7-Day Sri Lanka Heritage and Wildlife Tour with Beaches from Sigiriya

• On arrival at Bandaranaike International Airport, receive a warm welcome to Sri Lanka. From here, transfer to Sigiriya on a 4 to 5-hour road journey.
• Spend the night at a hotel near Sigiriya. Recovering from a long flight is important as you prepare for a busy tour over the next few days, so your first night will be spent relaxing and acclimatizing.

Dinner and overnight stay at a hotel in Sigiriya.

• After breakfast, go on a tour of the Sigiriya Rock Fortress, a monolith converted into a secure fort by King Kashyapa, who reigned for 22 years. The highlights of Sigiriya include drawings of "Apsaras" or Celestial Nymphs, of which about 20 remain to this day.
• From Sigiriya, continue to Kandy. The Temple of the Tooth Relic (Sri Dalada Maligawa) is the most sacred site for Buddhists worldwide. This is where the most important object in the Buddhist world, a tooth fragment recovered from the funeral pyre of the Buddha, is located.
• See a few traditional Kandyan dances at one of the city's cultural performance centres. A troupe of dancers in vibrant costumes, accompanied by drummers, will give you a spectacular display of Kandyan dancing, leaving you mesmerised.

Dinner and overnight stay at a hotel in Kandy.

• Following breakfast, take the scenic hillside train ride from Kandy to Nanu Oya. Admire the changing landscape as it opens up before you, from flat terrain to mountains, waterfalls, rivers, and lakes. Tea plantations are plentiful, as this area is famous for producing some of the world's best tea. Look out for a lovely view of the famous Adam's Peak, about 1 1/2 km from the station.

Dinner and overnight stay at a hotel in Nuwara Eliya.

• Transfer to Yala National Park. There will be a stop en route in Ella to visit the picturesque Ravana Falls.
• Continue to Big Game Camping Yala. An evening safari at Yala gives you the chance to see leopards as they come out of their daytime slumber. Leopards may be the star attraction at Yala, but elephants, sloth bears, deer, jackals, wild boar, and a few hundred varieties of birds can also be found throughout the national park.
• After the evening safari, head back to the Big Game Camping site in Yala, where you will spend the night.

Dinner and overnight stay at a hotel in Yala.

• Transfer to Galle after breakfast in Yala. Galle is the largest city in the south and is considered the southern capital of Sri Lanka. The main attractions in Galle include the 17th-century Dutch Fort, a World Heritage Site with a culture and style of its own, beautiful rustic houses and shops built in the Dutch colonial style, and narrow cobblestone lanes that seem to take you back in time.
• During the late afternoon, enjoy and relax in Unawatuna, one of the best beaches in the world. The calm waters of Unawatuna Bay and Thalpe offer you the chance to lie down and catch some sun, go for a long walk on a beautiful beach, or dive into the still waters. Unawatuna is also great for diving and snorkelling.

Dinner and overnight stay at a hotel in Galle or Unawatuna.

• Start in the small town of Mirissa, a few kilometres from Galle. It is the perfect place to join an organised whale and dolphin watching tour, which takes place early in the morning.
• From Mirissa, transfer to Colombo, the largest, busiest, and most populated city in Sri Lanka. Go shopping, from street vendors to more glitzy shopping malls. Colombo is a mix of colonial-era and modern buildings and has seen rapid development over the past few years.

Dinner and overnight stay at a hotel in Colombo or Negombo.

• Transfer to Bandaranaike International Airport after breakfast for your departure from Sri Lanka.