Most Sri Lanka travel tips are written by someone who spent nine days here and never once got a tuk-tuk fare right. We live here, so this is the list we send friends before they land: the visa you must sort out at home, why 150 kilometres takes four hours, what a head-wobble means, which day of the month the bars close, and the four mistakes almost every first itinerary makes. Read it once and you will travel better than most people do on their second visit.
01
Sri Lanka travel tips for before you fly
Is Sri Lanka a difficult country for a first-time visitor? No. It is one of the easier places in Asia to travel through on your own: English is widely spoken, distances are short, the food is mild by regional standards and the worst that usually happens is a tuk-tuk driver charging you double. Most of what goes wrong goes wrong before you land, so start there.
1. Get the ETA at home, from the only real website
Everyone needs an Electronic Travel Authorisation, and eta.gov.lk is the only official site. The search results are full of lookalikes that charge a fee to fill in the same form. It is free for 40 nationalities plus Maldives, Seychelles and Singapore since 25 May 2026; for everyone else it is US$50 online, or $20 for SAARC passports. Leave it until arrival and it is $60 and a queue. Under-12s are free, and you get 30 days with double entry. Our visa guide has the full list.
2. Carry cash, and carry small notes
The currency is the rupee. ATMs are in the arrivals hall and in every town, and they are the cheapest way to get money. Most machines cap a single withdrawal and many charge a fee on foreign cards, so take the maximum each time. Cards work in hotels and larger restaurants, not in tuk-tuks, most guesthouses, roadside restaurants or the smaller entry gates. Break a 5,000-rupee note at a supermarket early. A tuk-tuk driver will not have change for it.
3. Buy the SIM in the arrivals hall
Walk out of customs and the Dialog and Mobitel counters are in front of you. Both sell a tourist package registered against your passport and working before you reach the car. On the operators' own price lists, checked 16 September 2026, Dialog's tourist plans are LKR 1,399 for 20 GB, LKR 1,799 for 30 GB and LKR 2,450 for 50 GB — roughly US$4 to US$7.50 — and Mobitel's are LKR 821 for 15 GB over seven days or LKR 1,540 for 30 GB over thirty. Dialog has the better coverage in the hills in our experience. An eSIM bought before you fly works too, but usually costs several times more for less data.
4. Plugs are the UK type, mostly
Sockets are 230 volts and most are the three-pin type G, the same as Britain. The older round-pin type D still turns up in guesthouses, and many sockets accept both. A universal adapter covers everything. British visitors can leave it at home.
5. Pack for two climates, not one
People pack for the beach and then spend two nights in Nuwara Eliya, where it drops to about 10°C after dark and the hotels have no heating. This is what we would actually take. Everything else can be bought here for less than at home.
- One warm layer and a light rain jacket, for the hills in any month.
- A sarong or large scarf. It covers knees at a temple and shoulders in the sun.
- Socks for temple courtyards. The stone at Dambulla is painful barefoot by mid-morning.
- Repellent with DEET, applied at breakfast. Dengue mosquitoes bite in daylight.
- Offline copies of the ETA, bookings and the emergency numbers. Signal in the hills is patchy.
02
Getting around: the distances are short, the journeys are not
6. Read kilometres as hours
The island is 435 kilometres long and that fools people. An A-road averages 30–40 km/h once you count the buses, the dogs, the towns and the tuk-tuks, so a 150-kilometre hop is an afternoon, not a morning. The expressways run at 80–100 km/h but only cover Colombo to the south coast, the airport, and part of the way to Kandy. Every itinerary on this site lists drive times, because that is the number that decides whether a day works.
| Journey | Roughly | Plan for |
|---|---|---|
| Airport to Colombo | 35 km via the E03 | 45 min to 1 h |
| Colombo to Galle | 120 km via the E01 | 1.5–2 h |
| Airport to Sigiriya | 150 km | 3.5–4 h |
| Sigiriya to Kandy | 90 km | 2.5–3 h |
| Kandy to Nuwara Eliya | 80 km, all bends | 2.5–3 h |
| Ella to the south coast | 150 km | 3.5–4 h |
7. Check the train before you plan a day around it
The hill-country line is partly disrupted. Nanu Oya to Ella and Badulla reopened on 20 June 2026 after Cyclone Ditwah, but Kandy to Nanu Oya is still closed with no confirmed date, and the full line is not expected back before the end of the year. The workaround is a car from Kandy to Nanu Oya, two to three hours, and the train from there, which is the best section anyway. Our Kandy to Ella train guide tracks what is running.
8. Agree the tuk-tuk fare before you sit down
In Colombo, tuk-tuks have meters and most drivers will use them if asked. Everywhere else the fare is agreed first, and the first number offered outside a hotel gate is a tourist price. Walk 50 metres and ask another driver. Expect something like 100 to 150 rupees a kilometre in town, more in Mirissa, Ella and Galle, and more again after dark. A short hop is a couple of dollars, so the argument is never worth more than a minute.
9. Use PickMe, even if you never get in the car
PickMe is the local ride-hailing app and it works in Colombo, at the airport, in Kandy, Galle and the bigger towns; Uber runs in Colombo too. Both quote a fixed fare, and PickMe will hail a tuk-tuk as well as a car. In a town where drivers are not on the app, the estimated fare on screen is still the number to negotiate from.
10. Take a bus once, and a car with driver for the rest
Buses cost under US$2 for any intercity journey, go everywhere, and are crowded, fast and hot. The crowding is the single most common complaint we hear from solo women. For most couples and families the sensible default is a car with driver at $55 to $100 a day including fuel and the driver's board. It is not a luxury here; it is how the island is built to be seen. Our getting-around guide compares the options.
03
Things to know before visiting Sri Lanka: culture and manners
11. Cover shoulders and knees at every temple
Shoulders and knees covered, shoes and hats off, and that applies to Hindu kovils and mosques as much as to Buddhist temples. Attendants at Dambulla and the Temple of the Tooth will turn you back or rent you a sarong. The same standard, loosely, applies in towns: bikinis and shorts are for the sand and the pool, and a T-shirt over the swimsuit on the walk back is noticed and appreciated.
12. Do not turn your back on the Buddha
Photographing a Buddha statue is fine. Posing with your back to one for a selfie is not, and attendants will stop you. The same goes for pointing your feet at a statue while sitting, and for Buddha images on clothing or skin. Visitors have been refused entry at the airport for visible Buddha tattoos, so cover one if you have it. None of this is aimed at tourists. It is a rule Sri Lankans apply to themselves first.
13. Know when Poya is
Poya is the full-moon day, and every one of them is a public holiday. Bars close, shops stop selling alcohol, some hotel bars stop serving even to guests, and offices and many restaurants shut. Temples fill with families in white. Check the dates before you book a night out, and treat the two biggest, Vesak in May and Poson in June, as the events they are.
14. The head-wobble means yes, and the right hand does everything
A loose side-to-side tilt of the head is agreement, acknowledgement, or simply that the person is listening. It is not a shake and it is not a no. You will catch yourself doing it by the end of the first week.
The left hand, meanwhile, is for the bathroom. Eating rice and curry with the fingers of the right hand is normal and there is always a basin to wash, but nobody minds a fork. Handing over money or a gift with the right hand, or with both, is the polite version.
15. Tip modestly, and check the bill first
Hotels and most sit-down restaurants add a service charge, usually ten percent, and it will be on the bill; leave nothing further there, or loose change. Beyond that, tipping is appreciated rather than expected and there is no fixed norm. What we would leave: around US$5–10 a day for a driver at the end of a multi-day tour, a few dollars for a guide or a safari tracker, a couple of hundred rupees for a porter, and round the bill up at a local restaurant.
04
Health: dengue, sun, water, dogs and monkeys
16. Dengue is the real health risk, and the mosquitoes bite by day
Malaria is not a concern in Sri Lanka. Dengue is, particularly in Colombo and the wet south-west from May to July and again in November and December. The mosquito that carries it bites in daylight, so the repellent goes on at breakfast and again mid-afternoon, not at dusk. A high fever with joint pain a few days into the trip is a doctor's visit the same day, and doctors here will tell you to stick to paracetamol until dengue is ruled out.
17. The sun is seven degrees off the equator
Sigiriya at noon in March is genuinely punishing, and the rock radiates heat back up. Climb at opening, do Polonnaruwa by bicycle before ten, and treat midday as the time for lunch and a fan. Sunburn is the most common reason visitors lose a day here. A hat and a long-sleeved shirt do more than any factor of cream.
18. Do not drink the tap water
Nobody here does. Bottled water is everywhere and cheap, and most guesthouses and hostels have a filtered refill jug, so a reusable bottle saves money and a mountain of plastic. Ice in hotels and proper restaurants is made from filtered water and is fine; at a roadside juice stall, ask for the juice without it. Food from a busy local restaurant is generally safer than food from a quiet tourist one, because it has not been sitting.
19. The dogs are placid, but do not pet them
There are stray dogs on every beach and in every town, and almost all of them are gentle. Rabies exists here, though, so leave them alone, and if you are bitten or scratched, wash the wound with soap for several minutes and go to the nearest hospital the same day for the vaccine. Government hospitals have it. Do not wait to see whether the dog looked healthy.
20. The monkeys are not placid
Toque macaques at Sigiriya, Dambulla and Kandy have learned that a tourist bag contains food, and will take sunglasses, phones and an entire packed lunch with complete confidence. Do not feed them, keep the bag zipped, do not stare down a big male, and keep balcony doors closed in the Cultural Triangle. A monkey bite is treated like a dog bite.
21. The sea is more dangerous than anything on land
Violent crime against visitors is rare. The traffic is the biggest genuine risk, and the second is rip currents on the south-west coast between May and September, when the swell is up and many beaches have no lifeguard. If locals are not swimming, do not swim. Our safety guide goes through all of it, including what solo women can expect on buses.
05
Money-saving tips for Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka is not the cheapest country in Asia any more, and the big sites charge foreigners in dollars. Where the money goes on a first trip is very predictable, and so are the swaps.
22. Pidurangala instead of Sigiriya, or as well
Sigiriya costs US$35 to climb. Pidurangala is the rock across the valley, it costs about $3, the climb is shorter and rougher, and the view is of Sigiriya, which is the photograph you actually wanted. Do it at dawn. If the frescoes and the water gardens matter to you, do both.
23. Eat rice and curry at lunchtime
Rice and curry is US$1.50 to $3 at a local restaurant and it is the same food the hotel charges $12 for. Lunch is the meal here: the curries are cooked in the morning and are freshest and most varied before two. By evening a local place has less choice. Kottu from a roadside grill at $2 to $3 fills the gap.
24. Take the fan room
Guesthouses price a fan room a few dollars below the same room with air-conditioning. In the hills you do not need the cooling at all, and on the coast a fan, a sea breeze and a mosquito net are comfortable most of the year. Over two weeks the saving pays for a safari. Nine Arch Bridge, Little Adam's Peak and Ella Rock, for the record, are free, and the walk to each is the point.
| Instead of | Try | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| Sigiriya, US$35 | Pidurangala, about US$3 | The view of Sigiriya, not from it |
| Yala Block 1 shared jeep, about US$45 | Udawalawe, about US$40 | Elephants guaranteed, no jeep queues |
| Hotel dinner, US$10–15 | Rice and curry at lunch, US$1.50–3 | Fresher, and more of it |
| Air-conditioned room | Fan room | A few dollars a night, every night |
| Private transfer for a short hop | The bus, under US$2 | Slower, hotter, and a story |
| Mid-December to mid-January | February, or May | Same weather, much lower prices |
06
The four mistakes almost every first itinerary makes
25. Trying to do everything
The classic first itinerary has ten days and nine places. On this island that is thirty hours in a car. Our 10-day itinerary covers the standard loop in about 17 hours of driving with no leg longer than four, and even that is a full trip. With a week, do the Cultural Triangle, Kandy, one hill town and one beach. Drop Anuradhapura or drop Nuwara Eliya, but drop one. It will still be here.
26. Doing the standard loop in the wrong monsoon
The south coast and hills loop that every blog describes is a December to March itinerary. Book it for July and you get a rainy Mirissa, a sea you cannot swim in, and a hill country in cloud. In July, go east: Trincomalee, Nilaveli, Arugam Bay, and the Cultural Triangle in the dry. Our best-time-to-visit guide has the month-by-month version, and it is the one page we would most like people to read before they book flights.
27. Yala in peak season
Yala Block 1 has the highest leopard density and the highest jeep density, and in the Christmas and August peaks the second cancels the first: a sighting means thirty vehicles around one animal. Wilpattu has the same species and a fraction of the traffic. Udawalawe has elephants every day of the year. And Block 1 usually closes in September and October anyway, which catches out people who booked it for a September trip. Our safari guide compares the parks.
28. The observation carriage
The train's reserved observation carriage has become the thing people fly here for, and it is the worst way to ride the line. Seats sell out weeks ahead, resold tickets go for several times face value, the windows are fixed, and the carriage is at the wrong end of the train half the time. Second class, unreserved, with the door open and your feet on the step, is the picture everyone is actually trying to take, and it costs a dollar or two. See the train guide for what is running, because at the time of writing the Kandy end of the line is not.