The ‘Budget
Island Hop’ includes the best that Sri Lanka can offer
– ancient cities, tea-growing hills, wildlife parks
and Indian Ocean beaches – in the best-value hotels
and guesthouses in the islands. We have carefully selected
our favourite budget accommodation, choosing properties with
charm, scenic locations and atmosphere. In some sections of
the trip we have also used the train to help you trim the
costs of your holiday. As it happens, rail travel is also
great fun in Sri Lanka, allowing you to mix with interesting
personalities and better see the countryside.
Holiday highlights:
• Palm-fringed sandy beaches
• Spectacular tea country
• Once-in-a-lifetime train journey
• Abundant wildlife
• A proud cultural heritage
• Body surfing in Mirissa
• Bentota bongos
Day 1 & 2:
Upon arriving in Sri Lanka, transfer to
the Ice Bear, the most interesting beachfront guesthouse in
Negombo, a popular a youthful beach resort just a few minutes
drive from the airport. Throughout much of the 1990s it had
a tatty and sometimes inglorious reputation, but a new millennium
has brought with it new investment, the beach is clean and the
bars are buzzing. Relax and unwind after your flight, preparing
yourself for the adventure ahead. Stay two nights.
Accommodation profile:The Ice
Bear has laid claim to be the best guesthouse in town: welcoming,
artistic, ever so eccentric and with a prized beachfront location.
Time Magazine, no less, suggested that Ice Bear was "a
hotel where time stands still" and called it "a Merchant
Ivory confectio n of tea and linen." Well, "hotel"
might be stretching the point, because stock hotel facilities
are irrelevant when considering Ice Bear’s success. But
the imaginative budget traveller will love Ice Bear’s
simple sense of difference, its little antique flourishes, and
its legendary breakfasts on the patio – influenced by
its Swiss owner – which should guard against any outbreak
of lunchtime peckishness.
Day 3 & 4:
Sri Lanka's famous cultural triangle offers
plenty to fire both mind and body over the next two days. The
ruined capital of Polonnaruwa, the lion rock of Mount Sigiriya
and Dambulla’s Buddhist Cave Temples are all UNESCO world
heritage sites and are included in your package. En route, you
also have the option of visiting Yapahuwa, an ancient temple
and place built on a rock described by the Insight Guide to
Sri Lanka as "one of the great architectural wonders of
the island”, and Aukana, where the Buddha stands 42 feet
high, the best-preserved statue in Sri Lanka.
Accommodation profile: Windsor
Park, dubbed an agro-tourism retreat, is set on a 1500-acre
countryside estate it one of the most beautiful parts of the
island. It offers good-value simple accommodation in a peaceful
rural setting. There are paddy fields that stretch endlessly
and cattle graze contentedly in the morning sun. Peacocks roam
around majestically. The estate produces a variety of products,
including rice, fruit, lake fish and dairy. In all there are
seven comfortable cottages with en suite bathrooms. A restaurant
serves up fine Sri Lankan food made with the freshest local
ingredients.
Day 5:
The journey from the cultural triangle
to Sri Lanka's hill capital - the small lakeside city of Kandy
- will occupy most of the morning with a stop-off to visit the
serene Buddhist cave temples in Dambulla. Spend the afternoon
wandering around Kandy’s lake and visiting the Temple
of the Tooth, which is said to hold a holy relic of the Lord
Buddha. We also recommend visiting the Botanic Gardens if you
have time. We have recommended staying in a guesthouse called
Castle Hill, a former planter’s house that peers over
the lake.
Accommodation profile: Castle
Hill Guest House has barely changed in 30 years -- a lick of
paint here, a small repair or update there – and the result
is a much-loved family home where time drips backwards to a
simpler, less demanding era. ``To change Castle Hill would be
to ruin it, the old look has to remain,’’ says Ayoni
Senanayake, who oversees this simple property with gentle charm.
Sloping gardens are well-stocked with trees, bushes and flowers.
A footpath near to Castle Hill offers a short cut to the lake
-- only 10 minutes for the fleet of foot.
Day 6 &
7:
Today you head for the southern highlands, a stirring land of
lush tea plantations, majestic peaks and rushing waterfalls.
Instead of heading straight for Nuwara Eliya, a Mecca for package
tourists and well-to-do Sri Lankans, we recommend you jump aboard
the train – one of the great rail journeys in the world
– and head for Ella, a small village that sits high on
a ridge with magnificent views. Spend two nights at Ambiente,
an excellent guesthouse.
Accommodation profile:
If location is everything, then Ambiente is one of the most
blessed guest houses in the world. Ask its admirers why they
value this simple place so highly, and they will tell you that
it has one of the most enchanting vistas in the world. All but
the most hyperactive will want to do little else but sit on
the balcony in a comfortable wicker chair and stare. Ambiente
is a simple but clean and welcoming guest house, with nine perfectly
acceptable rooms. All rooms, and the restaurant, have balconies
overlooking the hills.
Day 8 & 9:
Leave first thing in the morning for Yala,
the national park at Sri Lanka's southeast tip. En-route visit
Buduruvagala to see Sri Lanka's tallest rock-cut Buddha statue,
51 ft. in height, and other Mahayana Buddhist statues dating
back to the 8th-century AD. Close to Buduruvagala you could
visit the Handapangala Tank, a watering hole for Yala elephants
in the summer months. In the afternoon check into Aranya.
To gain the full benefit of Yala National Park, we recommend
you to rouse yourself for a departure by jeep around 5.45am.
Yala, nearly 400 sq. miles, was declared as a game park in 1938.
Look for herds of elephants, sloth bear, crocodiles, wild boar,
wild buffalo, peacocks, jackals, monkeys, porcupines, leopards
and varieties of deer, as well as numerous bird species.
Accommodation profile:
Aranya is a small eco-lodge offering guests an opportunity to
soak up the serene atmosphere of Sri Lanka’s wilds. The
three-acre property – which can only sleep people in a
chalet, tree-hut and watch-hut -- is simple but thoughtfully
designed. Aranya aims to be a true eco-lodge and the staff are
all recruited from local villages. Meals are prepared with fresh
local ingredients. The property does not have national grid
electricity but solar power provides lighting in the evening.
Day 10, 11 and 12:
After breakfast drive along the beautiful
southern coast to Mirissa, one of the most idyllic beaches on
the south coast. We’ve recommended staying at The Palace,
a cabana-style property perched high up on the northern headland
of the bay. The beach is popular for swimming and surfing. Spend
three nights here. You may like to explore the local area too.
The UNESCO-protected Galle Fort is in the midst of an cultural
and architectural revival. Several hours can be spent wandering
through the narrow streets and along the ramparts, browsing
through art galleries and sipping lime sodas on the veranda
of Galle Fort hotel. There are also lovely beaches just south
of Galle, including Unawatuna and Talpe, that are well-worth
visiting.
Accommodation profile:The Palace’s
charm is its idyllic location, high up on a headland with sweeping
views of Mirissa’s golden beach. Developed by the owners
of Paradise Beach Club, the most popular property on Mirissa’s
beachfront, it provides no frills accommodation in spacious
wooden cabanas, all of which have lovely verandas overlooking
the Indian Ocean and a lush garden. The beach itself is a short
walk down the hill.
Day 13 and 14:
After breakfast, travel north by train up the west coast to
Bentota, one of the finest beaches in the island, for a two
night stay at Wunderbar, a fun guesthouse on the beachfront.
If you can tear yourself from the crystal clear waters of the
Indian Ocean we recommend a visit to Brief Garden in Kalawila,
an enchanting garden in an undulating landscape of paddies and
scattered villages on a hillside designed by Bevis Bawa, the
brother of Geoffery Bawa, Sri Lanka’s most revered architect.
Accommodation profile: When Bentota
ever rocks, it is most likely to rock in Wunderbar, where a
youthful and laid-back atmosphere pervades. A roof terrace restaurant
and bar has more than a hint of Caribbean influence, with Bob
Marley posters on the wall and Chandana, the owner, the lead
attraction in a bongo band that plays nightly from mid-October
to late April, to locals and holidaymakers alike. Chandana also
tends the government-approved turtle sanctuary next door, and
invites visitors to show interest in his work. Meal and bar
times are flexible to the point of being non-existent and, although
a single-track railway line runs between Wunderbar and the beach,
the last train passes by 10pm. Anyway, by then, Chandana's bongo
band is just beginning to warm up.
Day
15: Depart in good time
for your flight home
Cost:Available on request
Package price includes:
- 14 night’s BB accommodation on twin-sharing basis
- Airconditioned car and English-speaking driver for tour and
transfers
- Train travel between Kandy/Ella and Mirissa/Bentota
- Entrance fees: Dambulla caves, Sigiriya Rock, Polonnaruwa
- Entrance and jeep hire for Yala (one drive only)
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