If you’re looking for a family-friendly adventure, full of wildlife, history, friendly locals, delicious food and that – once you’ve got there – is easy on the budget, then Sri Lanka is the place to go. It took a lot of research but ultimately turned into a pretty much perfect holiday for us. In the next few posts, I’ll detail every part of the 11-day itinerary which is shared in full at the end of each post.
Getting to Sri Lanka:
Taking a night flight to the Maldives, followed by a short hop over to Sri Lanka turned out to be the cheapest option for us by far. We paid a little extra to fly direct to make the most of our time and energy. We thought that the night flight would be easiest but actually, for us, our return day time flight was much more relaxing with kids of 3 and 6 since Tiny – and therefore I – barely slept wink on the night flight! We decided that a few days in the Maldives to relax would be welcome at the end of our busier Sri Lanka portion of the trip, so we stayed just one night in the capital, Malé, before flying out the next morning. It was still enough time for a walk on the beach, an ice cream stop, a wander around the city and dinner (although Tiny fell fast asleep and missed this!
Transport:
Kiyas, our driver, met us at Colombo airport. Immediately friendly, he first helped us to secure an e-sim for our time in Sri Lanka before showing us to his immaculately clean, spacious and pretty comfortable van. He promptly got the aircon going which was very much needed! We’d opted for a driver mainly because it was a similar price to car hire and offered the benefit of Dean not having to drive and navigate as he does on so many of our other trips. This, alongside Kiyas’ local knowledge, proved to make the trip much more enjoyable and relaxing for us all. It was the little things that we really appreciated, like knowing where to park, helping us fine-tune our itinerary, being able to make lunch recommendations and having a ready-cooled vehicle for us to return to after exploring in 37 degrees. He was also just a thoroughly nice man: willing to chat to us about all things Sri Lanka, but also fine with just letting us enjoy the ride quietly. We booked Kiyas through Sri Lanka Personal Tour Drivers but he also has his own company called Ocean Pearls Tours which I suspect he would prefer you to contact him through.
This was the first time we’ve ever hired a driver and it did take a little bit of getting used to the alien feeling that he was working for us, but we tried to mitigate the situation by having lunch together rather than him going off to designated driver areas, including him in drink and ice cream stops, chatting and getting to know him, and by inviting him on our final game drive. Perhaps all unnecessary from his point of view – I know it’s his job and he’s used to it but we weren’t! You can also hire a driver-guide who does everything with you but, especially with the kids in tow, we preferred to do most things just the four of us.
Route:
This was our second visit to Sri Lanka. Dean and I went pre-kids, back in 2011, and visited the more usual tourist sites in the south: Yala National Park, Arugam Bay, Sinharaja Forest Reserve, Pinnewala Elephant Sanctuary (which we now know to regret), Ella and Kandy. We wanted to find some different spots for this second visit so opted for what is referred to as the ‘Cultural Triangle’, a historical region in the north-central plains. It’s where you’ll find many of Sri Lanka’s UNESCO sites but it also has lots of wildlife opportunities so it seemed it would be a good balance for us. Scroll to the end for the full itinerary.
Climate:
On paper, Sri Lanka in March/April time should be great weather. A little on the hot side – in the low 30 degrees – but dry. However, on our visit, they were experiencing a heat wave where even residents were being instructed to stay out of the heat for key hours each day. When you’ve travelled 5500 miles around the world to explore a new land, though, you do what you can to make the most it, adapting as necessary! For us, this meant that only Dean climbed steep, busy Sigiriya and that we made the difficult decision to miss out the sprawling ancient city of Anuradhapura. We still did several hot, steep hikes but fortunately this itinerary meant we were able to break these up with breezy game drives and beach/pool time. We also experienced an incredible storm towards the end of the trip: Kiyas said he’d never driven in such difficult conditions!
Day 1 – Colombo to Kalpitiya:
We’d researched our route and stops along it to break the journey up for the children. This one was 3.5 hours so we took it easy and stopped twice – first for lunch at Clement’s Café and Bakery in Chilaw where, on Kiyas’ advice, we ordered a local meal which came with lots of different dishes to try and some much-needed fresh juices. Then we stopped at Anawilundawa Wetlands Reserve for a low-key leg-stretching stop. I expect you could do a walk there but, especially whilst acclimatising to the heat, we just got out of the van and had a little wander to the water to watch the wildlife. It really set the tone for the trip as we immediately saw monitor lizards, peacocks in trees, cattle, pelicans, toque macaque monkeys and a wide range of water birds with zero effort!
After this, everyone dozed on the final leg up to the Kalpitiya peninsula which is on the west coast. We enjoyed dinner at our accommodation with a stunning sunset, followed by a walk through the village in the dark (donkeys, evening bonfires and eerie sounds) to get some water and snacks from a kiosk.
Kalpitiya Accommodation – Windy Waves Kite Surfing Resort:
We were really looking forward to this place although we recognise it wouldn’t be to everyone’s taste. Kiyas was concerned we were disappointed with it (maybe his clientele normally opt for a little more comfort!) but it was exactly what we had expected. Unimpressed with the driver accommodation, he went off to find himself somewhere more comfortable to stay as we didn’t need him for the next day at all. There definitely were other more upmarket accommodations in the area although, in general, it’s quite quiet on the tourist front which we enjoyed.
Our room was a kind of rustic, thatched beach cabin with a double and two single beds covered by mosquito nets. The outdoor bathroom was very private and had a sink, mirror, toilet, a cold shower pipe braced to a coconut tree and plenty of frogs for company. The only slight downsides were the mosquitos who took advantage of toilet visits, and the risk of a coconut dropping on your head during your shower! In the room, there were rustlings and nibblings our first night and we soon realised we couldn’t store food in the room! Over a little sandy road is the restaurant/bar area on the beach. The food and drinks were fantastic, the staff were unfailingly friendly and there were lots of different places to chill out in shade or sun. The stretch of beach was narrow but perfectly sufficient for the girls to potter around on and it lived up to its name, having a pleasant breeze most of the day (though this did mean we got more burnt than expected). A real benefit was that the staff could book with trusted providers for nearby activities and excursions, including the dolphin-watching tour we had come for.
Day 2 – Dolphin-Watching in Kalpitiya:
The day started with breakfast #1 (fruit and coffee) at 7am. By 7:30am, we were in our life jackets and had climbed aboard the boat. There was just us and another couple on the boat and it lasted about two hours. I would say it took about 75 minutes to reach the dolphins which were quite far out on this particular day.
Seeing them was truly magical and something the girls are still talking about regularly. I’d expected a few distant glimpses of a handful of creatures but there were actually hundreds of spinner dolphins, including babies, racing alongside the boat, splashing and generally appearing to have as much fun as us! Further away, we could see them leaping out of the water in dramatic spins, playing with huge tuna fish. There was one other boat in the area but it came nowhere near us and the dolphins definitely weren’t fed by the drivers. It felt like a very respectful and responsible tour operator which is what we were looking for.
The reality of the trip with young children: Tiny (3) was pretty grumpy on the ride out and fell asleep until we woke her up when we found the dolphins. She absolutely loved them, though, and would very much have liked to jump in and ride them! Small (6) was mainly exhilarated by the whole experience but did have a brief wobble about being in the deep sea once all signs of land disappeared.
We stayed with the dolphins for about half an hour and then sped back to land for breakfast #2 (roti, Sri Lankan pancakes, toast, omelette, potato curry and millet porridge) and spent the rest of the day chilling in the restaurant and on the beach. Highlights were finding loads of hermit crabs; cooling down with the restaurant’s milkshakes and smoothies; and a sunset swim for me and Tiny.
Key information:
Traditional lunch to share at Clement’s Café: £1.50/$2 (not including drinks or fries)
Wind Waves family room with breakfast: £54/$71p/n
Dolphin-watching trip with Ocean Lanka arranged by the accommodation: adults £25/$33; Small £15/$20; Tiny free. Some providers do have a lower age limit so its worth checking before you go.
Check back soon for the next instalment: a wildlife safari in Wilpattu National Park.
Information is correct at the time of posting. For more adventures, follow us on @four_go_exploring.
Here’s our 11-night Sri Lanka itinerary which was part of a 17-day trip that also included travel days and time in the Maldives.
Day 1: fly to Colombo; travel to Kalpitiya via Anawilundawa Wetlands Reserve; evening on the beach.
Day 2: morning dolphin trip; afternoon on the beach
Day 3: morning on the beach; visit Kalpitiya town; travel to Wilpattu
Day 4: morning in Wilpattu National Park; travel to Habarana
Day 5: morning at Ritigala; afternoon by the pool/afternoon at Sigiriya
Day 6: morning at Polonnaruwa; afternoon by the pool
Day 7: morning walk and cooking class; afternoon at Hurulu Eco Park
Day 8: morning at Dambulla Caves; travel to Wasgamuwa
Day 9: morning in Wasgamuwa National Park; afternoon by the pool
Day 10: morning by the pool; travel to Negombo: evening exploring Negombo
Day 11: fly to the Maldives
