If you were waiting for our super Sri Lankan backpackers guide… Well this is your lucky day! Today is a summary day and here is the "tear of India": in Sri Lanka we spent 24 days on our first trip, then we returned to spend another 3 weeks touring it.

First of all, the proximity to India It is only geographically speaking: Sri Lanka seemed like somethingmore tidy, easy and clean (although in some cases much less fun!).

We could also say that Sri Lanka it's not exactly a backpacking country, although the opportunities to visit it for free exist and are available to anyone.

And then ... because after a start not exactly "love at first sight" we had a great time (of course having Jordi among us made it more fun!). Even so, being honest, it has not been the country that we liked most in Asia, although for tastes the colors! Anyway, it is a country that, seen with some distance, We truly remember him with love. It can also be a good destination if you want to experience a little of everything, beaches, mountains, culture, religion ... but forget about gastronomy! Sri Lanka is a very complete country.

Here we bring our travel guide to Sri Lanka for backpackers. A complete guide to our trip through Sri Lanka. Visa, currency, when to go, travel, how much it costs, what is the best and the worst, reference prices, transport and more!

VISA

It is necessary to obtain an electronic visa (ETA) to enter Sri Lanka. The process is as easy as connecting to this page and following the instructions: pay, receive e-mail (print it in case the flies) and once you show up at the passport control they will have your visa registration. It has a cost of 30$ and a duration of 30 days. There is also option to take out the Visa on arrival (upon arrival) but it costs $ 5 more.

CURRENCY

The official currency of Sri Lanka is the Sri Lankan Rupee (LKR). You can calculate the exchange rate updated in the following table.

WHEN TO TRAVEL

In Sri Lanka there are two seasons well marked by monsoons, the rainy season and the dry season! Also on the island itself rains hit differently on one coast and another. The best time to go is from October to March (At this time the monsoon affects the northeast area) while in our summer the south is what is affected and the part of the east coast is the one that enjoys the dry season.

VACCINES

Although there is some risk of malaria, there have been no cases of this disease since 2012, so you can be relatively calm. Yes, there is some more risk of dengue. For none of these two diseases there are vaccines so take all possible precautions: always put on a good mosquito repellent, sleep with a mosquito net, avoid the hours of greatest concentration of mosquitoes (sunrise and sunset) and the areas of greatest concentration ( rivers, lakes and wetlands) and wear appropriate clothing.

The recommended vaccines for a trip to Sri Lanka are: Hepatitis A and B, typhoid fever, polio and tetanus and rabies (which you probably already have).

• More Foreign Ministry recommendations for Sri Lanka
• More recommendations from the Ministry of Health

BUDGET

Sri Lanka, although it is not one of the cheapest countries in Asia (if you compare it with Thailand or with its neighboring India), it has a low standard of living, so prices will be low as well.

Some reference prices

Gastronomy: in a local place the food is very cheap (from 100 rupees, something like € 0.60). If you eat in “tourist” restaurants, Guesthouse, hotels, prices go up a lot. Several times we ate noodles for Rs 350-450 (€ 2-2.5). And if you want to eat meat or fish, calculate about € 3-4.

Transportation: it is normal to move by bus, as a rule you can follow the rule of 50 rupees for every hour. A 2-hour trip would be 100 rupees ... very well calculated! By train it is somewhat more expensive and the tuktuk in cities no matter how short the race is, you will not pay less than 150 rupees, but neither more than 250 rupees. If the routes are longer (from 6-7 km) they will ask for more. A route of 10 km can leave for about 400-500 rupees

Accommodation: In general the accommodation is quite a lot of carillos but we found them of good quality. Most usually propose prices including breakfast (usually tea or coffee + fruit + eggs and toast), you can lower the price a bit by removing breakfast from the "offer". And from what we saw, you can / should always haggle. Prices for a decent site can be around Rs 2,000.

PLUG

The plugs that can be found in Sri Lanka are of two types: D and G. None of them is ours so you will have to buy an adapter ... You can buy a universal adapter or get a specific one as soon as you reach your destination.

ITINERARY

Our first trip to Sri Lanka for free lasted 24 days and led us to know:

• Colombo
• Trincomale
• Anuradhapura
• Dambulla
• Sigiriya
• Polonnaruwa
• Haputale
• Tissamaharama
• Tangalle
• Weligama
• Unawatuna
• Galle

On our second trip we also visited:

• Kalpitiya
• She
• Hikkaduwa
• Mount lavinia

HOW TO MOVE

Although Sri Lanka is a small country and the distances between the places are not considerable, at the end of the trip we will realize that the hours we have sucked moving from one place to another will not be few precisely. The main means of transport: the train, the bus, the tuctuc and the rental of your own vehicle.

→ Here we have our guide on transportation in Sri Lanka, talking about the price, times, routes and features.

WHAT TO EAT

In the case of Sri Lanka there was no love at first sight. Not even the truth. The cuisine of the country seemed boring and repetitive. There were exceptions, of course: we will never forget the dinner they prepared for us at the Nilaveli Crystal Blue Hotel, or the little fish on the beach ... but if we remember one of the richest dishes we ate was a hamburger, and without removing anything from Merit to that giant meatloaf, we can eat good hamburgers wherever (Marshall won't say the same)

The national dish is the CURRY RICE It usually consists of rice, pappadam (some crunchy crepes) and some curries, usually dhal (lentils), vegetables and some chicken (on the coast there is quite a lot of fish curry). The problem? What to eat curry rice every day tires. And the alternatives are not many if you travel with low cost budget: FRIED RICE, FRIED NOODLES, KOTTU and little else.

We didn't find the famous COCONUT ROTI (well, we tried them once and we found them roti with a coconut hair, maybe we were unlucky).

The south, being more touristy, has more variety of food and coming from the center we put burgers and small fish on top. We certainly ate better on the coast than in the interior ... if sometimes going to tourist sites has its reward!

Oh by the way! FUNDAMENTAL: PICA food at killer level... always ask not spicy! And may luck be with you!

THE BEST AND THE WORST

This is one of our favorite sections, here we tell you anecdotes of the trip, personal sensations of the place, things that we have loved but also that we have not liked anything ... in short summary of our passage through Sri Lanka.

The best

• The people: friendly, solar and friendly. Obviously there are exceptions, but most of the people we met and found were great!
• Climb the rock of Sigiriya and that of Pidurangala the same day, Dioooos that tired! But the views were worth it: the best in Sri Lanka
• Spend a few days in the highlands making base in Haputale: nature, cool weather, waterfalls and tea fields.
• Having traveled with Jordi, how much fun we had!
• Dancing under the full moon songs of Enrique Iglesias and Pitbull at the party that Amila and the other boys of the tree house mounted on us: unforgettable.
• Sleep in a tree house: a dream come true.
• Discover almost by chance to be staying more or less close to the highest waterfall in Sri Lanka (the 299 of the jiji world) and take a dip in it. Brr how cold!
• The Yala safari and being able to see a leopard a few meters from us (we even got a little scared when the “kitty” started to walk towards our jeep!).
• Lety's birthday sunrise: one of the prettiest we've ever seen.
• Go from beach to beach in the Unawatuna area, undoubtedly the most beautiful in southern Sri Lanka.
• Find a giant hamburger after so much noodles, rice and curry!
• Rent a motorcycle and go around the Trincomale area.
• The bathrooms in piscinitas, ains as we like them.
• Being lying in the hammocks under the stars and fluttering fireflies ... how nice! (I know we're cheesy and what's up ?!).

Worst

• The food, because it did not conquer us at all: repetitive and spicy.
• The tickets, perhaps the worst of the whole trip: they charge a lot for everything. What if $ 25 over here, what if $ 6 over there if $ 10 for this if $ 3 for the other ... in the end it tires! Above all, we regret paying the entrance fee for Polonnaruwa (and Dabulla didn't excite us to lie!).
• Finding us a bunch of frogs in Haputale's bathroom ... and the worst: a snake (although now we love having lived that jiji misfortune)
• Make the trip Kandy-Haputale practically standing or sitting in the hallway without being able to enjoy the views 100%.
• Finding bad weather in Nilaveli and not being able to go to Pigeon Island (well, we will have to return).
• The sandfly (the sand flies) that ate us alive do not know where ... well, after a few days the bites came out and there scratch scratch and scratch!
• The circus they have mounted at the entrance of the blow-hole.
• Stay with the desire to see the turtles, but pay even for this ... like not!
• Bus drivers who go crazy.-
• Saying goodbye to Jordi, after so many days and adventures together we would have stayed like a puppy.

OUR ITEMS

These are the posts we have written:

• THE BEST 20 THINGS TO SEE AND DO IN SRI LANKA
• TRANSPORTATION GUIDE IN SRI LANKA
• SHE: ENJOYING THE HIGH LANDS OF SRI LANKA
• WHERE TO SLEEP IN MOUNT LAVINIA. IVORY INN
• HOW TO UPLOAD ELLA ROCK: TREKKING STEP BY STEP
• KANDY AND THE TEMPLE OF THE BUDDHA TOOTH
• WHERE TO SLEEP IN KANDY. HOTEL KANDY PARIS
• WHAT TO SEE AND DO IN COLOMBO, THE CAPITAL OF SRI LANKA
• WHERE TO SLEEP IN COLOMBO, CLOCK INN
• SRI LANKA GUIDE FOR BACKPACKERS
• ACCOMMODATION GUIDE IN SRI LANKA
• TIPS FOR TRAVELING TO SRI LANKA (and not shit)
• HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO TRAVEL TO SRI LANKA?
• OLD CITIES OF SRI LANKA: WHAT IS THE BEST?
• DESVENTURAS: FROG-BUSTERS
• GALLE, A EUROPEAN TOUCH IN SRI LANKA
• WHERE TO SLEEP IN GALLE, JETWING HERITAGE VILLA
• UNAWATUNA: THE BEST BEACH OF SRI LANKA
• WHERE TO SLEEP IN UNAWATUNA, NOR LANKA HOTEL
• MOVE THE COLITA!
• "SICKING" BY TANGALLE
• WHERE TO SLEEP IN TANGALLE, GOOD KARMA
• OF SAFARI BY THE YALA NATIONAL PARK
• WHERE TO SLEEP IN TISSA, YALA ECO TREE HOUSE
• HAPUTALE: BETWEEN YOU, WATERFALLS AND SNAKES!
• WHERE TO SLEEP IN HAPUTALE, GREEN VALLEY HOLIDAY RESORT
• POLONNARUWA: BICYCLE BETWEEN RUINS
• SCALING AND SCALING ... SIGIRIYA AND PIDURANGALA
• THE BUDDHIST CAVES OF DAMBULLA
• WHERE TO SLEEP IN DAMBULLA, GOVIPALA COTTAGE
• ANURADHAPURA: AMONG GARDENS, ROCKS AND DAGOBAS
• WHERE TO SLEEP IN ANURADHAPURA, THILAKA CITY HOTEL
• MOTORING FOR TRINCOMALE
• WHERE TO SLEEP IN NILAVELI, CRYSTAL BLUE HOTEL

And remember that at the end of each post there is useful information about each place!

We hope our travel guide to Sri Lanja for backpackers be useful to you For any doubt, question or curiosity do not hesitate to write to us and we will be happy to help you.

Video: Sri Lanka Travel Guide - How to Travel Sri Lanka (May 2024).