Escorted tours of Sri Lanka with Expressions Holidays
Touring holidays to Sri Lanka from Expressions Holidays are tailor-made for individuals and offer the opportunity to experience this beautiful, bite-sized slice of paradise offering a whole world of diverse landscapes. Expressions Holidays has been organising tailor-made tours and holidays for over twenty years. Our programme of travel experiences and luxury tours in Sri Lanka has been designed with the independent traveller in mind and our personal travel specialists will be delighted to use their first-hand knowledge to tailor-make the perfect Sri Lanka holiday itinerary for you from start to finish.
Throughout our escorted tours of Sri Lanka, you will enjoy private sightseeing with an English-speaking expert driver-guide throughout your itinerary. If you wish to extend your holiday to Sri Lanka, the Maldives is a wonderful destination for a multi-centre holiday.
Touring holiday ideas for Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka offers luxury at a relative cost. Touring in Sri Lanka with Expressions Holidays offers you unique sightseeing opportunities with an expert guide at the best times of day. Our delightful range of accommodation includes everything from enchanting, boutique lodges to elegant, colonial hotels. Our hand-crafted authentic experiences make your bespoke touring holiday of Sri Lanka even more special and can include an air balloon flight over historic Galle or a cycling tour of the Cultural Triangle.
Highlights of Sri Lanka touring holiday: This 6-night guided touring itinerary is suitable for those with limited time or for those who just want an introduction to the country. Our Highlights of Sri Lanka tour visits the key places in the Cultural Triangle, Kandy and Tea Country and gives you an insight into this fascinating country. This tour could also be extended with some relaxation time on the beach.
Best of Sri Lanka touring holiday: On this 13-night tailor-made touring holiday, enjoy astounding beaches to misty mountain ranges like you’ve never witnessed before, travel through ancient kingdoms and go on a wildlife safari in one of Sri Lanka’s national parks. This really is Sri Lanka at its best.
Whales, Elephants and Leopards Wildlife touring holiday: On this 9-night wildlife tour, experience the wealth of nature that Sri Lanka has to offer and go in search of its Big Five – the blue whale, sperm whale, Asian elephant, leopard and sloth bear. This seasonal tour runs throughout the whale-watching season from December to April, but can be adapted to suit your requirements.
Active Family touring holiday: Families will love all that Sri Lanka has to offer. On this 13-night active family touring holiday we have chosen hotels that are very welcoming to families. You can spot elephants in the wild or ride on elephant-back through a lake, learn to surf or mess about on the beach and visit a turtle hatchery or go on a whale-watching trip.
Facts
Sri Lanka country facts
Our suggested tours of Sri Lanka include the colourful capital Colombo with its fabulous bazaar, colonial churches, craft markets and the magnificent Galle Face Hotel. Forty minutes south of Colombo, Wadduwa is the start of a string of fabulous beaches running all the way down and around Sri Lanka’s southwest coast to Tangalle. The island’s interior features forest parks sheltering leopards and wild Asian elephants, a verdant hill country carpeted in tea plantations and the Cultural Triangle, a small area between Kandy, Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa boasting five UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Best time to visit Sri Lanka
The climate varies dramatically between coast and interior year-round, and between the south-west and north-east according to time of year. During our winter months, the humidity is lower and the temperature more comfortable for exploring. However, the monsoon season of May to September can also be a good time to visit when Sri Lanka bursts into lush greenery.
Local highlights
A real highlight of any trip to the south of Sri Lanka is Galle Fort, where you can wander round the ancient ramparts at sunset watching cricket games below, or stroll the narrow streets in search of antiques in tiny, friendly shops; local festivals such as Vesak full moon in May and Poson full moon in July, as well as the famous Esala Festival in Kandy in July and August, when Buddha’s tooth is taken out from the temple and paraded through the streets; visiting national parks, sheltering an abundance of wildlife including leopards, elephants, bears and hundreds of species of birds; whale-watching off the coast; buying tea, gems, jewellery, spices; the fantastic spicy local cuisine, specialising in fish dishes, and delicious ‘egg hoppers’; tea-tasting in the hill country; Sigirya Rock Fortress; the Cave temples of Dambulla; the medieval capital and ruins of Polonnaruwa; the sacred city of Anuradhapura; the west coast beaches flanked by palm trees, including Negombo, Beruwela, Bentota and Galle; the elephant orphanage at Pinnawela; the tea plantations near Nuwara Eilya, a region known locally as Little England; Ayurvedic massage; a warm welcome wherever you go.
Getting out and about
Our touring itineraries include a car and driver to journey through the country. The new road on the west coast has cut down some of the travel times. Sri Lanka’s rickety railways are a great way to cross the country. Although they are slow, trains travel fairly short distances. Sri Lankan airlines operate an Air Taxi service by seaplane giving you a bird’s eye view, whilst significantly reducing travel time.
Travel arrangements
Sri Lankan Airways operates daily flights to Colombo from London Heathrow. Most flights leave London in the afternoon or evening. Flight time is approximately 11 hours. In the course of 2012 the business class cabins are being upgraded to fully reclining flat-beds. Sri Lankan Airways also operates flights to the Maldives via Colombo, making Sri Lanka and the Maldives a perfect two-centre combination.