Benno and I just finished 1 month in Sri Lanka! What a beaaauuut month it was. A boatload of adventures and stories we have from our time in Shri Shri. Since we spent a month here, we were able to pop around to a good many places around the country. Here are my notes on all that we did!

General things to know:

• The train rides here are GORGEOUS, especially in the hill country / tea highlands. That’s actually the only time/area where we took the train and we did local buses or tuk tuks the rest of the time. The train rides are mad slow but the views are worth it up in tea country for sure. We took the train from Ella to Nuwara Eliya, stayed a couple nights there and then took it up to Kandy. Highly recommend getting all the train snacks and tea while you’re on there, too!

• Regarding local buses, they run everywhere and often. Most buses run every half hour, no matter where you’re going it seemed. We mainly took buses to get from town to town / place to place. Never had an issue and they are crazzzyyy cheap. Like $1.50 a person for a 5 hour ride kind of cheap. Also would fo sho recommend the snacks — vendors hop on the bus at a number of stops to sell their offerings for a couple minutes while the bus is stopped. The fresh yellow corn CANNOT BE MISSED.

• Each region of the country has a time of year when they are in season. Look it up for everywhere you go. Sometimes it makes little difference. Sometimes, half of the restaurants/shops/etc are closed in the off season.

• The majority of Sri Lankans practice Buddhism. However, there are areas that are majority Muslim — and there are areas that have a mix of Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus and Christians. Generally speaking, Sri Lankans are modest people so don’t wear your bikini around in town — only on the beach.

• The language spoken does change depending on what town or region you’re in. The north is mostly Tamil and the rest of the country speaks Sinhala — EXCEPT sometimes not. In Arugam Bay for example (which is in the southeast), a shopowner told us they speak Tamil. So we learned words in both languages to be friendly to all :)

• You can’t drink the local water here unfortunately so you do have to buy bottles of water :( but I did figure out that you can brush your teeth with faucet water and have no issue… that’s something I guess!

Cool things you’ll see:

• peacocks! They are native to Sri Lanka so you will definitely see them around and hear their calls as well.

• hand painted trucks! So many of the trucks are hand-painted with a rainbow of colors and patterns. They are truly works of art.

• cows! Just like India, cows can often be spotted on the sides of roads, in the middle of roads and just anywhere where you wouldn’t normally expect them to be.

• really really big bats! Like HUGE bats. At dusk, keep an eye out for these massive dudes. It’s weirdly mesmerizing to see them fly around.

• decked out tuk tuks! One of my favorite things here was to truly enjoy every tiny piece of decor on the inside and outside of the tuk tuk we were riding in. Every tuk tuk has such a distinct personality. Some owners decorate more than others but all are unique and amazing and I love them.

• cool spots! If you are ever in need of a fresh juice or a milkshake or a samosa, go to a cool spot. This is just the general name for these snack shops/juice bars, no matter where you are in the country. My favorite one was a block away from our hotel in Kandy… I will dream of that banana juice for many moons to come.

Things to eat:

• any kind of roti — I loved the veg roti which always comes wrapped in a triangle shape with potato and veg inside. and I also quite enjoyed cheese roti and avocado roti.

• kottu roti (not dissimilar to pad thai but chopped roti instead of noodles, ask for spice since it normally is made bland for tourists)

• anything from the bread tuk tuk! They’re in every single town in this country. You’ll hear it playing Fur Elise. I like the long sugar covered bread, the bread with a hot dog in it and the curry bread (they’re all pastry sized). And the best part is, they will always give you your bread in old sheets of homework that have been taped together.

• banana juice, mango juice, passion fruit juice, lime + mint juice

• fresh coconut water out of an orange king coconut

• wood apple shake — it’s a locally-loved fruit with a funky flavor that’s much tastier in a milkshake

• the fritters! they tend to be made of chickpea and corn, I think. the locals eat them with the crispy red chilis that are served alongside. the vendors will come by with these on the train or on the buses. these also are usually given to you inside a pouch made of old sheets of homework, just like the bread tuk tuk does :)

• hoppers, egg hoppers and string hoppers for brekky with dal and coconut sambal

• all the rice and curries!! we had a particularly good pork curry in hikkaduwa and a lovely, spicy fish curry in arugam bay. the typical way that it’s served at local restaurants is a plate of rice with 3-6 curries dolloped around the rice. you don’t order any specific ones, they just give you the curries of the day. at nicer/more tourist-focused restaurants, you can choose your curries and they’ll come in separate bowls.

• all the bus snacks and train snacks you can handle (TRY IT ALL)

• curd and treacle — this is the national dessert. the buffalo curd is kind of like a firm yogurt and treacle is kind of like honey/maple syrup/ish. not my thing but benno was a fan of the curd. you purchase the curd in a big brown clay pot at the grocery (or on the roadside, you’ll see them everywhere.)

• go to bodegas and groceries! my fave things to get include: Milo chocolate milk pouches, mango nectar/juice, Cheese Buttons crackers, fresh bananas (they are tiny and delicious), Mentos Marbles candy, Glucorasa sugar-covered jellies, Traffic Light popsicle, ginger cookies and the colorful sugar-covered squares of marshmallow.

WEST COAST

COLOMBO

When you arrive in Sri Lanka, you land in Colombo. While many people skip exploring here, I’d say it’s at least worth a day! Just to see what the biggest city in Sri Lanka is like. Plus I love wandering aimlessly around cities, which I’d recommend doing here.

• check out Pettah Market

• walk along the water at Galle Face Green at sunset (loads of street food vendors + restos)

• you can take Grab or Pick Me tuk tuks everywhere for cheap

• walk around the Cinnamon Gardens neighborhood

• try short eats at Green Cabin

• shopping at Barefoot (cool textile/clothing/gift store that we loved, they have a nice cafe too)

HIKKADUWA

After Colombo, we took a bus south to Galle and then a 30 minute tuk tuk back up to Hikkaduwa. This beach town is one of the first tourist-y kind of beaches that came to be in Sri Lanka. And it does seem kind of aged in a way. Mind you, we came in off-season. It is a lovely beach to walk along and there are a good many places to eat even in off-season it seems.

• we heard that Chami’s Place is a good spot to stay

• there is a bit of the beach where sea turtles come up and you can feed them seaweed. this was actually super cool to do as it was the closest I had been to a sea turtle at that point.

• many of the locals will try to offer you tours that include going to the tsunami museum, an herbal garden and a bunch of other stuff. it’s decently scammy so I’d avoid if I were you as they may say one price and then charge you a fuk ton more for the tuk tuk driver at the end of the day.

• eat at No. 1 Roti! we also heard Home Grown Rice & Curry is good but it was closed for the season while we were there.

NOTE: I heard Bentota is a nice beach town to stay in with a lot of boutique hotels and that Beruwela beach has a focus on ayurveda spas. We didn’t stop at either but they could be worth looking into.

SOUTH COAST

GALLE

After Hikkaduwa, we took a tuk tuk 30 minutes south to Galle. We stayed here only a couple days but it’s such a cute town inside the old walls — loads of cool shops and restaurants and cafes. Such a good spot for walking aimlessly around the streets and then popping up to walk on top of the walls and watch the water. Benno bought three shirts at three different stores while we were here — and the dude never shops.

• Stick No Bills is a kewl poster shop

• They also have a Barefoot here (same store that I mentioned in Colombo)

• Heritage Cafe & Bistro was adorable inside and had a bangin chicken pesto sammie

• Other restos I had written down include: Serendipity Cafe, Royal Dutch Cafe, Punto Cafe and Spoon’s

• Outside of town, we spent the afternoon at Jungle Beach. You have a tuk tuk take you there and then you hike down to the beach. There are two options: we chose the second beach.

• A more notable beach that we didn’t get to do is Unawatuna. It sounds like it’s big and busy but is pretty and has lots of good food vendors walking the beach.

HIRIKETIYA

From Galle, we took a local bus to the small beach town of Hiriketiya. You stop in Dikwella and then take a 5 minute tuk tuk to Hiriketiya Beach. This was easily my favorite beach that we visited in all of Sri Lanka. It is tiny and perfect and hippy and comfortable and just such the easiest place to relax for 5 days (which is what we did). Most people come to surf — we didn’t but it was nice to watch the surfers from the beach :)

• We stayed at Villa Hiriketiya, which I cannot recommend enough. Beautiful rooms and a stunning pool surrounded by palm trees. We spent hours every day in that pool. Really lovely staff, too. They set up a Sri Lankan breakfast for us so we could try all 3 of the different kinds of hoppers. NOMMMM.

• Restaurants I’d recommend include:

  • either of the roti huts on the beach (they are placed basically next to each other and are super cheap)

  • The Grove (I went here for breakfast most mornings, great menu)

  • Dots (western and sri lankan food, also they have yoga classes here)

  • Moana (didn’t try it out but seemed like it’d be good for drinks on the beach or food, owned by The Grove people)

  • Beach House (great pizza!)

  • Malu (we only had apple pie and creme brulee here but those were crazy good so seems like a good sign that all their food is tasty)

  • Garlic Cafe (heard from the locals that it’s good but didn’t get to eat here ourselves)

  • Salt House (hipstery place that we heard had nice yet pricey (for Sri Lanka) food)

• We walked into Dikwella one day to get insanely bueno massages at Amor Wellness

• Yoga is offered at both Dots and Salt House. We only tried it at Dots but it was v nice.

NOTE: These are the beach towns we didn’t make it to but I had read about:

• Mirissa: known for whale watching

• Tallala: stunning and quiet

• Tangalla: good long beach but not great for swimming

HILL COUNTRY

ELLA

From Hiriketiya/Dikwella, we took a local bus up to Ella. It was a very gorgeous ride towards the end once we got up into the hills. Ella is in a rain forest-like setting but is also a climate for tea-growing. There are some good hiking options and the town is super tiny and chill.

• at some point, eat at Chill Cafe because literally everyone does (eat upstairs)

• also heard good things about Curd House and Mateys Hut

• spend one of your days there walking up Adams peak and over to Nine Arches Bridge

• Ravana Waterfall is nearby and worth seeing

NUWARA ELIYA

From Ella, we took the train to Nuwara Eliya. IT. WAS. GORGEOUS. The town of Nuwara Eliya itself is an odd ball. It’s called Little England but that mainly applies to the tea-plantations-turned-resorts outside of town up in the hills. There is an old English post office in town and a golf course, but the rest felt like a normal Sri Lankan town — which we preferred anyhow.

• We took a tour of the Pedro Tea Factory and I’d recommend that. Beautiful hills of tea and the tour was helpful to better understand the process of tea making. We rented a scooter to go up there ourselves, which was nice to not be on a time-restricted tour (which are offered to you often).

• This is a great town to walk around aimlessly. This town is really more for the locals (not for tourists) which is my ideal kind of town when I’m traveling. Benno and I ate at only super cheap local spots our entire time here.

KANDY

From Nuwara Eliya, we took the train to Kandy. I was SUPER into Kandy. We chatted with a Belgian couple at the top of Little Adam’s Peak in Ella and they loathed Kandy. Said it was too dirty and busy. But OMMGGGG I loved it. So glad we didn’t skip it. It’s a great small city / big town to explore on foot. Lots of local market streets, food vendors, fruit vendors, local restaurants, juice shops (called Cool Spots). I spent hours walking all around town alone (while Benno slept) and it was one of my favorite mornings of the entire trip. I even went into a clothing shop for the local women and bought some kick-ass patterned shirts. YUUUSSS.

• Central Market is a must-see while in Kandy. Lots of vendors of all kinds.

• We stayed at Clock Inn which was v nice and clean and still well-priced.

• Walk along the north shore of Kandy Lake and it’ll take you past the famous temple of the sacred tooth relic.

NOTE: We didn’t go to Anuradhapura or Sigiriya while we were in the center of the country but they could be worth looking into if you want some more cultural/religious experiences.

EAST COAST

Nilaveli

From Kandy, we took a bus to Trincomalee and then a tuk tuk to Nilaveli. This is a very quiet beach town in a very beautiful setting. One of my favorite things we did here was rent a scooter and drive up the coast north of Nilaveli. It’s a very cool smattering of landscapes and we made random stops as we pleased to check out bits and pieces of interest — like the very very old buddhist temple on a hill on a beach in Kuchchaveli.

• We stayed at Bella, which was perfect. Nice location. Great pool. Tasty food. And we rented the scoot scoot from them. The owners are an Italian wife and her Sri Lankan husband with an adorable little boy.

• Trincomalee is also worth a wander. We drove down there with the scooter as well. Stopped by a grocery (our favorite traveling pastime) and watched the local life pass by.

• Most people come to Nilaveli to snorkel at Pigeon Island. That was deffo a highlight. We saw loads of sea turtles, big reef sharks and hundreds of colorful fish all within arm’s length. Just don’t bring any extra cash with you because it might get stolen while you’re snorkeling (which happened to us, lolz).

ARUGAM BAY

From Trincomalee, we took a couple buses and a tuk tuk down to Arugam Bay. This town is known specifically for surfing. And unfortch for us, the surfing season ends in September so a number of the shops/restaurants close down then, too. But it is still a groovy beach town to enjoy regardless of the time of year (as long as it’s not monsooning).

• stay at Spice Villa or Hideaway (we did not but I checked out both while there and they looked lovely)

• get coffee or tea in the morning at Bites (hipstery coffee shop, we went every day)

• dinner at Hideaway (expensive for Sri Lanka but worth it we heard)

• insane seafood at Mr Fisherman (MUST DO!)

• good local roti at Risana Roti (lovely owner/chef, plus we only saw locals here = good sign)

• pizza at Pizza Hub (bc we really needed it and it did not disappoint)

• go to Deergayu for massages (truly life changing shit. BELIEVE ME.)

NORTH COAST

We didn’t make it to Jaffna or the north end of the country. But deffo would have liked to if we had more time. I read that Jaffna is great for renting a scooter and exploring all the tiny islands in the area (lots of white sand bays and pretty coves). I also read that you can rent a bike then take the ferry to Neduntivu from Jaffna for a good time.