Day 1 AIRPORT–PINNAWELA–KANDY
• Arrive by () at (). Please clear immigration & visa formalities, collect your baggage and proceed to the arrival lounge through the green channel if you do not have goods to be declared to customs. Tripstide Representative will page you by your name. Thereafter you will be assisted to the Car park / Coach Park to begin you journey as per the booked itinerary with the English Speaking Chauffer.
• Leave to Pinnawela.
• Pinnawala elephant orphanage.(App. 55 miles from Colombo, off the Colombo – Kandy road is Pinnawela, where an orphanage was started in 1975 to house the abandoned and the wounded elephants. The number of elephants has increased to more than 65 now; including Baby Elephants brought from various parts, as well as some of the more than 25 babies born, as a result of the captive breeding programme. The best time to visit is the feeding time from 0930-1000 hrs and 1330-1400 hrs and the bathing time from 1000-1030 hrs and 1400-1430 hrs when all the elephants are taken to the river close by.)
• Arrive in Kandy and spend the rest of the day at leisure.
• Overnight stay at a Kandy hotel.
Day 2 KANDY
• After breakfast at the hotel enjoy a city tour of Kandy.
• Royal Botanical Gardens.(147 acres in extent: started in 1374 as a pleasure garden of the King’s of Kandy. There are more than 5000 species of tree and plants. Some and endemic as well as flora from the tropical world. Spice garden and Orchid House are popular with Tourists.)
• Kandy(The hill capital, venue of the annual Perahera. The last stronghold of the Sinhala Kings was finally ceded to the British in 1815. Kandy is an example of the Buddhism's influence in Sri Lanka today. Temple's shrines and monasteries keeping alive Buddhist traditions are everywhere.)
• Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic.(Ever since 4th Century A.D, when the Buddha's Tooth was brought to Sri Lanka hidden from sacrilegious hands in an Orissan princess' hair, the Relic has grown in repute and holiness in Sri Lanka and throughout the Buddhist world. It is considered Sri Lanka's most prized possession.)
• Visit Gem Factory.
• Evening witness the Kandy Cultural Dance Performance.
• Overnight stay at a Kandy hotel.
Day 3 KANDY–RAMBODA–NUWARA ELIYA
• After the breakfast, proceed to Nuwara Eliya.
• Visit Ramboda waterfall & visit tea factory & plantation.(Ramboda Falls is 109 m (358 ft) high and 11th highest waterfall in Sri Lanka and 729th highest waterfall in the world. It is situated in Pussellawa area, on the A5 highway at Ramboda Pass. It formed by Panna Oya which is a tributary of Kothmale Oya. Altitude of the falls is 945 m (3,100 ft) above sea level)
• Afterwards visit Sri Baktha Hanuman Temple.(According to the ancient stories, Ramboda is a area, where the forces of Rama's gather to fight against King Ravana. This temple was built by the Chinmaya mission of Sri Lanka and dedicated to Hanuman. This temple houses for 16 Feel height statue of Hanuman.)
• Arrive in Nuwara Eliya Hotel & Spend the rest of the day leisurely.
• Overnight stay at a Nuwara Eliya hotel.
Day 4 NUWARA ELIYA
• After the breakfast, proceed to Nuwara Eliya City Tour.
• City tour in Nuwara Eliya.(Nuwara Eliya - The ‘Little England’ of Sri Lanka, is set against beautiful backdrops of Mountains, Valleys, Waterfalls and Tea Plantations. It is supposed to be one of the coldest places on the island, but is really just like an England spring day although the temperature does drop at night.All around Nuwara Eliya you will see evidence of the British influence. Houses are like country cottages or Queen Ann style mansions.)
• Seetha Amman Temple.(The kidnapping of Sita by Ravana (was King of Lanka) - meant that Ravana had to hide Sita in several locations. The Seetha Amman temple was named after the wife, Sitadevi, of Lord Rama. The structure was built on one of the exact sites where the demon king Ravana held Sita as his captive, in the Ashoka Forests of the region. It is believed that the Lordess used the stream by the temple and meditated by the rocks along the stream.)
• Visit Hakgala Botanical Garden.
• Overnight stay at Hotel in Nuwara Eliya.
Day 5 NUWARA ELIYA–BENTOTA
• After the early breakfast, proceed to Bentota.
• Proceed to Kosgoda visit Turtle Hatchery.(Kosgoda is famous for its sea turtle conservation project operated by the Wild Life Protection Society of Sri Lanka. It was established in 1988 to protect Sri Lanka’s turtles from extinction. Since then it has released about 3.5 million baby turtles into the wild.
The hatchery pays fishermen for eggs that they collect at night along the long sandy beach. Although October to April is the main laying season, some eggs (mostly green turtles) can be found at Kosgoda throughout the year.
The hatchery buries the eggs in sand, and when they hatch around 50 days later the baby turtles are released into the sea at night. Only about one in 1,000 turtles survives to maturity.
Kosgoda turtle hatchery also has tanks for injured or disabled turtles, including albino turtles that would not survive in the wild)
• Proceed to Madu Ganga for a Boat Ride.(The estuary of the Madu Ganga River is a complex coastal ecosystem of mangroves and islands. It may be one of the last remaining tracts of pristine mangrove forests in Sri Lanka.
A boat trip is a wonderful way of seeing some of the hundreds of species of plants and animals – monkeys eat fruit in the trees, a water monitor lizard glides slowly through The water, and cormorants, egrets and kingfishers wait patiently on the banks, eyeing the water for prey.
There are around 64 islands in the river and lagoon, from a tiny speck housing a deserted shrine to one housing 250 families connected to the mainland with a very long footbridge.
You can visit an island with a Buddhist monastery, where the friendly young monks will show you a 150-year-old book made of palm leaves and how they cook on cinnamon wood on an open fire.
The main occupations of the local inhabitants are producing cinnamon and prawn fishing – if you take the trip in the evening you will see the fishermen in their canoes lighting lanterns to attract the shellfish into their traps.)
• Overnight stay at Hotel in Bentota.
Day 6 BENTOTA-COLOMBO
• After breakfast proceed to Colombo, City tour in Colombo + Shopping.(Colombo - a drive through the city taking you to the busy commercial areas as well as the tree-lined residential, Cinnamon Gardens.
Visit Fort, the former British administrative center and military garrison, Sea Street - the Goldsmith’s quarters in the heart of Pettah, the Bazaar area, where is also a Hindu Temple with elaborate stone carvings, and the Dutch Church of Wolfendhal dating back to 1749.
Also visit the BMICH, see the replica of Avukana Buddha and Independence Square.)
• Overnight stay at Hotel in Colombo
Day 7 COLOMBO–AIRPORT
• After breakfast at the hotel proceed to airport for your scheduled flight with so much to remember and cherish one day!
• Have a safe flight!
