Sri Lanka tours: 8 Days Trip with 7 Overnight Stays

• Stilt fishing men at Ahangama Beach
• Matara
• Safari in the Yala National Park
• Rawana Waterfalls
• Ride with the Panorama-train
• Nuwara Eliya
• Botanical Garden Hakgala
• World´sEnd
• Teaplantation
• Teafactory
• Kandy Dance Show
• Toothtemple in Kandy
• Kandy
• Botanical Garden Peradeniya
• Dambulla Cavetemple
• Sigiriya Rock
• Polonnaruwa
• Anuradhapura

click picture to enlarge

Your tour starts at Majaan Guesthouse or alternative accomodation in Sri Lanka.

1rst day:

At the beginning of your tour you can admire Stilt fishing men at Ahangama Beach. Stilt fishing is an old tradition of fishing
in the Ahangama reef area. The fishermen sit on one wooden stilt called “petta” that is ranging about 2 meters over the sea level. One hand they need for keeping balance and with the other hand they hold their fishing rod.
One unique and spectacular picture for your camera.

Matara

You visit the Weherana Temple in Matara. This temple is dominated of one 39 meters high Buddha-statue. On the terrain of the most popular temple in Matara you can also take a look on about 2000 paintings telling about the life of Buddha in one subterranean gallery.

Safari in the Yala National Park

Yala national park was founded 1938 — parts of the 1500 square kilometers sized area stay under nature conservancy since 1899. Yala is well known for its natural beautiness for it offers a wide range of vegetation, deep jungle, savannahs with spectacular formed rocks, lakes and rivers with mangrove forests.
On your Jeep-Safari you can watch the manifoldly wildlife, elefants, bears, crocodiles, deers, jackals,different sorts of monkeys and with a little bit of luck also leopards. Also Yala is habitat for about 150 different sorts of birds.

Overnight stay in Tissamaharana Refresh Hotel or in Chandrika Hotel nearby Yala national park

2nd day: Ella

The Rawana waterfalls

 

Many legends are told about the Rawana rawana waterfalls that are named after the evil demon king Ravana who was lucky to have ten heads and also about one new head growing for the case one of his heads was cut. But then ape-king Hanuman came from India. He beat him with one stab into the heart
and he free princess Sita out of the hands of the evil demon. As a matter of fact in the middle of the imposing waterfalls entries to a big cave system are located and inside scientists found one human skull. It´s age is dated 20.000 years B.C

The Panorama-train


Not only the heartbeat of railway-fans will go higher when you enjoy the railway line from Ella to Nanu Oya. First you travel through coniferous forests, later the vegetation changes to deep tropical jungle that is followed by tea plantations. Not only botanically impressing this journey is geological sensational. The train worms through narrow rocks and traverses many tunnels. It is going along deep canyons and breathtaking outlooks will ensure spectacular shots for your camera.

After arriving in Nanu Oya you travel to Nuwara Eliya
. The way is accompanied by tea plantations and plantations of in Europe domiciled vegetables. The cultivation of these vegetables was founded in the year 1847
by the British Samuel Baker.



Nuwara Eliya

Nuwara Eliya is the highest located town of Sri Lanka. For the comfortable european summer climate of the Nuwara Eliya area it gave perfect conditions for the settlement of the British in the time of colonial period. In Nuwara Eliya you can find many colonial styled buildings, a golf course and also one horse racing course. For you get many British impressions in Nuwara Eliya the town got the nickname “Little England”. 


Sightseeing in the town is followed by an one hour guidance in the Botanical Garden Hakgala.

The Botanical Garden Hakgala

The garden was founded in the year 1861 and it is the small jewel among the botanical gardens of Sri Lanka. 1745 meters above the sea level Hakgala gardens is embedded between deep jungle and the 2200 meters high “Elefants Jaw Rock” mountains. The terrace-formed garden offers very special micro climates for subtropical and also subalpine plants. Hakgala gardens is home of the Sri Lankan mountain vegetation, splendid roses and orchids.

3rd Day: World‘s End

Today´s destination is World´s End. This will be the perfect day for nature lovers. At one plateau in the national park Horton Plains the “world ends” astonishingly at an 800 meters steep cliff, mind-blowing falling down to a deep canyon.

You will immerse into untouched nature with bizarre dwarf-trees and rare varieties of plants with blossoms of an incredible fantasy. Also you can watch an peculiar wildlife like the deer, uniquely to the plateau of Horton Plains.

Overnight stay again in the Single Tree Hotel in Nuwara Eliya.

4th day: Kandy

We visit one tea plantation and you will be introduced into the secrets of growing teaplants and treatment of the leaves for fabricating some of the first-class quality teas worldwide. After a tasteful teatime you can see spectacular waterfalls on the way to Kandy.

In Kandy you will enjoy the traditional Kandy Dance Show. After this you will look inside the most important templeof Sri Lanka. The Tooth Temple in Kandy was built in the year 1782 to give shelter for one precious relic, one tooth of Lord Buddha that was brought to Sri Lanka with an eventful history.

Overnight stay in Thilanka Hotel or Moon Beam Hotel.

5th day: Kandy

Your day starts with the facility to visit the historic town of Kandy or to go for a shopping tour. 

Our next step in Kandy is the Royal Botanical Garden Peradeniya. It´s roots are going back to the year 1371, when Wickramabahu III became King of Sri Lanka. In the year 1821 the famous garden architect Alexander Moon formed this area to one of the most beautiful botanical gardens of Asia. 

One 3 hour tour will show you floral beautiness, a wide range of tropical and subtropical plants,
a collection of about 300 different orchids, traditional ayurvedic medicine plants and also the biggest tree of the world.

Overnight stay in your hotel in Kandy

6th day: Dambulla, Sigiriya

Dambulla

All together 2100 square meters 
of temple area have been built as a cave in the granite rocks more than 2000 years ago. You can admire splendid rock paintings and many impressing statues that tell about the life of Buddha until his alightment.

For good weather situation you can have a beautiful view on a nice jungle landscape with embedded water tanks, that have been built 400 years B.C. and maybe also at the next stage on our tour.

Sigiriya

We visit Sigiriya rock. On the top of this 180 meters steep monolith rock king Kashyapa built one grandiosely palace, an astonishing work for the engineers of the the 5th century. You can admire the remains of these buildings, also ancient gardens at the base of Sigiriya rock and the mysterios paintings of highly elegant and most beautiful women called “cloud-maids”.

Overnight stay in Sigiriya Grand Hotel or Dambulla Eden Garden Hotel
 

7th Day: Polonnaruwa

Today you travel to the North Central Province.

The ancient king-town of Polonnaruwa was seat of government in the 8st century for the first time.
 After giving up Anuradhapura in the year 973 Polonnaruwa was pronounced to the capital town of Sri Lanka. When Parakramabahu I became king in the 12th century Polonnaruwa got in prime of life. Monumental buildings and wide spread parks uprised in the town, also watertank systems. The biggest of them, called the “Parakrama-Sea”, expands 15 square kilometers. For this reason Polonnaruwa prospered from rich crops also in drought times.

During the kingdom of Parakramabahu I the tooth-relic of Lord Buddha also was kept in Polonnaruwa.
 One preeminent archeological park with well conserved buildings, temples, parks, palaces, Buddha-statues and huge dagobas takes you back 900 years in time to the ancient life in the era of king Parakramabahu I.

Overnight stay in the Gajaba Hotel in Polonnaruwa

8th day: Anuradhapura

The last day of your tour will take you to the fabulous king-town Anuradhapura.
In the “Mahawamsa”,
the historiography of Sri Lanka, Anuradhapura is mentioned in the year 380 B.C. for the first time.                                                                                                                    

It is told that the town was created by king Pandu Kabhaya. For that time it got an incredible
 infrastructure with water supply systems and actually also hospitals. Legends tell that the roots of Anuradhapura are settled further back in time to Anuradha, descendant of prince Vijaya the founder of the Sri Lankan Nation. For a period of 1300 years Anuradhapura was the political and religious centre of Sri Lanka, in the year 100 A.D. it was among the 10 biggest towns worldwide.

For consequence of an invasion from South-India after the year 993 the history of Anuradhapura
 is lost in time. 

Many centuries Anuradhapura has been hidden by the green of the jungle before 
it was rediscovered and laid open.
Good conditioned temples, dagobas and palaces have been brought back to daylight by excavations.
 To date they are giving monumental witness for the history of Anuradhapura and the whole nation of Sri Lanka.
After overnight stay in the Milano Rest Hotel your journey will go back to Majaan Guesthouse Hikkaduwa your alternative accomodation or to the airport.

The temple area and the historic town of Kandy, as well the cave temples of Dambulla, Sigiriya rock,
the ancient towns of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa, the national parks Horton Plains and Yala  are part of the world heritage.

Prices include all entrance fees, 7 overnight stays with half-board — on number of travellers and travelling time — for request.