• Eat breakfast at the hotel.

• Proceed to Polonnaruwa ancient city, which is on the compelling ancient architecture, numerous Buddhist temples, ancient monuments, temple complexes, people, devotees and monks. The ‘Gal Vihara’ consists of statues of the recumbent, standing and seated Buddha, which has been cut from a single granite wall and rank among a few of the true masterpieces of Sri Lankan Art.

• Enjoy an afternoon safari in Minneriya National Park to photograph Elephants who come to drink water in the backdrop of large lakes. It is the largest known meeting place of Asian Elephants in the world. During this period, herds of up to 300 elephants are seen at the 8,890-hectare park within a few square kilometres of the Minneriya Reservoir.

Dinner and overnight stay at hotel in Dambulla.

• Wake up for breakfast at the hotel.

• Visit the Sigiriya Rock Fortress to explore the wall paintings and the surrounding landscape. It was built in the 5th century AD by a king, Kasyapa, as a fortress-palace. The palace complex at the foot of the rock still has the remains of four indoor swimming pools where the king’s 500 concubines bathed. The mirror walls of the Sigiriya rock 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. 

• Leave for Negombo.

• Check-in at the hotel.

Dinner and overnight stay at Beach hotel in Negombo.

• Rise for breakfast at the hotel.

• Explore the history of the dynamic city of Negombo.

• Indulge in a diverse experience by visiting the famous fish market in Negombo known as the ‘Lellama’.

• Walk on the beach and watch fishermen untangle their fishing nets and witness the fish being auctioned and sold to retail and commercial customers alike.

• Set off on a boat ride in the Negombo Lagoon, an extensive mangrove swamp. The Negombo lagoon boat ride would let you spot some of the lush mangroves with vast biodiversity, flora and fauna species in the area, as well as water birds such as herons, terns, cormorants and shorebirds.

Dinner and overnight stay at Beach hotel in Negombo.

• Get up for breakfast at the hotel.

• Transfer to airport for onward flight.