Longer Excursions
If you decide to pay a visit to other locations in Sri Lanka we’ll be happy to help you with the organization. You can travel with our driver and we can make the reservations in the hotels around Sri Lanka. The places you might want to visit:
Haputale
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Haputale is an amazing town surrounded by green hills covered with cloud forests and tea plantations. The town has a cooler climate than its surroundings, due to its elevation (1431m above the sea level). The Haputale pass offers beautiful views across the Southern plains of Sri Lanka. The city now mainly shows the influence of the Sinhalese and Tamil cultures, but the legacy of the British tea planters also lives on. Tea estates blanket the hillsides, punctuated by graceful planters’ bungalows, all enveloped in a damp and heavy climate that must have made the British settlers feel right at home.
Dambulla Rock Temple
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Located at an elevation of 1118 feet from the sea level rises a massive rock from the surrounding plains of Dambulla of 600 feet high and over 2000 feet in length. It is home to the world's most acclaimed cave complex of magnificent Buddha images and rock paintings of vivid colors from around 2nd century BC (Anuradhapura era ) and continued up to the Kandyan era of the 18th century.
Sigiriya
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Sigiriya is one of the most valuable historical monuments of Sri Lanka.
This ancient palace and fortress complex has significant archaeological importance and attracts thousands of tourists every year. It is probably the most visited tourist destination of Sri Lanka.
The palace is located in the heart of the island between the towns of Dambulla and Habarane on a massive rocky plateau 370 meters above the sea level. Its view astonishes the visitors with the unique harmony between the nature and human imagination.
The fortress complex includes remnants of a ruined palace, surrounded by an extensive network of fortifications, vast gardens, ponds, canals, alleys and fountains.
The term Sigiriya originates from the word Sihagri, i.e. Lion Rock.
Yala National Park
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Situated in Sri Lanka’s south-east hugging the panoramic Indian Ocean, Yala was designated a wildlife sanctuary in 1900 and was designated a national park in 1938. Ironically, the park was initially used as a hunting ground for the elite under British rule. Yala is home to 44 varieties of mammal and 215 bird species. Among its more famous residents are the world’s biggest concentration of leopards, majestic elephants, sloth bears, sambars, jackals, spotted dear, peacocks, and crocodiles. The best time to visit Yala is between February and July when the water levels of the park are quite low, bringing animals into the open.
the park has a protected area of nearly 130,000 hectares of land consisting of light forests, scrubs, grasslands, tanks and lagoons.
Temple Of The Tooth
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Located in Kandy, long a center of the Buddhist faith, the stunning 17th-century Temple of the Tooth (Sri Dalada Maligawa) houses the left upper canine tooth of the Lord Buddha himself. This precious relic attracts white-clad pilgrims, bearing lotus blossoms and frangipani, every day.
According to legend, the tooth was taken from the Buddha as he lay on his funeral pyre. It was smuggled to Sri Lanka in 313 AD, hidden in the hair of Princess Hemamali who fled the Hindu armies besieging her father's kingdom in India.
It immediately became an object of great reverence and was enshrined in a series of nested jeweled reliquaries where it survived numerous attempts to capture and destroy it. The tooth was brought out for special occasions and paraded on the backs of elephants, which are sacred to the Buddha. The tooth relic is removed from its shrine only once a year, during the Esala Perahera, a 10-day torchlight parade of dancers and drummers, dignitaries, and ornately decorated elephants. It is now one of the better-known festivals in Asia, and it may be the largest Buddhist celebration in the world
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Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage
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The primary purpose of the orphanage has been to provide a lifeline to the orphaned baby elephants and adult elephants lost in the wilderness. The elephants at the Orphanage aren’t subjected to any form of stress, abuse or threat at all and are supported by a team of employees numbering to over 100 including a group of mahouts.
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