Need palm-fringed pristine beaches for a relaxing beach holiday? Sri Lanka has it. Do you like to explore historical monuments of one of the greatest cultures with UNESCO world heritage sites? Sri Lanka has it. Want delicious seafood? You can have it in Sri Lanka, in fact, Sri Lanka is one of the best places to eat fresh seafood. Do you like to have a deep, unforgettable cultural experience? …You decide Is it worth visiting Sri Lanka?
Is it worth visiting Sri Lanka?
Tourism is becoming one of the most important income generators for the island of Sri Lanka. The country is visited by nearly 2 million tourists every year. Sri Lanka attracts travellers from all parts of the world, but most of the tourist traffic is coming from European countries. Sri Lanka is a multi-faceted holiday destination and there are many reasons why you should visit Sri Lanka. But still, there are many people around the world asking us “Is it worth visiting Sri Lanka?“. This blog post is in view of travellers, who ask the question “Is it worth visiting Sri Lanka?”
The Seven Best Reasons To Visit Sri Lanka
The diversity
Need palm-fringed pristine beaches for a relaxing beach holiday? Sri Lanka has it. Do you like to explore historical sites with UNESCO world heritage sites? Sri Lanka has it. Want delicious seafood? You can have it in Sri Lanka, in fact, Sri Lanka is one of the best places to eat fresh seafood. Do you like to have a deep, unforgettable cultural experience? Choose Sri Lanka. Do you like to practice yoga and meditation? Sri Lanka has it. Would you like to enjoy the real nature? Sri Lanka offers you that. Sri Lanka is small in size but it offers virtually everything that travellers look for if you got enough time and money.
Weather in Sri Lanka
Being a tropical country, Sri Lanka provides very suitable weather for holidays throughout the year. This tiny tropical island is packed with a large number of natural and man-made attractions. The pristine beaches are the most striking of them all and attract a large number of Beach holiday lovers; the island is surrounded by thousands of kilometres of sandy beaches. Primaeval rainforests, national parks with fascinating wildlife, varied land escapes across the country, thousands of years of old archaeological sites, rich culture and history and friendly people make it a holiday destination for all tastes.
Great Beaches and Water-Sports on the west coast
Some of the beaches on the West coast of Sri Lanka such as Unawatuna, Hikkaduwa are ranked among the best beaches in the world. This coastal area is not only suitable for sea bath and water sports but also offers plenty of other activities. A few kilometres from the coast is the fascinating countryside with mountains, escapements, patches of forests and many natural attractions.
West Coast beaches such as Bentota, Unawatuna, and Mt.Lavinia attract a large number of holidaymakers, which are very suitable for sea baths, sunbath, diving, snorkelling, and other water sports. These palm-fringed beaches are very wide and clean. The beaches of Sri Lanka is well developed for tourism and provide all the facilities for local and foreign travellers.
Places To Visit: Bentota, Negombo, Unawatuna, Nilaveli, Pasikudah.
Things To Do: Enjoy the gorgeous sunset, stroll on the beach, surf, diving and much much more.
Suggested Read: Places for diving snorkelling in Sri Lanka
The Beautiful Mountains
For all travellers who love nature and adventure, the best of all travel advice I do like to give is, don’t forget Sri Lanka’s mountains. The journey to the Sri Lanka Mountains guides you into the lap of nature. Right in the middle of the island of Sri Lanka is the central mountain range that rises up to 2528 meters above sea level.
Semi-mountain and mountains in the central part of the island resulted from the geological upheavals of the land, which took place many millions of years ago. The mountainous area is one of the most beautiful natural attractions on the island and is popular among adventure holidaymakers. It provides a large number of sites for adventure activities such as mountain climbing, hiking, walking, trekking, mountain biking and caving.
The tea leaves for the world-renowned best Ceylon tea is also produced here. Due to the large and well-maintained tea estates, mountains and escapement here are covered with a green blanket. When the women, who are dressed in vivid colours, pluck tea leaves, it creates one of the most striking sceneries that needs to be captured by a camera.
It would be difficult to think of adventure activities in Sri Lanka without mountains because adventure and mountains are closely interconnected with each other. Sri Lanka offers many adventure-related activities in the mountains such as trekking, mountain climbing, rock climbing, whitewater rafting, kayaking, waterfall abseiling etc
Places To Visit: Nuwara Eliya, Ella, Bandarawela, Haputale, Kandy, Kitulgala and many more.
Things To Do: Take a stroll around Gregory lake, enjoy the flowering plants of the botanical gardens of Haggala, go trekking through tea-plantations, a bird much much more…
Suggested Read: Holiday guide to Nuwara Eliya, Kitulgala
Fascinating wildlife
Sri Lanka is the home for more than dozens of wildlife reserves. These wildlife reserves are teaming with leopards, elephants, deer, crocodiles, monkeys and, many other wild animals. These sanctuaries harbour a large number of the world’s endangered animal species and birds they are some of the best places in the world to spot animals, vertebrates, amphibians, birds, fish, butterflies, and many other creatures.
The elephant is the biggest animal on the island while leopards are the most dangerous hunter in the jungle. Safari in one of the national parks enables you to see the wild animals in their natural habitat. With the highest number of wild elephant populations in Asia, Sri Lank is recognized as the best country to see the wild elephant in the region while Yala national park is recognized as the best place to witness leopards due to the large concentration of animals within a small geographical area.
Places For An Unforgettable Safari: Yala wildlife reserve, Udawalawe national park, Minneriya national park.
Things To Do: Make a safari tour
Suggested Read: safari at Yala national park, Safari at Minneriya national park
Primaeval rainforests
Is it worth visiting Sri Lanka? I’m a nature lover, love exploring the national park, wildlife, raions forest and ecological interesting places.
Today, nearly 24% of the total land surface of the country is covered by forests. This natural wealth is very important for the country to maintain the usual weather pattern. Sri Lanka is ranked among the top 10 bio-diversity hot spots in the world.
Forests, especially the rainforests such as Sinharaja harbours a large number of fauna and flora species. Even though the visitors are not allowed to go deep into the rainforests, they are allowed to explore the buffer zone of the forests. Rainforest exploration tour is a very popular activity on the island and tour operators such as Seerendipity Tours organize these excursions at guests’ request.
Places to study rainforest: Kitulgala, Kanneliya, Sinharaja rain forest, Knuckles mountain range.
Things To Do: Trekking through the rainforest
Suggested Read: Rainforest Exploration Kitulgala
Is it worth visiting Sri Lanka? I’m a foodie traveller
Sri Lanka is a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic country and the Sri Lankan kitchen shows this rich diversity. Some people may think that Sri Lankan cuisines are similar to Indian dishes but Sri Lankan and Indian kitchen shows a vast difference. Sri Lankan foods are spicier than most Asian dishes.
Food is one integral part of Sri Lankan life, which developed over many centuries and carries the essence of Asian, European and Chinese culinary habits. Sri Lankan dishes show the influence of Portuguese, Dutch, English, Indian, Chinese and Arab. Since Sri Lanka was under the colonial rulers of Dutch, Portuguese, and English for several centuries, the influence of these nations is very evident in the Sri Lankan kitchen.
Sri Lanka has its own food culture that takes visitors by surprise. You will encounter mouthwatering spicy dishes at every nook and corner of Sri Lanka. Let it be fine dining or street food, you can’t simply forget this culinary feast.
Places To taste Sri Lankan Food: Colombo, Galle, Nuwara Eliya and all over.
Things To Do: Take part in a Sri Lanka food tour, take part in a Hikkaduwa village tour with barbeque dinner and the list goes on.
Suggested Read: Lanka traditional cuisine, Sri Lanka food tour
Is it worth visiting Sri Lanka, Colombo?
Colombo being the economic centre of the island is the most populated city in the country. Colombo was a popular city among seafarers during the medieval period. The port of Colombo was frequently visited by traders from Arab, China, India, Persia and Greek.
Today, Colombo shows its rich past with colonial-style buildings and monuments. Sometimes it has embraced modern development in the world. Today, none of the cities on the island shows the past and present mingled together in one location like in Colombo. Colombo is a shopping city with a large number of shops, shopping malls, street vendors and markets. And it allows you ample possibilities to find almost any product within its borders.
Places To Visit: BMICH, Gangarama, Petrtah etc.
Things To Do: Visit Colombo Zoo, study the rich historical past at the historical museum and many more.
Suggested Read: Guide to Colom bo city tour
Rich culture and history
The history Buffs are going to be one striking fact for your tours to Sri Lanka. With so much to see from a historical angle, there should not be second thoughts as to why visit Sri Lanka. Be it a stupendous Buddhist monastery, rock fortress or thousands of years old monolithic statue, all these bits and pieces make your holiday great memories. Sri Lanka is associated with a large number of historical places that are worth the attention of holidaymakers on the island.
Sri Lanka is one of the few countries in the world, which is continuously inhabited since the pre-Christian era. The history of human civilization on the island is going back to the Stone Age. A large number of people migrated to the island in the past as traders, invaders and due to religious reasons. Today, Sri Lanka is home to 20 million people representing many religions and ethnicities. Sri Lankan culture is nourished by all these ethnic identities.
Sri Lanka’s rich past can be easily observed in historical cities such as Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa. These cities hold evidence of the very ingenious building techniques and water management system of the country, which was practised as early as the 4th century BC. The civilization in the past had accomplished a large number of very exquisite artistic works such as ‘Sigiriya Apsaras’ and ‘Samadhi Buddha statue’ as well.
Places To Visit: Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Sigiriya, Dambulla, Kandy, Kataragama and so on.
Things To Do: Go on a Sri Lanka cultural triangle tour and witness the ancient monuments you study the cultural heritage.
Suggested Read: The Cultural Triangle of Sri Lanka, World heritage sites of Sri Lanka