Itinerary

1. Day 1: Airport - Negombo

   • Meet the tour guide upon arrival in Sri Lanka, and transfer by air-conditioned vehicle to a hotel in Negombo.
   • Spend the rest of the day at your leisure. Negombo is a characteristic fishing town north of Colombo; it is 6 km from the international airport. Negombo is a gourmet paradise with seafood in plenty and old-world fishing craft, like the outrigger canoe and the catamaran. Seer, skip jack, herring and mullet, amberjack, lobster and prawn are caught in the lagoon.

   Overnight stay in Negombo.

   Approximately: 20 minutes / 17 Km

2. Day 2: Anuradhapura - Mihintale Rock Temple

   • Have breakfast and leave for Anuradhapura. Visit the cultural sites and then travel to Mihintale rock. Anuradhapura is the birthplace of the Sinhala civilization and one of the world’s largest archaeological sites. It is considered the greatest monastic city of the ancient world and was founded in the 5th century BC. The Mihintale rock is believed by Sri Lankans to be the site of a meeting between the Buddhist monk Mahinda and King Devanampiyatissa, which inaugurated the presence of Buddhism in Sri Lanka. It is now a pilgrimage site and the site of several religious monuments and abandoned structures.

   Overnight stay in Sigiriya.

   Approximately: 3 hours & 10 minutes / 168km

3. Day 3: Polonnaruwa - Minneriya National Park

   • Have breakfast at the hotel, travel to Polonnaruwa, and visit Polonnaruwa cultural sites. Polonnaruwa was the capital of Sri Lanka from the 11th to the 13th century AD. This ancient city is today one of the most beautiful centres of the island’s cultural heritage. In its prime, the city housed hundreds of thousands of people inside its 3 miles-strong encircling walls.
   • Visit a forest Buddhist monastery in the evening. 
   • Take a jeep safari through the Minneriya National Park, looking for elephants, deer, peacocks, boars, and many kinds of birds.

   Overnight stay at a hotel in Sigiriya.

   Approximately: 1 hour & 10 minutes / 56 Km

4. Day 4: Sigiriya Rock - Golden Rock Temple

   • Have breakfast, check out from the hotel and leave to visit Sigiriya rock fortress, one of Sri Lanka’s most fascinating UNESCO World Heritage Sites. No matter how often you climb to the summit of this one-time hilltop fortress of the maverick Sinhalese king, Kassapa, the pleasure barely diminishes because of the abandoned spectacular views at the summit.
   • Travel to Kandy via Dambulla and Matale. En route, visit the Golden Rock Temple. Golden Rock is a cave temple which dates back to the 1st Century BC. Its rock ceiling is one large sweep of colourful frescoes, which depict Buddhist mythology and the tales of the Buddha’s previous births. The caves house the largest collection of Buddha statues in one place.  
   • Drive to Matale to visit the Nalanda Gedige Temple. The small building is designed like a Hindu temple with a mandapa, an entrance hall (originally roofed), a short passage to a bare cello, and an ambulatory around the holy centre. There is no sign of Hindu gods. The temple is said to have been used by Buddhists. This is one of the earliest stone-constructed buildings in Ceylon.
   • Visit the Matale spice garden.
   • Reach Kandy and check in at the hotel for an overnight stay.

   Approximately: 2 hours & 30 minutes / 90 Km

5. Day 5: Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage - Kandy

   • Have an early breakfast and travel to Elephant Orphanage, an institution that has been looking after orphaned or injured elephants that would otherwise have surely died. (If you leave the hotel early, then you can watch the elephants bathe in the river after the youngest babies are milk fed.)
   • Head to Kandy to visit the Temple of the Tooth.
   • View a cultural dance in the evening. Kandy, the last seat of the Sinhala Kings, is a very popular destination for visitors from home and abroad.

   Overnight stay at Kandy.

   Approximately: 1 hour & 14 minutes / 39 Km

6. Day 6: Horton Plains (Hortain Plains)

   • Travel to Hortain Plains and have a brief walk (around 1 hour); travel to Kitulgala. Horton Plains is a unique natural attraction in Sri Lanka. It is located on the highest plateau of the country, and it's known for its beautiful landscapes and rare plant and animal life. The Horton Plains is one of the most important catchment areas in Sri Lanka, which acts as a giant sponge which stores rainwater and then feeds several major rivers of the country throughout the year. The vegetation mainly consists of wet grasslands and Montana forests. The weather at Horton Plains is quite dynamic. The average temperature varies between 5 degrees Celsius to 27 degrees Celsius.
   • Visit the Kelani River and other attractions around Kitulgala. The Kelani River (the broadest river in Sri Lanka) flowing through Kitulgala was the main location where the Oscar-winning movie 'Bridge on the River Kwai' was filmed.
   • Head to Nuwara Eliya and leave for Yala. En-route visits- the Ella gap and Ravana waterfall.
   • Reach Yala, and check in at the hotel for an overnight stay.

   Approximately: 2 hours & 30 minutes / 76 Km

7. Day 7: Yala National Park

   • Go for a game drive to Yala early morning, one of the island’s most popular wildlife parks, where you can see almost all the animals found in Sri Lanka. One of Sri Lanka‘s premier eco-tourism destinations, it lies 24km northeast of Tissamaharama and 290km from Colombo on the southeast coast of Sri Lanka, spanning a vast 97,878 hectares over the Southern and Uva Provinces. The vegetation in the park comprises predominantly semi-arid thorny scrub interspersed with pockets of fairly dense secondary forest. Small patches of mangrove vegetation also occur along the coastal lagoons. The park is renowned for the variety of its wildlife (most notably its many elephants) and its fine coastline (with associated coral reefs). It also boasts a large number of important cultural ruins, bearing testimony to the earlier civilizations and indicating that much of the area used to be populated and well-developed.
   • Leave for your beach vacation and overnight stay at a beach hotel.

   Approximately: 5 hours & 50 minutes / 90 Km

8. Day 8: Galle - Bentota

   • Have breakfast and leave for Bentota. En route, visit the Galle Dutch Fortress. Galle is an ancient city which is now a modern and buzzing town today. It was the most important sea port way back in history, where the sea-faring merchants arrived to trade and barter. This is also where the Portuguese first set foot in the year 1505 and built a fortress, which was later captured and fortified by the Dutch. The fortress is one of the best preserved on the island. A visit to the fortress and watching the sunset from the rampart is an unforgettable experience. The oldest Protestant church in the country, called the ‘Groote Kirk’, built by the Dutch, is located inside the Fort. It is situated close to New Oriental Hotel, also built by them as the Governor’s Residence in 1684.
   • Go for a boat ride in the Madu River.

   Overnight stay in Bentota.

   Approximately: 3 hours & 10 minutes / 209 Km

9. Day 9: Beach Vacation

   • Have a beach day. You will have many choices for spending your time. You may leisurely stroll on the golden beaches, enthralled in the magical atmosphere or laze on a sundeck reading a book of your choice and sipping a cool fresh tropical fruit drink of pineapple, mango or banana.
   • Go for water sports, like water skiing, windsurfing, snorkelling or cutting through the choppy on a jet water scooter and much more.

   Overnight stay in Bentota.

10. Day 10: Colombo

    • Travel to Colombo. You will have a city tour in Colombo. Colombo city is the capital of Sri Lanka; it is the largest city and main port of Sri Lanka. It is also the commercial and financial center of Sri Lanka. A bustling metropolis, the city, is an attractive blend of old and new. It has the lazy charm of the bygone era combined with the verve and vivaciousness of a modern city.
    • Visit the important places in the capital city of Colombo, such as the Parliament, Gangarama Temple, Independence Square, Galle Face Green, the museum and the World Trade Center.
    • Transfer to the airport on time for the flight.

    Approximately: 1 hour & 48 minutes / 34 Km