Sri Lanka World Heritage Tour

Going off-the-beaten-track half way round the World with people you don’t know, food you’ve never tried before and what appear to be extreme weather conditions. What can possibly go wrong?

A few tips on how to get the best out of your small group tour to Southeast Asia

Sri Lanka’s Sigiriya, ancient city and rock fortress, is undoubtedly one of the most most spectacular of the country’s 8 UNESCO-listed World Heritage Sites. It can also be for some visitors, one of the most daunting.

Elephants in Sri Lanka First, the good news: as of 2025, wild elephants in Sri Lanka are estimated to number around 7,500 – a healthy increase on the 5,879 individuals recorded in a 2011 census.  Of course, any census of these wide-roaming, and often remarkably difficult to spot, creatures needs to be taken with a pinch of salt but the…

Community based tourism Community based tourism schemes, or even community-based, as our spell checker insists, are commonly referred to in the trade as CBTs and have become a popular buzz phrase in recent times. As the title suggests, they refer, in theory, to small-scale, relatively low-key tourism initiatives set up and run by local residents – family groups or villagers,…

The famous ‘Elephant Gathering’ and the pros and cons of Minneriya National Park

Kandy The historic city of Kandy possesses both a strategic and picturesque location, nestled amid the peaks of Sri Lanka’s central highlands and in pre-colonial times was the island’s capital and seat of the Sinhalese kings. Today the town remains the most prestigious site for Sri Lankan Buddhists and is justifiably one of the island’s most popular destinations for overseas…

Wilpattu National Park Wilpattu National Park is one of Sri Lanka’s oldest national parks, as well as its largest, and since its original creation in 1938, has grown to cover an area of some 1,300 square kilometres. (This may appear small compared to certain parks elsewhere but bear in mind Sri Lanka is a small island.) With myriad lakes, or willus,…

10 dishes to try in Sri Lanka The list below could be a lot longer, but we’ve limited it to just our favourites as well as the most commonly seen 10 dishes to try in Sri Lanka. The country’s highly varied cuisine mirrors the island’s complex history with Portuguese, Dutch, British, Indian and Arab influences all in evidence. As an…

Sri Lankan National Parks The small Indian Ocean nation of Sri Lanka is said to be comparable in size to the island of Tasmania and slightly smaller than Ireland yet manages to squeeze in no less than 26 national parks, (including marine national parks, bird sanctuaries and a forest reserve), covering a total area of some 5,700 square kilometres. While…

Best time to visit Sri Lanka Not for nothing did early foreign visitors name Sri Lanka ‘the Island of Serendipity’ and conveniently, the geography and weather patterns of Sri Lanka mean that our answer to, ‘when’s the best time to visit Sri Lanka’? is…pretty much any time of the year. The pear, or more aptly mango-shaped, island has a broad…

What’s the food like in Sri Lanka? In the UK in particular, Indian food is very well-known and restaurants serving Indian food ubiquitous, (even if chefs and owners are often of Bangladeshi or Pakistani origin). However, prospective visitors to Sri Lanka are often less familiar with the island’s cuisine, so, in reply to some of the FAQs; what’s the food…