LOVE sri lanka - am sure you will have an amazing time. contact the people at www.boutiquesrilanka.com they sorted out my itinerary and driver for the week i spent there.
Really recommend the Heritance Kandalama in Dambulla, amazing! We did a trip all over Sri Lanka last November with a then 2.5 year old and a 16mth old and this hotel was the highlight! You can do the Dambulla Cave temples, Sigiriya, Pollunarawa, Elephant Safari/Ride all as day trips plus much more. It's about 4 hours from the airport. We had a suite on the top floor of the hotel, amazing view, monkeys, elephants, kids loved it!
Went to Nuwara Eliya, tea plantations fascinating but town itself pretty ho hum and run down plus nothing to do. We had planned 4 nights there but tour guide advised 1 night would be enough and he was right! got 3 more days at the beach instead! We used Milton from Tangerine Tours. HTH
I copied this from an earlier thread (we went November 2008) To see the elephant orphanage we stayed at the Earl's Regency in Kandy. Definitely get a driver, all the hotels had accom and meals for him and it was all included in the price. No Problem with young kids, driver even had car seats in his van for us at airport!
Nici - we had a brilliant 5 day holiday in Sri Lanka with our daughter when she was 3 (Eid 2008). If you email me on lisaDOTmackenzieATmackenzie-searchDOTcom I will send you our itinerary/travel arangements plus driver details. Stayed in VERY nice hotels which were really well priced. Colombo/Pinnewala Elephant Orphange/Kandy/tea plantationd etc, - very successful trip. Do not underestimate the poor state of the roads - we tried to do a little too much so when we do it again I will knock off the latter part of our travels. Most decent hotels offer the driver free accommodation - this was certianly the case for us, so no need to worry on that front. I used reddottours.com who were brilliant, and I have the details of the travel consultant if you want them.
hi there, be aware that its not clean or hygenic in sri lanka as you are taking 3 year old
roads one way each way/traffic and distances are time consuming. everywhere takes forever to get to.
elephant orphanges, do not go to the government one its dreadful and very sad. they have no interest in rehabilitating or re introducing elephants to the wild, it is a sad sad place.
tea plantations are interesting but not for a 3 year old.
you say you have no interest in beach - its a good job as the coast is not very nice.
we stayed in colombo in the cinnamon grand hotel and its really lovely, it lives up to its 5 stars unlike many others, cant comment on the taj tho in colombo.
cant comment on driver as our tour was part of emirates holiday.
good luck with your plans an have a nice time.
Calling all you lovely ladies who have been to Sri Lanka to do the classical elephant orphanage, tea plantations and Kandy :-)
We booked our flights but can't decide which way to go regarding accommodation.
We thought to stay in Kandy, Tourmaline, for 3 days and explore the area from there (no interest in beach). But it seems to be easier to stay close to the airport, Taj Airport Garden comes recommended (?), and do day tours with private driver from there.
I understand that it's not necessarily the distance but the state of streets which is timeconsuming.
Also taking care of the private driver (accommodation esp) seems a bit difficult...
So do you think, it makes sense to stay in the airport area and do the elephant orphanages, tea plantations and Kandy in a day tour each? (I assume the private driver could then always head back to his own home, right?)
And what is the going rate for a driver?
Thanks a lot for your feedback!