Our Sri Lanka top tips and some practicalities

We spent 10 days in Sri Lanka in late June/ early July 2017, visiting the 'cultural triangle', the east coast and the hill country.

Tea pickers in the hill country

We really enjoyed our trip and wanted to share some of the things we learnt about the practicalities of travelling around the 'Pearl of the Indian Ocean'. Obviously, after a 10 day trip, we are far from being experts on the country, but the information below is a combination of our own experience, what others told us and what we learnt through our research. 

As ever, do feel free to add any corrections or additions in the comments below.

Sri Lankan beach time: some thoughts on Arugam bay

Sri Lanka has two monsoon seasons. From October until January, the East and the North are wet. Then from May until July, it's rainy season in the South and on the west coast, where the better known beaches are.

Where we stayed - Sri Lanka

We spent 10 days exploring the island of Sri Lanka, mostly in small family-run 'homestay' style hotels. Of the different accommodation website, booking.com seemed to work best. Here's where we went and where we stayed:

1) Habarana - Mutu Village

To explore the 'Cultural Triangle' area of Sri Lanka, we based ourselves in Habarana, as it is well located for visiting Sigiriya, Dambulla, Polonnaruwa and Minneriya National Park. Following a strong recommendation in an online travel discussion, I booked us into Mutu Village, where we stayed for 4 nights. It was the best place that we stayed in our time in Sri Lanka.

The balcony of our treehouse