Global Travel Planning

Sri Lanka Travel Planning - 3 Week Itinerary & Essential Travel Tips

• Tracy Collins • Episode 59

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In this week's episode of the Global Travel Planning Podcast, Tracy and Doug are joined by guest host Karen to share a detailed trip report from their first journey through Sri Lanka.

Over the course of three weeks, they explored ancient temples, rode scenic trains through lush tea plantations, spotted wildlife on safari, and experienced the vibrant culture and cuisine of this unforgettable island nation. In this candid and practical conversation, they reflect on why Sri Lanka captured their imagination, how they built a flexible yet thorough itinerary, and what it’s really like to travel independently across the country.

You’ll hear honest insights into transport options (including trains, drivers, and tuk-tuks), accommodation highlights—from luxury resorts to family-run homestays—and cultural etiquette around festivals and sacred sites. From the misty hills of Ella to the beaches of the south coast, this episode is full of travel inspiration, logistical tips, and real-world advice to help you plan your own Sri Lankan adventure.

Whether you're actively planning a trip or just dreaming of distant destinations, tune in for a journey through one of Asia’s most rewarding countries.

Guest Host - Karen Bleakley of the New Life in Australia podcast
Show notes - Episode 59

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Speaker 1:

Discover the highlights of our unforgettable trip to Sri Lanka, from ancient temples and wildlife safaris to scenic train rides and beach sunsets. We're sharing what we loved, what surprised us and what we do differently next time. Hi and welcome to the Global Travel Planning Podcast. I'm your host, tracey Collins, who, with my expert guests, will take you on a weekly journey to destinations around the globe. On a weekly journey to destinations around the globe, providing travel inspiration, itinerary ideas, practical tips and more to help you plan your next travel adventure. Hi and welcome to episode 59 of the Global Travel Planning Podcast.

Speaker 1:

This week, doug and I are here to chat all things Sri Lanka Following our recent trip. We've had loads of questions, loads of emails asking us to share all the details about the trip. So that's what we're going to be doing today in this episode of the podcast, and I have asked my friend, karen, who's also a podcaster at the moment, to do the interviewing today, and she has loads of questions to ask us. So hopefully we'll cover everything you want to know. But, karen, would you like to introduce yourself?

Speaker 2:

Hey there, my name is Karen and I'm the host of the New Life in Australia podcast, and I'm a friend of Tracy and Doug's, and this is my first time catching up with them after they've come back from their travels, so I'm really looking forward to asking you loads of questions.

Speaker 1:

Oh well, we've got loads to share, that's for sure.

Speaker 2:

That's great. So can you tell us a little bit about your first trip to Sri Lanka? This was your first trip, wasn't it? And what inspired you to go there?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it was the first time for both of us, wasn't it?

Speaker 3:

It was. It's somewhere I really wanted to go because of my love of cricket.

Speaker 1:

Ah yes, and trains, because you've had friends in the UK hi Linda, hi Mark who went to Sri Lanka about nine years ago and ever since we saw the photos and we chatted to them about it, it was somewhere that we really wanted to visit. And, following my time in India last year because I was six weeks in India last February, march, it just was I had to go back and explore that region, and so Sri Lanka. Luckily, this time, I guess when we were planning our itinerary, it just fitted in beautifully on our way back to Australia. So I think that was the inspiration. Really, you wanted to go for cricket.

Speaker 3:

Cricket and trains.

Speaker 1:

And trains, and I just wanted to go and experience the Sri Lankan culture, food and just generally see what it was like. That's fantastic.

Speaker 2:

So it was sort of a stop on the way back to australia. How long did you have to fit in your itinerary and how far in advance did you start planning it all?

Speaker 1:

basically we had as long as we wanted, because when you were had to get back to australia sort of early on in may, so it was basically when we were on our trip back from the UK we had quite a few months to sort it. So we were trying to think, well, how long do we want minimum in Sri?

Speaker 3:

Lanka. Yeah, we sort of dipped in and dipped out and just kept adding on to a list we want to go here, we want to go there, we want to go here, we want to go there. It kept growing. It kept growing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, we had to prioritize because there's so many destinations that we want to go to, um, but because Sri Lanka was so high on there, kind of like we really want to stop off, and because it's just an obvious stop off when you've got time from Europe, so we did so. So we kind of knew we wanted to do a sort of three weeks was what we're looking, looking at, doing, um, and when did I start planning it?

Speaker 1:

three weeks before in depth yeah, in depth we kind of knew and we to be honest, I think I booked the flights, maybe even the flights were probably only booked about a month before um, because we we'd flown over. We're talking about that in a common podcast, um, episode 62. So if you want to know more about our huge long trip that we did, you'll find more information in that podcast. But we, we knew that we had the time, like three or four months, to come back. So it was case of we went to decide to go to morocco, or kind of on a spur of the moment, and then we decided from there well, let's do a bit of spain and portugal, because we haven't been for a long time. And then you kind of look at the map and figure out where you can stop on the way back, and neither of us had been to Istanbul. So we went oh, let's go to Istanbul.

Speaker 3:

We need to say, when we first planned it everywhere we wanted to visit, it was going to take us five and a half years.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, well, that's it. Because all the places, absolutely, yeah, we were literally going everywhere in the world, but also because this is going to sound crazy but I, I don't enjoy flying at all and I don't like long haul flights. Um, so I want, didn't want, any flight that was over five hours. So that's what we're looking at, like how can we hop back with short flights? Yeah, um. So I knew going from istanbul to colombo was going to be I think was about nine hours, so I said, well, let's stop off on the way. So we went to qatar for a few days and then flew to colombo. So even the flights we booked relatively close to the time of flying it was literally probably three weeks before because we wanted to have some flexibility that's right, and when you've got a short flight you can sort of hit the ground running and just get straight on to things you haven't got to, yeah oh that great.

Speaker 2:

But if I know you two really well, you might leave things till quite late to organise. But you do really organise things that you're going to do. You don't just wing it, you don't just rock up and kind of book a hotel when you arrive or anything like that. It's all strategically planned and you'll be going through lots of different resources. So how did you go about organising things? Sources so how did you go about organising things? Because, as I say, I'm sure you had everything mapped out within those three weeks before you were arriving.

Speaker 1:

Well, I spoke to my friends, linda and Mark, who've been to Sri Lanka before. So I wanted to chat to them and say, well, because I knew their itinerary, because they'd written about it for the website, so I wanted to have a look at it and say what would they do differently? So that was the first thing. I kind of said what would you add on and how long would you recommend we go for? So they were like three weeks, what? And I said what would you have done different? And they were like we would have gone to goal because they didn't go to goal. So, okay, well, we'll add that in. I also looked at, looked at quite a few different websites and just kind of read information from other travel bloggers about what they recommended. Um, so, josie, from Josie Wonders, I know she'd been to Sri Lanka, so I had a look at her information, yeah, so it was just kind of piecing it together and I can't remember. So apologies, because I can't remember which website it was. But somebody mentioned which was actually probably the best tip that we had, since we were booking so late, was to go anti-clockwise rather than clockwise with the trains. But I'll talk about that in more detail in a bit um, but yes, we do.

Speaker 1:

Yes, I didn't. I probably didn't plan it as in-depth as I normally would, as in, I planned most of the things, or at least knew how I could plan them, as we got there. So, for example, I knew that we could book safaris when we got to the accommodation in yellow, so I planned that maybe a week ahead with them. But I kind of didn't want to miss out anything major, so I did book some of those things ahead. But again, by reading about what you need to book I think that's essential and that's something we do on both the UK travel plan and London travel plan and websites is we will say how far in advance you should be thinking about booking things.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, because you don't want to miss out on one of those major bucket list things because you just were arriving and hadn't pre-booked it. And I always remember you saying about booking the Harry Potter experience in London that you need to get that locked in early with the UK travel planning site and it's so important to get those important things booked in, otherwise you can miss out and that was the thing for us.

Speaker 1:

The train travel was a huge, huge, uh thing that we wanted to experience. We wanted to go on some of these iconic trains, um, so that was why we decided to go, uh, anti-clockwise rather than clockwise, because it's easier to get tickets last minute, because you're not, most people go clockwise. So we went the other way, just to be a bit different.

Speaker 2:

Well, to get the tickets because everybody's going that clockwise direction which is why we passed trains very, very full.

Speaker 1:

Our train, was not too bad. So, for example, like going from l at the candy, which is one of the most scenic train journeys in the world. Everybody goes candy to Ella. We went Ella to candy, so quite a more relaxed journey.

Speaker 2:

Yeah yeah absolutely good tip. So you booked everything yourself independently. Did you kind of arrive and book it yourselves, or did you book it online or through your hotels?

Speaker 1:

uh. We booked most of the uh places online. We did book some of the tours through accommodation when we arrived that they would arrange a driver and Yala. They arranged the safari jeep and the driver for us for those tours. So we did contact the hotels, for example, like go and get transport from one area to another. So we were going from Gaul to Yala. We asked Yala to organise that pickup, so they picked us up in Gaul, gaul to to Yala. We asked um Yala to organize that pickup, so they picked us up in Gaul and took us to Yala. So we asked them for transportation because we know again that was a tip from our friends in the market they said, oh, ask your accommodation, they'll be able to organize that.

Speaker 2:

They'll have all of those connections so can you give us a bit of a quick overview of your itinerary, like how long you were there for three weeks, is that right? Yeah, it was about 19 days, I think, and where you visited on your trip okay.

Speaker 3:

So we arrived into colombo and we were met by transport from the hotel and that was about 40 minutes away, 30, 40 minutes away, yeah. And then we stayed.

Speaker 1:

We stayed for I think it was three days. So one thing that we did do is we didn't stay long in places. So I think we hit all the major destinations.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, we certainly did. Yeah, so Colombo was a good starting place, the capital city, so the first site of Sri Lanka was in Colombo, which is fantastic. It's right on the front.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And train line right next to the hotel so I could stand on the little balcony and watch the trains go by.

Speaker 3:

And you did, I really did and the train just said we better go out now.

Speaker 1:

You've been stood there for two hours. How many times can you record a train going past?

Speaker 3:

Well, it's a different train. So, yeah, that's it. We started in Colombo, familiarised ourselves with the area, didn't we? Yes, as much as we possibly could. The hotel lays on a free courtesy tour of Colombo, some of the main sites, which was excellent, wasn't it?

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

And then we had already booked the train tickets with a voucher, so we had to get to Colombo Main Train Station to exchange the vouchers for the train tickets for the entire trip.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

And that was really good. And after we got the train tickets, we took tuk-tuks here, there and everywhere.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

And on the day of leaving we left some of our luggage in Colombo.

Speaker 1:

We were going to return to the hotel.

Speaker 2:

Yes, we did. I'll explain a bit more about that later as well. That sounds like a wise move, yeah yeah, so we traveled very light yeah, so then we went from there to gaul.

Speaker 1:

Um, so to give you, I guess, to give you a quick overview, we we had the few days in colombo then we then went to gaul. From gaul we went to yalla national park. From there we went up to ella, then candy, then back to colombo. So that's a kind of we did that that route, so a giant circle, as it were, around Sri Lanka.

Speaker 3:

So that is kind of a quick, quicker overview of what we did okay, that's what I shouldn't say about first train journey from Colombo to Gauley straight down the coast.

Speaker 2:

That is fantastic absolutely absolutely that leads me into the next question of what were the top highlights from your trip. That's train journey sounds like it was one of them, yeah there's so much.

Speaker 3:

Each of the train journeys is just so unique and such a different experience that you get in the rest of europe and it's just magically just embraced the whole thing. It was very, very busy at the stations and the whole um idea of catching the train here. You don don't know where to stand. The platform solid people.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it was so busy. So so busy, yeah, but you know what?

Speaker 3:

It's all part of the experience.

Speaker 1:

It's an experience, isn't it?

Speaker 3:

It's all good fun and we eventually found the seat.

Speaker 1:

On each of the trains. Yeah, so we did three train journeys. So we did Colombo to Gaul, which is a couple of hours, and we did that first class. That was very comfortable. And then we did the train journey from Ellet to Candy, which is about six and a half hours. I think we were in second class, which is great because all the windows are open, the doors are open so you can go and sit by the door and enjoy the scenery. Honestly, that was so much fun, we really enjoyed it. You think six hours on a train it's a long time, but actually and the scenery it was just stunning. The tree plantations, just it was beautiful.

Speaker 3:

It was all open air. You know the wind blowing in, but hot air and you could stand in the doorways. Yeah, really, yeah, yeah, yeah that was the thing.

Speaker 1:

I mean, you have to be careful. And then we took the observation car when we took the trip from Kandy back to Colombo and that was lovely and we met so many lovely shranking people who were interested in what we were doing and chatting to us and basically we sat and we just had open windows well, not open windows but glass in front of us and then we just saw the journey as we kind of progressed to Colombo Any train.

Speaker 2:

People know it's like a bubble observation car. Okay, I was just going to say what's an observation car. It's just basically all windows, okay.

Speaker 3:

We were right at the back of the train, so we sat literally on the seats, the front of the back, so we had the best views.

Speaker 1:

Oh, it was fabulous and doug did take a lot of videos, so we're going to share some of that video um, because that was. That was really cool as well. And talking to a lot of Sri Lankans who'd been candy because there was a big um national holiday, religious holiday, so a lot of people had been in, over a million people in candy, so it was very, very busy. So that was lovely just chatting to people what they've been showing us. They'd shown us photos of what they'd be, because they'd actually, because we didn't go to the temple of truth but they had um, and so they were shown us photographs.

Speaker 3:

It was fantastic lots of family photos, people you've never seen, never met before. They're showing the entire family photo album.

Speaker 2:

It's a very welcoming place yeah, very, very friendly.

Speaker 1:

I think other highlights, uh, for me, were the seeing the leopard in yellow national park. That was fantastic. I've seen, I have seen leopards in africa, but, um, yeah, to see the leopard in yellow. Because we did two, two safaris, and the first one we didn't see the leopard and everybody else did, we just couldn't get the jeep close enough. Um, but the second time we did the safari it was great. We actually we saw it was a big leopard with it, with a kill as well, which was just something amazing.

Speaker 1:

Um, so we did that and seen the elephants as well, so that the nature was fantastic my first safari, so I'm not I can't compare it to anything else first I've ever been on one yeah, and I and I think honestly, the people that we met, we just met some wonderful, wonderful people and I do want to give a shout-out to some of those people because they were just amazing. So one is Imasha, who works at the….

Speaker 3:

Marino Beach Hotel in Colombo. Yeah, Marino Beach.

Speaker 1:

Hotel in Colombo. He was just so friendly and so helpful and yeah, so hello, imasha, we'd give you a shout out because you were amazing. The other is the team at the Villa White Queen in Gaul, who were fantastic. So hats off to Savinda, who was just so friendly, and the team, as you said, because we thanked him as we left and he said it's the team as well, and they were just fabulous, absolutely fabulous. I cannot recommend villa white queen highly enough. Honestly, it was just a highlight of our trip. And the last um, the last kind of shout out is is to um, to b and suzy at the um candy and manna in candy.

Speaker 1:

Um, we had a homestay with them and they were fabulous and so welcoming, so lovely um, we love chatting with you guys, um, so again, we'd highly recommend, if you're going to stay in candy, to go and stay with these guys, because they were fantastic um, but but generally everybody was so friendly yeah, really well.

Speaker 3:

Everywhere went, even the tuk-tuk drivers. I talked to so many of them? Because, obviously, the second they know that I like cricket it's like it's a common language. So the times we're talking about cricket, from every single country, you know. Shared names, shared experiences, shared. You know great matches.

Speaker 2:

It was incredible. Honestly, sporting trains are the way to go when you go to Sri Lanka. Yeah, absolutely, he just. Honestly, sporting trains are the way to go when you go to Sri Lanka. Yeah, absolutely, he just honestly, the cricket.

Speaker 1:

And I was like, oh, I'm going to hear him go, it's going to be cricket again. I love it.

Speaker 2:

So obviously you did a lot of traveling around on trains. How else did you get around from place to place? Did you hire a driver? Did you rent a vehicle? Get on a bike?

Speaker 1:

What did you do? Well, we took the trains, obviously, and other times we we took tuk-tuks, we took quite a few tuk-tuks.

Speaker 3:

Quite a few tuk-tuks here, there and everywhere you kind of do an experience.

Speaker 1:

If you've never done one, you do feel like you take your life in your hands. And a tuk-tuk or anything.

Speaker 3:

Try not to look ahead. Yeah, I'm not watching.

Speaker 1:

I'm not watching yeah, so yeah, that they are an experience. Um, and we did also hire some private drivers as well to take us from destinations, so, for example, from Gaul to Jelle, from Jelle to Ella, and then we had a private driver who took us out for the day. We went to Siguria and to Dambulla. So that was great and they were all amazing, they were all fantastic. All so friendly, so helpful, so chatty I mean you and cricket. So that you know, and not expensive as well, not expensive.

Speaker 3:

Reasonably priced.

Speaker 2:

Have you got any tips for people who are first-time arrivals to kind of organise the transport? I know some countries you have to kind of haggle over pricing before you get in. How does that all work?

Speaker 1:

Okay. So my top tip for this is to ask the accommodation what they what they would say at the cost of a tuk-tuk is from, for example, the train station to their accommodation. So we knew from the outset. So they would say it shouldn't cost more than x amount. So that when we were talking to the tuk-tuk driver and they were trying to try to store the amount, but actually no, we know this is the amount. So that was something that really was helpful, because you have no idea how much things are going to cost.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, I remember in Thailand traveling around and as soon as you get off like a ferry or get off a bus, they're sort of straight away there and they've at least doubled or trebled the price of what actually is the realistic price.

Speaker 3:

Well, we did that one of the journeys we went. We knew how much it cost. On the way to the station, yes. And then coming back from the station, the hotel, they tried to charge like five or six times the amount I went. Well, no, we only did this two days ago. We know how much it costs. Yeah, they kept saying no, no, no and if. And I was saying no, no, no, so we started walking away and then somebody else came in and said okay, I'll do it.

Speaker 1:

I'll do it for that, and we knew that was a reasonable amount because that's how much we'd paid already for that trip. But but do ask, ask your accommodation, what? What should be the, the amount for?

Speaker 3:

those sort of trips.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, the acceptable amount yeah, yeah, no, that's a really good tip, because then you know what you're kind of dealing with when you, before you get, get in the vehicle as well. Um, in terms of food, was food amazing there? Did you eat a lot of food, oh?

Speaker 3:

always lots of food. Was food amazing there? Did you eat a lot of food? I always eat lots of food, but I have dietary requirements from a health condition. So what I found was talk to the people where you're getting the food from, whether it's a restaurant, cafe or even in the homestay, these type of places. Just say to them you know how hot is that going to be, how spicy is that? And quite a few times they sort of tamed it down a little for me because I love the flavors, I love the food.

Speaker 3:

It's just that I can't have a hot spice and sri lankan.

Speaker 1:

Food is spicy let's just say that it is hot.

Speaker 2:

That sounds like my kind of food.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah yeah and um. So I think you do have to take that into consideration if you aren't like doug, can't have spicy food, um. So we did ask people to kind of, if could they tone it down a little bit just for me, not for tracing, yeah, I was fine with it.

Speaker 1:

Um, yeah, shrunken food was fine. I did try hoppers, which is something I'd wanted to try. My daughter was like you have to try hoppers, and I actually did that in the hotel, I think on the last night. Um, and I'm not going to say what, what they are, I'm gonna put some pictures on in there so you're gonna have to look in the show notes for the photos. But it's a, it's like everybody, it's hoppers in in Sri Lanka.

Speaker 3:

I think you've got to be honest what you know, what you can and can't eat, but you shouldn't let that stop you traveling to a country you want to visit and trying the food yeah I'm still intrigued as to what hoppers are are they something that jumps.

Speaker 1:

It's got to be something that jumps yeah, it's got 15 legs I can't imagine tracy eating anything like that. Oh no, I would I would, I would just as. Yeah, I think it would, but it's nothing, it's no, it's no, it's no, not what you think when you hear hoppers.

Speaker 1:

When I thought I was like hoppers, but actually no, it's nothing like you think, but it's a popular dish in Sri Lanka. I have to say, because we're thinking about our favorite foods and it's just going to sound crazy because I guess, in terms of picking out a specific dish, I can't, but what I can say with snacks is that we absolutely loved the cashew nuts we did. Yes, there's lots of cashew nuts, but the flavours of them. We found these. I think they were cheese and sour cream or something. Was it cheese?

Speaker 2:

Cheese and onion, something like cheese and onion, but they were absolutely really like.

Speaker 3:

Moorish. Well, we like to take snacks when we're on a train journey yes, Just in case you know. So we're taking water with you, but we all do like little snacks, don't we? Yeah, we do and we bought a small packet on the first journey and then by the time we do the next journey, we've got even bigger packs. Yeah, we did, and obviously you love the tea oh yes, the tea, the ginger tea, I sort of drink that. I've bought a box back with us as well okay, you'll have to make me.

Speaker 2:

No, you won't have to make me when I've drunk coffee. I don't drink tea. I wish I did, but maybe there's something I was going to share oh, that's great. So were there any other favorite dishes, like did you have any street food and things like that? I'm guessing it was really cool for street food there.

Speaker 1:

I don't know if we did, because the problem we have, I guess is more because of Doug's and because it's spicy.

Speaker 1:

We know there that Sri Lankan food is spicy we had to be really careful. So I mean, after Sri Lanka we went to Malaysia where we went crazy and had lots and lots of street food. But I think in Sri Lanka we were a little bit more careful, a bit more reserved because we didn't want Doug to get ill and because it is spicy. So we did have food in the hotels. We had food at the homestay. We would check out the, the menus at the different places we stayed. The food was good at the Villa White Queen as well. We had breakfast a lot of time. What we did is, again, we would have like a decent sized breakfast if the accommodation came with breakfast and a lot of fruit. Oh my goodness, the fruit was amazing. Uh, a lot of fruit and then again just try and have something small at lunchtime and then more of a bigger meal at night. We did more of that um and made sure that I think everywhere we did have a good breakfast every morning it's a good, budget friendly way of traveling as well.

Speaker 3:

Absolutely it also saves a lot of time, because how many times we've been in places around the world? You spend such a long time walking around trying to find somewhere to eat that you're missing out on other things yeah, especially breakfast.

Speaker 1:

You want to make sure you've got a good start especially if you can be walking around a lot exactly, exactly so how did you handle money in Sri Lanka?

Speaker 2:

did you use cash cards digital? Were there lots of ATMs and cash points available to get cash out, or did you need cash?

Speaker 1:

no, we didn't need cash. You do need cash in sri lanka and we we have wise cards. So we we use our wise cards and we did use a wise card, which is a from digital payments, a contactless payment, to pay for mainly the hotels. We also use credit cards to pay for the hotels as well, um, but we use a lot of places need. Obviously, tuk-tuk drivers need cash. When you're paying for entry to some places, you need to have cash as well.

Speaker 1:

I'm trying to think what else we need cash for. Oh, yes, when we were in Yellow, to pay the safari jeep, we had to pay that in cash. We didn't have to pay the entry to Yellow National Park itself in cash, but to pay the driver, we had to pay in cash. To pay transfers, you have to pay in cash, so you do need to have cash. What we did do is we withdrew from the atm, and so what I do with this is we just put because you do worry about card skimming, so is that? Doug keeps his card for atm um transactions, um, so I would just transfer the money on his card and then he would take out that amount of money from his card. But plenty of ATMs, we didn't have a problem anywhere really with an ATM, so we managed it. In fact, by the time we left we had a little bit of cash at the end which I just spent at the airport, but I'm not sure if Sri.

Speaker 3:

Lanka is a place you can't get the currency until you actually arrive.

Speaker 1:

But we didn't have any. We did use the ATM at the airport. We did, yeah, because we needed to have some cash to start with.

Speaker 2:

We needed for taxis and things like that as well. And in terms of mobile phone coverage, how did you manage Wi-Fi using your phone? Did you get a local SIM card? Did you use an eSIM?

Speaker 1:

Well, for us it's really important to have connection, because we obviously need to be connected because of the work. So we did have eSIM.

Speaker 3:

We did.

Speaker 1:

We used eSIM. I didn't find Connection was not brilliant in Sri Lanka, I have to say it was better in Colombo.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we knew that People said that Colombo would be the best place for connecting and we did so. When I looked at accommodation, I did look at that On Bookingcom. I went through and said, right, so how many? What was the score for Wi-Fi? Because it is so important for us. So, but we still, even though some of the places seem to have kind of high-ish scores, we did find connection a little bit difficult. Colombo was fine, gaul was fine. Yalla we struggled a little bit with that. Ella was okay when we actually went into Ella itself and then we could connect, but not, we sit at home, stay, so it wasn't great. So it was really hit and miss. It was difficult in the day to actually do anything. I don't know if having a local sim would have been better, but I just the whole idea of changing sims doesn't appeal.

Speaker 2:

No, no. Esims are very convenient and very helpful to have, and especially when you're jumping from country to country as well.

Speaker 1:

Oh, it was so easy because I've got quite a few eSIMs on my phone now and also you can just top them up as you go. But I would say Sri Lanka was the worst connectivity of any of the countries we'd traveled to.

Speaker 2:

It was a bit of a struggle Somewhere to take a holiday and relax rather than try and get online and do some work, work around when you know you're going to be in somewhere that's got good connections.

Speaker 1:

So we didn't do any consults. For example, we did do a video consult, um, but we did that from goal, which was fine. Um, but I did say to people for the next 10 days we're not going to have connections to book anything because we're going to struggle to get. We couldn't do a one-to-one consult, for example, but we could do a video, um, video consult, where we just do it. I think we'll just review an itinerary. We could do that and we did do one, um, and we meant but we had to send it in parts because I was just that we recorded it in parts, because I'm not going to record 30 minutes and it all disappear.

Speaker 1:

So we recorded 10 minutes slots and then sent it to them like that and they received it. It was all fine, um, but yeah, you do have to that when you're working as well as traveling, you have to juggle all that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, there's a lot more to think about. So that plays into the next questions. Really about where you stayed. I know you've mentioned a few of the places. How did you choose where to stay and what type of accommodation to stay in?

Speaker 1:

Well, we chose five. We chose five very different types of accommodation actually, because we wanted a variety, didn't?

Speaker 3:

we the first one we stayed in wanted somewhere we could leave our luggage.

Speaker 1:

Yes, so yeah, we needed somewhere that we could go to leave our luggage and return to, but also we had another consideration, in that there was the Australian elections, and I think we kind of knew by that point vaguely when the date was going to be I think we did know, because I was like we need to just check that we can go and vote while we're in Sri Lanka, and the hotel wasn't too far actually from the Australian High Commission so we could do that.

Speaker 1:

So that was one consideration. But I always look as well at the. I look at the reviews. I don't stay anywhere that's less than an 8 or a 9 on Bookingcom. That's who I tend to book with. I also look for free cancellation.

Speaker 1:

We did change some of our accommodation as we traveled, though. So the first one, as I say, was Marina Beach and we could leave our luggage, which we did. The second was I think I changed this, actually three or four days before, and I changed it to Villa White Queen. I can't quite remember why I decided to change it. Maybe I was looking for a bit more save, a little bit more money, or I just wanted to change what we're doing, or I definitely wanted a pool. I want to change what we're doing, or I definitely wanted a pool. I can't remember, um, but I booked and I looked at everything and I was like villa white queen sounds amazing and I'm so glad we did because it was just really good. Um, and then we do a mix, so we do budget and we also do luxury. So yellow our stay at wild culture and yellow was the, was the splurge yeah yeah, because that was not cheap, that was expensive.

Speaker 1:

It's a beautiful resort. It's very close to national park, so we wanted also at that point to have a few days of just relaxing, because we've been traveling for a long time. So it had a beautiful pool. We could have a couple of days doing safaris one day where we could relax, just catch up on a bit of work, but just catch our breath. So that's what we did there. So that was of that resort. And then we chose a homestay for the last two places because again, our friends Linda and Mark said you've got to do homestays.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, we did so we tried this one. That's a bit of a walk outside, oh, ella, ella, yeah, but it was nice, nice view.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we had a fantastic view, so that was fine. Um castle cloud homestay in ella. Um, yeah, it was a long climb up to the accommodation.

Speaker 2:

But I kind of knew that when I booked it I thought, well, you know what experience we've been traveling for a long time.

Speaker 1:

We're relatively fit because we've had to be, because we had so much walking, so I thought we'll cope with it. So we did, we just managed it, um. So that was quite nice, again having that homestay experience. Unfortunately, the one thing we had looked forward to at that place was the home cooking, the home breakfast, but unfortunately the mum who did that was away, so we couldn't have that.

Speaker 2:

So that was a bit of a disappointment with that.

Speaker 1:

And then the last time we did the homestay was in the Canterbury Manor with.

Speaker 1:

Bea and Susie, which was just oh they have just the most beautiful place, don't they just the most beautiful place, don't they? Two beautiful dogs as well, two gorgeous dogs, a beautiful home, uh, a lovely family. So, and you know you, you want to stay. We always want to try and connect with um, the, the community that the country will visit, so of course, that gave us opportunity to do that, to talk to shrines. What's it like to live in sri lanka? What you know, what, what?

Speaker 2:

do you like? To where do you go on holiday? What?

Speaker 1:

do you like to see? What would you recommend? Yeah, that local knowledge which you know you're not necessarily going to get. I will say actually, well, I'm just going to refer back to the the Marino Beach. One thing the Marino Beach does which is amazing is that they offer a free tour of Colombo. So that was great. So we did that free tour, which is like it was about two, three hours and that was brilliant um, so we'd have to pay for it was part of the accommodation. Um.

Speaker 2:

One thing we did look for was pools when you've been traveling for a long time. Like you say, you want to be able to have some downtime, yeah, between doing things.

Speaker 1:

So it is nice to have a pool and it was very very, very, very hot in Sri Lanka, so we did appreciate having the swim pool. The only one place we didn't was in Ella. We didn't have a pool, uh, but again we were looking at that was a very budget was. I can't remember how much it was like maybe 30 dollars a night, it was not expensive.

Speaker 2:

Was there generally air conditioning in any of the places you stayed? That's an important one.

Speaker 1:

Yes, we had air conditioning, I think in every single one, but probably that homestay in ella good fan though uh, yeah, but there's a fan. Um, you just cope with it, I guess. But yes, it was hot, and I mean, obviously, what you need in those sort of places is the mosquito nets and the mosquito net. We did have a mosquito net over the bed, so that's important as well yeah, I didn't think of that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so any particular standout accommodation, or were they all just really good in different ways?

Speaker 1:

oh, honestly, um merino beach amazing, villawite queen amazing and kanjian manor amazing. I think those three I mean we only stayed in five, so it's like they're all good. Honestly they're all good, but I just think if I was going back, I'd go back to those three in a heartbeat, absolutely in a heartbeat, I think next time I probably wouldn't stay in yellow, I wouldn't go to the national park, I I'd go somewhere else.

Speaker 1:

But I mean it was a lovely resort. And again, a homestay is just a different experience. I probably would do a different homestay to stay with a different family.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, to give you a completely different experience of the whole thing, absolutely so. I love what you were saying before about how you chose a place that you could leave your luggage, because you've been around the world, you've obviously got a lot of stuff with you and you were probably bringing back quite a lot of stuff from the uk I'm guessing like lots of jars of marmite in doug's case.

Speaker 2:

Um, so you had somewhere that you could store a bulk of your stuff. What? What did you take with you to go around sri lanka like? Did you just have like a day package, how big a pack? What did you pack with it? What were your essentials?

Speaker 3:

one small suitcase once I mean small like a little cabin carry on size.

Speaker 1:

And then, uh, I had a day pack and you had a day pack as well.

Speaker 3:

That's all we took.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's all we and that's all we took, because you don't want to be, honestly, dragging on off trains with massive suitcases and I don't think there's so many people with huge suitcases, to be honest, everybody's pretty practical a lot of backpacks, um, and leaving the luggage because, yes, you're right, we had a lot of luggage because we've been traveling all seasons we've been yeah, yeah so we had everything.

Speaker 1:

So what it meant, we did the the day before we left, we just went through the luggage, took the things we knew we'd need, um, and packed those and then left everything else in colombo, which was great was there anything that you left in colombo that you've regretted? No, no, I think we had everything. I think we're pretty good at that point and making sure like we checked and we took everything that we needed.

Speaker 1:

I think, because you'd been traveling for so long as well, you'd probably got it all down to a tears to what you need to leave and what you need to take yeah, absolutely, and I think it's like well, we just made sure that we had enough like clothes that we could wash stuff and we washed as we went.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, just hand washing, yeah, hand washed that was fine actually, I think when you're traveling, you need a lot less than you think you're going to need when you first set off, at the beginning of your trip, that's true, yeah, absolutely so what general practical advice have you got for anyone who's the first time visited Sri Lanka?

Speaker 1:

um, I just would say take your time. Don't try and go from like one night in one place and one night in another place and one night in another place and do it too quickly. Do it slowly and go and stay with the people and the Sri Lankan people and homestays, I don't know. I just think I would say that Just practically, take it slowly. Make sure that you have packed well for the trip in terms of try and think about. You know it's hot, so you're not going to need a lot of warm things or jumpers or stuff like that.

Speaker 3:

That's true. I think one thing that stood out for me in Sri Lanka was how engaging the people are. Yes, I know I've talked about cricket a lot, but just how open and how easy going. You know how relaxed the people are and how easy it is to just talk to you on any level about any topic of conversation.

Speaker 1:

You know, and I was gonna say maybe do a bit of research on cricket it's certainly a good icebreaker, that there's no doubt about that. Yeah I think I think for us I guess because we were coming from europe was a bit colder. I think that the heat kind of took me by surprise and I was looking forward to heat and as I love the warmth, but I I think it was that that did that did kind of throw me for six a little bit, because it was quite, quite hot and humid.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that was very hot, so we had kind of that introduction. But I think, yeah, just think about hot. That was very hot, so we'd had kind of that introduction. But I think, yeah, just think about what you're going to need, like, for example, if you're going to climb sigiriya, probably best not to do it in sandals but maybe put trainers on that sort of thing. I would consider, um, you know, make sure you've got a water bottle that you can refill with water, because you are going to need it, which I always take that was gonna say that's always a good one, so just remember to pack, yeah definitely.

Speaker 1:

Um, I'm trying to think what, what else we kind of what else I would say is a is a tip I'd say. I mean, you know, like I said before, maybe go anti-clockwise, but, um, yeah, consider what is that you want to do and give yourself time to to enjoy it.

Speaker 2:

I think so and were there any cultural customs or etiquettes that you needed to be aware of?

Speaker 3:

I think about being respectful to the multicultural locations you visit. You know, same as you would in any country, but respect what their wishes are and what their beliefs are.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and we were there during New Year, so we went to some restaurants to eat and they weren't allowed to serve alcohol which we hadn't been aware of. So it's just you know which?

Speaker 3:

doesn't bother me in the start.

Speaker 1:

bother me doesn't bother because it doesn't drink, but but it's just something to be aware of, because because I, I don't know, I think we're in goal. Actually I thought, oh, let's go and have a nice cocktail sunset, um, and we went to sit and they was like no, you can't. And we're like, well, why not? And there was, oh, because it's new year and we can't serve alcohol. So that was something we didn't know. Um, so yeah, just just being aware of that sort of thing, I guess, is important, um, what we didn't realize as well is that when we went to candy, um, that there was going to be a national holiday and it was going to be extended, so it was very, very, very busy, like over a million people in candy. So we had to adjust what we were going to do, because it was just too too busy in the center of candy itself. So we didn't.

Speaker 1:

So, I think, be flexible, that's another thing. I'd say, be flexible and adjust, because that's what we did along the way, and if you can't do something, just you know, don't worry about it. It's like, just, I think we had to adjust some things that I wanted to do because it was just too hot and I was like I'm not going to manage that, for example, at the nine arch bridge. Like you know, it would have been lovely to have actually walked along the train track and there was plenty of people who did that, but I just knew physically I wasn't going to be able to manage that which is not a safe thing to do no, but there's a lot of people doing that and taking their, taking videos or pictures.

Speaker 1:

I don't think it's not allowed in sri lanka. I think people do it so, but obviously you'd be careful. But I just think there were some things that I wouldn't do, would like to have done but wasn't going to manage, and I guess that's. Another tip is just, if you're going to be traveling in places like this is just think about pace yourself.

Speaker 1:

You know you do a lot of walking. So just you know, think about how many steps you're going to climb to do stuff. Like, for example, I didn't climb Sigiriya. Now, everybody I know has climbed Sigiriya and I was like when I got there I was like I'm going to climb it and I looked and I thought it's too hot for me and it was nine o'clock in the morning, it was too hot, it was. There was no way I knew physically I could do that and actually I ended up with heat exhaustion that even even though I hadn't climbed it. So Doug did do it and I think you just have to make peace with yourself.

Speaker 2:

If there's some things you can't manage to do, yeah, because it could wipe you out for the next couple of days if you overdo something like that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and actually I'm glad I didn't, because you went to Damboula afterwards, which was again quite a few steps, and I thought I was okay to do that. I struggled with the steps, but Doug struggled because he'd done 2,000 steps climbing up Sigiriya, but I was okay doing it was still a lot because you gotta remember it's so hot and it does drain you, yeah, so I think I think that's what something I'd kind of say yeah right, that's great.

Speaker 2:

Well, we're coming to the end of the interview. Now what is the one tip each of you would share with somebody who's planning their first time visit?

Speaker 1:

I would say go anti-clockwise rather than clockwise. I don't know that I have kind of mentioned that, but I'd just say go the opposite way to everybody else. You know, do the route a different way. I'd also say stay longer, because I'd love to have stayed longer.

Speaker 3:

I think what we did is to use strategy when it comes to your luggage, which is leaving most of it in Colombo and then returning to it.

Speaker 2:

It made life so much easier with the trains and just moving around, yeah, yeah. So I think that's good, and also then you've got a base that you know to come back to to get your flight the next day, so you know that you're not going to be rushing for a flight, trying to get a train at the last minute to your airport.

Speaker 1:

You're familiar with the hotel, so you know your way around the hotel, you know, you know at each, you know the staff. It's just so much easier and we didn't have to say hassle with luggage which, honestly, when you've got this is another thing when you travel long term is like you've got to think about strategies like that because you do not want to be dragging, you know, 30 kgs each of luggage all over the place.

Speaker 3:

It's not pleasant and also if you've got several suitcases of towards 30 kilograms, you don't want to keep opening, unpacking everything, packing everything. It becomes quite draining just to do that so at times, not just this leg of the journey. There's some, quite often one suitcase we just didn't open yeah, that's it. Yeah, we're strategically packed, not just winter clothes when you're going somewhere hard yeah, yeah, I did that well, thank you so much.

Speaker 2:

That's been really interesting hearing all about your trip.

Speaker 1:

Oh, thanks so much, Karen, for coming on the podcast this week and interviewing us all about Sri Lanka. As always, you can find all the information and links to what we talked about in this episode of the show notes, which are at globaltravelplanningcom forward slash episode 59. But that just leaves all of us to say until next week, happy global travel planning.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for joining us on this episode of the global travel planning podcast. For more details and links to everything we discussed today, check out the show notes at globaltravelplanningcom. Remember if you enjoyed the show, please consider leaving us a review on your favorite podcast app, because your feedback helps us reach more travel enthusiasts, just like you. Anyway, that leaves me to say, as always happy global travel planning.