The island of Sri Lanka is sometimes called a tear that has fallen from the cheek of India. This country is really similar to the cleansed India, sparkling in the sun, with its famous elephants, tea plantations and smiling people. A separate word deserve amazing beauty beaches-with white, yellow and black sand, rocky shores, about which waves are broken, and, of course, endless high palm trees casting shadows into bright blue water. Vacation on Sri Lanka should be carried out on the coast, but you must definitely go for several days to the center of the island. Today we want to offer you a route of a three-day trip along Sri Lanka by car: a circle of 500 kilometers from the beach to cool mountains and back through the most picturesque places of Ceylon.
Book a car
As a starting point, we chose the southwestern coast-popular tourist zones and (). It’s just good to settle for a beach holiday: a long sandy shore, a lot of cafes and restaurants, there are places for yoga and surfing. When you rent a car for a trip, clarify the terms of the transaction, since Sri Lanka has a common restriction on a mileage of 100 kilometers per day, and an additional fee is taken for excess of this norm.
Day one: elephants, waterfall, tea factory
The first destination is the National Park of Udavawawa (on the map). The road from Mirissa takes about 2.5 hours, so it’s better to leave early, since it becomes very hot closer to dinner in the park, and the animals hide through the shady corners of the forest. Safari in the park costs a little less than $ 30 plus a jeep rental $ 30 per group up to 7 people, it lasts two hours. Elephants, deer, buffalo, crocodiles and many different birds live in this park. How many and what animals you will meet, to some extent depends on good luck, but the fabulous beauty of local trees will be able to admire in any case.
After Safari, the road lies north towards the city of Ella. The city itself is a pair of small, filled cafes and restaurants of streets in the lowland, and all the most beautiful is in the vicinity. Already at the entrance to the place, the spirit begins to grab from panoramic species to the mountains, but the most delightful is waiting for the next turn of the road – the Ravana waterfall (on the map). The storm of water pours literally from the center of the cliff, breaks against stones and turns into a small lake and a noisy river flowing from it. In this place, the road has wide roadsides, so there are no problems with parking. In the waterfall you can and should be swimming, cool water will perfectly refresh after a long road. But do not lose too much time, because you have to have time on an excursion to the tea factory!
The Heritance Tea Factory Tea Factory (on the map) is 15 minutes from the city center, up the steep serpentine. A large building with the grunted windows at first may not seem too friendly, but this impression is deceptive, visitors are waiting here. You can take a walk in the factory yourself, see how the bags of tea are loaded to the conveyor and deliver to the workers who pour the leaves and sort them out manually. If you want to know about the process in more detail, you can take a tour and listen to how different varieties of tea are produced and how different. At the end, a tasting and, of course, a tea store. The prices at the factory are lower than in the city, so feel free to buy and friends.
We stay in the city of Ella for the night. Hotels from 450 ₽ per night.
Day Second: Small Peak Adam, Ninthianery Bridge, Lake
In any hot country, the best time of the day is early morning, and Sri Lanka in this sense is no exception. He who gets up at 6 in the morning admires a delicate dawn, gilding tea plantations, and has breakfast on a cool fresh air. Today, according to the plan, there are many hiking and starting with a small peak of Adam (on the map). A simple road up the slope will take about half an hour, and the opening dizzying look would cost more seriously. The panorama of the mountains and tea plantations, the track of the curly serpentine, along which, like toy, are small cars, a steep break down … In this place, only one question arises in the head – why do people do not fly?
The next paragraph of our independent tour is the famous nine -iah bridge (on the map). This bridge is railway and it will not work very close to it. Park the car on the side of the road and turn on a small track down. In the last section you will have to go down the steep slope, so you do not need to change your mind after climbing the mountain. To take a picture, sitting on the parapet of the bridge, can only be from the edge, and then very carefully. It’s not crowded there, but if other tourists are next to you, do not hesitate to ask them to sit for a moment so that you can take a photo “alone”. According to the schedule, the train on the bridge takes place twice a day: at about 12:00 and at 15:00, but it is often late, or even completely cancel.
If you get up early, then even without haste, you can finish the above program for dinner, but we advise you only to eat a little bit, and put a full meal to the next city-Nuvara Eliya (on the map). Only two hours of journey – and you will find yourself in the highland region, which outwardly very reminiscent of Europe: neat bright houses with small gardens, wide streets, horse riding fields. The city goes around a large lake with a beautiful park, so it’s better to have dinner just in the center, on an open terrace with a view of the water. If the strength remains, you can complete the day for a walk in the park, foot or on a bicycle rented here.
We stay in the city of Nuvara Eliya at night. Hotels from 600 ₽ per night.
Day Three: Botanical Garden, Strawberry Farm, the most beautiful serpentine
Today you can sleep properly, especially since the cool air has this, and the program of the third day is not so rich. Let’s start with the botanical garden (on the map),
which is 15 minutes drive from the city. The entrance costs $ 10, and from the very first steps you fall into the fairy tale of Pushkin with huge paws of ancient fir trees and centuries -old oaks. Of course, these are most likely other trees, but their wide trunks and winding branches look magical. There is a rosary in the garden, a cacti pavilion, a separate section of fervor, similar to the Jurassic period, and a lot of flower beds with a wide variety of colors. Sweet aromas and buzzing of bees are mixed in the air, and time flies unnoticed.
After a walk, you can advance on the way back, but since it is not close, about 5 hours, we plan a couple of stops at it. The first will be about an hour and a half – still in a cool mountain district. You will not miss it – on the left side of the road there will be a small pavilion and a huge sign with drawn strawberries. This is a cafe near a strawberry farm, here you need to drink a strawberry milkshak and try a surprisingly tasty dish – pizza with strawberries.
The next small stop can be made somewhere in an hour. Again, you will not miss this place even without a point on the map: the road will begin to wriggle a snake between the endless tea plantations, and clouds almost always crawl to the tops of the mountains on the horizon. Here, along the road, there are several extensions of the roadsides where you can park in order to take a walk, in the end of the thick smell of tea and take a few cool pictures.
Acting according to plan, you will return to the ocean exactly to sunset. It is advisable to do this, if only because after a busy trip, it will not be very comfortable to drive a car in the dark traffic of the coastal district. It is much better to have time to take a shower and see the sunset, sitting on the beach.
Convenient site search site – OneTwotrip.