I was really fortunate to recently attend the most beautiful wedding in Sri Lanka. While the bride and groom live in Ireland (where the bride is from), the groom is from Sri Lanka. They had both an Irish and a Sri Lankan wedding to make sure both sets of family were included in their union. The groom kindly organised for our wedding party group to travel around Sri Lanka with a hired driver, seeing the sights of this amazing country. These are some of the amazing things we did and saw that I recommend you adding to your own Sri Lankan road trip. Full details on the trip can be found at the end of the post.
Area 1 in Sri Lanka: Colombo
Go in a tuktuk!
Maybe not as “once in a lifetime” as some of the things on this list but it was on my bucket list so it definitely deserves a shout out. Unlike in Thailand where tuktuks are just a massive tourist trap, in Sri Lanka, and especially in Colombo, they are a genuine method of travel, although not one for the faint hearted! You could even select them from Uber- you got to decide whether you wanted a car, a tuktuk or to go on the back of a motorbike. I really recommend it as a form of cheap travel in Colombo. I do also have a separate travel blog just focused on Colombo.
Area 2 in Sri Lanka: Kandy
Kandy Esala Perahera Festival
Kandy Esala Perahera is a magnificent 10 day festival held in July or August to honour the Sacred Tooth Relic of Buddha. It is a massive parade of spectacular traditional dancers, musicians, and lavishly adorned elephants. Our friend had kindly pre-booked us a seat so all we had to do was rock up, sit back and enjoy the show!
Area 3 in Sri Lanka: Matale
Dambulla Cave Temples
Dambulla caves really surprised me with their beauty. After a 350 step scenic climb (with a few monkeys dotted around), you remove your shoes (socks are OK but remember to bring a tip in cash!) and cover your knees/shoulders to enter the ancient cave system. Inside, you will find over 150 Buddha statues and over 2,100 m² of cave paintings.
Sigiriya Fortress
Sigiriya (otherwise known as Lion Rock, because the rock looks like the body and face of a lion) is a 5th century UNESCO listed fortress. If you are feeling brave, you can climb up the 200m above the surrounding jungle plains for amazing views. There is also a very sophisticated water system, for any water nerds like myself!
Area 4 in Sri Lanka: Polonnaruwa
Polonnaruwa Ruins
Polonnaruwa Ancient City is a beautiful collection of ruins, including giant reclining buddhas, tombs, temples, statues and stupas. The ruins often had wandering monkeys dotted around, really making me think of the Jungle Book. I strongly recommend a fan and an umbrella to keep yourself cool and shaded.
Minneriya National Park Safari
On a jeep safari of Minneriya National Park we saw so many amazing animals and more elephants than I had seen in my entire life (well until I had visited Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage that is!). On the way back from the safari we also saw some elephants in the wild, just walking down the main road!
Area 5 in Sri Lanka: Trincomalee
Lagoon Boat Tour
While we did not see so much wildlife on our lagoon boat tour, we did see plenty of fish who jumped out of the water. I’ve never seen this before. A great place to go fishing I reckon! Although very difficult to capture on camera!
Scuba Diving
My partner and I separated from the group, who went snorkelling near Pigeon Island to go scuba diving for the day. We ended up going with Coco Diving Trincomalee for $60 USD for 2 dives pp. The dive was decent but we did have to pash in cash because their card machine was broken.
Area 6 in Sri Lanka: Kegalla
Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage
Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage was a truly magical experience. Now I truly had seen more elephants than in my entire life. This was definitely on the bucket list! Not only did I get to see the elephants but I got to hand wash them too (I got a bit of a wash at the same time!).
- Day 1-4 Wedding Prep, Colombo
- Day 3 Wedding Prep, Dance Party PM
- Day 4 Wedding Prep, Colombo
- Day 5 Wedding
- Day 6 Post Wedding / Dalawella for food
- Day 7 Pierre Harra Festival
- Day 8 Dambulla Caves AM, Sigiriya PM (20 mins drive between)
- Day 9 Polonnaruwa AM, Minneriya National Park Safari PM (30 mins drive between)
- Day 10 6 August Lagoon Boat Tour.
- Day 11 Diving in Trincomalee
- Day 12 Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage
- Day 13 9 August Home Coming Wedding Party
- Day 14-15 Colombo
- Day 1-4 28 July to 31 July: Colombo. Radisson Hotel Colombo.
- Day 4-7 31 July to 3 August: Beruwala. Cinnamon Bay Beruwala and Occidental Eden#
- Day 7-8 3 August to 4 August: Kandy. Cinnamon Citadel Kandy.
- Day 8-10 4 August to 6 August: Harbarana. Habarana Village by Cinnamon.
- Day 10-12 6 August to 8 August: Trincomalee. JKAB Beach Resort.
- Day 12-Day 15 8 August to 11 August: Colombo. Cinnamon Lakeside Colombo.
- Ryanair East Midlands EMA to Milan Bergamo BGY 5:50am-8:55am (2h05) 27/07/25
- 14h05 stopover in Bergamo
- Air Arabia Milan Bergamo BGY to Sharjah SHJ 11pm 27/07/25 – 7am 28/07/25 (6h)
- 1h20 stopover at Sharjah Airport
- Air Arabia Sharjah SHJ to Colombo CMB 8:20am-2:20pm (4h30) 28/07/26
- AirAsia Colombo CMB to Bangkok DMK 1:15pm 11/08/25 - 4:15am 12/08/25 (3h30)
- 4 day stopover in Bangkok
- Turkmenistan Bangkok BKK to Ashgabat ASB 4:40am-9:40am 16/08/25 (7h)
- 2h35 stopover at Ashgabat Airport
- Turkmenistan Ashgabat ASB to London Gatwick LGW 12:15pm-3:25pm 16/08/25 (7h10)
