Sri Lanka Tour

Comprehensive Travel Guide By Royal Exclusive Travel

 
 
 

www.sri-lanka-tour.com

 

Sri Lanka Eco Tours

Travel Guide

Geography & Climate
People
Society
  Religion  
Government
Economy
Language
Arts
Festivals
Cuisine
Health
Visa & Document
Communication
Transportation
Basic Facts
Map of Sri Lanka

History of Sri Lanka

In the Beginning
  Anuradhapura  
  Polonnaruwa  
  Portuguese Period  
  Dutch Colonization  
  British Ruling  
  Independence  
  Senanayake Rule  
  Bandaranaike Period  
  Tamil Unrest  
  Riots & Violence  
  Incoming Peace  

Tourist Attraction

Beaches
  Coral Sanctuary  
  National Park  
  Bird Sanctuary  
  Zoological Garden  
  Museum & Art Gallery  
  Religious Places  
  Fascinating Cities  
       

Adventures & Trips

Swimming
  Windsurfing  
  Diving & Snorkeling  
  Rafting & Canoe   
  Cycling & Motorcycling  
  Hiking & Trekking  
  Golf  
 
Bird Watching and Culture Tour
Duration: 21 days/20 nights

Tour Code: ECOSLK-07


Day 1: Waikkala
On arrival, our representative will meet you at the airport and then you will be transferred to Ranweli Holiday Village in Waikakala - the hotel which offers you a cozy ambiance with its magnificent landscapes of beach and lagoon. The rest of the day, you will be offered the optional tours of bird watching or canoeing. The two optional tours provide you an opportunity to explore the abundance of flora and fauna of Waikkala with its 50-60 varieties of birds and other creatures such as brackish water fish, shrimps, crabs, molasses, and so on. The interesting highlight here is the rare and only palm, Nypa Fruticans "Gin Pol" which grows in water. Dinner and overnight stay at Ranweli Holiday Village.

Day 2: Waikkala
Enjoy your breakfast, today you are free for your own activities. Alternatively, we offer you bird watching and canoeing as optional

Bird watching: is about wild birds and the sport of birding. It is for everyone who is interested in bird watching and enjoying nature. We hop you will find some good ideas here you have fun watching birds. It is your lifetime ticket to the theater of nature.

Canoeing: is one of the most popular program, exploring the hidden and untouchable underwater caves.

Day 3: Sigiriya via Muthurajawela
After breakfast, proceed to Anawilundawa in Muthurajawela where you can enjoy all day watching a wide variety of birds and its rich bio-diversity of indigenous floras and faunas. After that, check in at Sigiriya Hotel and enjoy your dinner and leisure in the evening at the hotel.

Day 4: Sigiriya
Today, you will have a chance to turn back time to the exuberant past of Sigiriya Ancient City while visiting the Sigiriya Fortress. The Fortress is elegantly set on the massive rock outcrop, jutting from the flat land and surrounded by the a few adjoining hills. The Ancient City of Sigiriya is designated to be a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982. Dinner and overnight at Sigiriya Hotel.

Day 5: Sigiriya
Today, you are offered a full-day-bird watching around Sigiriya. Covering 51,099 ha., Sigiriya Sanctuary is within the Polonnaruwa District. A great archeological importance it has, the sanctuary was recognized as the World Heritage Site. Apart from its historical and archeological significance, Sigiriya also endows a large population of migratory elephants and various species of endemic birds. There are about 150 species of birds found in this area, for example, Oriental Sharma, Pompador Green Pigeon, Shanian falcon, Crested Hawk Eagle, Rufus bellied hawk Eagle and Greater. Dinner and overnight stay at Hotel Sigiriya.

Day 6: Kandy via Wasgamuwa
After breakfast, you will leave for Wasgomuwa National Park which, situated in the Central Province. Apart from its rich biodiversity, the Park is also one of the important historical sites as it covers many ancient tanks and several other ruins and religious sites. Of the interest sites is the famous Yudanganapitiya, the site where the armies of the Kings Dutugemunu and Elara (2nd century B.C.) camped during the battles.

On the trail, you will also have a chance to admire a large flock of birds, a big herd of dear and buffaloes grazing around many water sources within the Park. A glimpse of beautiful peacocks roaming around the park and bears is not an uncommon sight. Elephants, numbering about 150 also within the park. After bird watching, proceed to Kandy. The last capital of the Sri Lankan kings, Kandy is recognized as the World Heritage Site. The town, and the countryside around it, is lush and green and there are many pleasant walks both from the town to farther afield. The town centre, close to Kandy's picturesque lake stet in a bowl of hills, is a delightful jumble of old shops, antique and gemstone specialists, a bustling market. In the evening, you are welcomed to witness Kandy Culture and the Kandyan Home garden system, which is the emphasis of the day. Dinner and overnight stay at Queens Hotel.

Day 7: Kandy - Hanthana & Dalada
After breakfast, we drive you through the hillside, where you can absorb the breathtaking mountain with a panoramic view of blue sky kissing lush Green Mountain. Enjoy yourself what's more the view of the illuminated city of Kandy, experience the peace, tranquility and serenity while you overwhelm in the fresh air blowing across the mountain.

In the evening, we start exploring the last kingdom of Sri Lanka "Kandy" - where the famous Dalada Maligawa another world heritage site - is, is a very important place to visit. The Dalada Maligawa also called the Temple of the Tooth and known to house the Tooth Relic of the Lord Buddha. In the evening, you are welcomed to witness Kandy Culture and the Kandyan Home garden system, which is the emphasis of the day. Dinner and stay overnight at Queens Hotel or similar. Dinner and overnight at Queens Hotel.

Day 8: Kandy - Botanical Gardens
After breakfast, we depart for Peradeniya Botanical Garden, 6 km out of Kandy towards to Colombo. Today it is the largest botanic garden in Sri Lanka, covering 60 hectares and bounded on three sides buy a loop of the Mahaweli Ganga. It is beautiful and well worth a visit - there is a fine collection of orchids and a stately avenue of royal palms plants in 1950. A major attraction is the giant Javan fig tree on the great lawn; it covers 1600 sq metres In addition, the spice garden allows you to see nut meg, cinnamon, cloves and more without the hassle of a salesperson breathing down your neck. The snack creeper close by is also well worth seeing. Then there are the giant bamboo and Assam rubber trees, and who could resist wanting to hunt down the sausage tree? Unquestionably, you can easily spend a whole day wandering around the gardens.

Day 9: Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage
You begin the day of your expedition after having breakfast, we will drive you to see the government-run Pinnawela Elephant orphanage near Kegalle, which was set up to save abandoned or orphaned wild elephants, is the most popular jumbo attraction in Sri Lanka - you are likely to se many elephants at close quarters. They are controlled by their keepers, who ensure they feed at the right times and do not endanger anyone, but otherwise the elephants roam freely around the sanctuary area.

There are 63 young elephants and some are surprisingly small; this must be one of the few places where elephant can step on your foot and you might walk away with a smile! We will return to Kandy. Dinner and overnight stay at Queens Hotel.

Day 10: Ratnapura - Adam's Peak
After breakfast serving in the early morning, we will leave for bird watching in Peak Wilderness (Gilimale or Adam's Peak). We will pass by Ratnapura, where ids reputed to be the best place for views of Adam's Peak - a very large strip of wet zone rainforest with an extent of 22,379.9ha. lying within the Ratnapura District this sanctuary ranks among the few areas with highest biodiversity in the country. This is the only wet zone rainforest with an elephant population. Another very important factor is that world famous Sri Pada mountain lies within this sanctuary. You can find a wide variety of bird in the area; Ashy Headed laughing Thrush, Yellow Fronted Barbet, Blue Magpie White-faced Starling, SL Wood Pigeon Black Throated Munia. Dinner and overnight at Rathnaloka Hotel in Ratnapura.

Day 11: Sinharaja
After breakfast, we depart for Singharaja Rain Forest with an extent of 11,250 ha. is the only patch of virgin rainforest left in Sri Lanka. This forest was declared a world heritage site in 1989, having the highest number of endemic flora and fauna species in the island and a very high biodiversity. Apart from these sites, you would be visiting the village of Kudawa, experience yourself with staying overnight at the forestry-dormitory with all services provided or in an Eco-Lodge, which is built and operated by a person in the forest.

We spend the whole day with bird watching, 95% of the endemic birds of Sri Lanka have been recorded un Sinharaja, where is the best location to observe thee flock behavior of bird, such as SL Spur fowl, SL Jungle fowl, Green-billed Coucal, Red-faced Malkoha, Blue Magpie, Spot-winged Thrush. Dinner and overnight at Rathnaloka Hotel in Ratnapura.

Day 12: Belihuloya
After breakfast, you will be picked up and driven to Belihuloya, a pretty hillside region worth passing through on the way to/from hill country - it is 57km from Ratnapura. From here you can walk up to Horton Plains, a very strenuous undertaking. This region is a climatically transitional area linking the wet & dry zones and the hill country& the low country. This very important location ha made it one of the places in the country with the highest bio-diversity.

Upon arrival Belihuloiya, if the time permits, we love you to have experience of river bathing and bird watching trek in the natural rock pool - this is a unique place where two streams namely "Belihuloya" and "Galagamaoya" meet together creating a natural nothing area with clear unpolluted water that flows down from "Horton Plains", 2200 metre above the sea level. Dinner and stay overnight at River Garden Hotel.

Day 13: Horton Plains
After breakfast we begin trekking to Horton Plains, the most certainly one of the world's best nature reserves, which consist of famous "World's End", "Bakers Fall", Chiminini Pool" etc. Beside Elk, Deer, Giant Squirrel, Wild Boar, Wild Hair, Percupine, and a variety of Migratory birds haunt Horton Plains nature Reserve, which is only one of its kind to this region. As said by counting, there are 16 Leopards in Horton Plains. If you are lucky you may get a glimpse of a Leopard during your break in the Horton Plains. A sheer drop of 3,700ft, World's End offers one a fantastic and awesome view. Down below, one is greeted, by the beautiful view of sprawling tea estate laved with gravel roads and line rooms, and if one looks beyond, by breathtaking panoramic view of the southern part of the island down to the coast. We will be passing the evening to see Elk coming out before return to Belihouloya. The dinner will be served in late evening today. Dinner and stay overnight at Belihuloya River garden Resort (cottage/campsite/Eco lodge).

Day 14: Udawalawe
After enjoy your breakfast, we will leave for Udawalawe National Park. This 30,281 hectares dry zone game park was declared as a protected national park in 1972. It has as annual rainfall of 1,524 millimeters and an average temperature of 29.4C. This park is world renowned for its elephants. You will see the herds of them bathing and playing in the water, making a pleasant sight.

After lunch, you will set off on safari tour in the park. The Udawalawe National Park is an ideal place for bird watching as it endows a wide variety of birds. The parkland is an excellent habitat of many endemic species such as the Red-faced Malkoha, Serpent Eagles, Hawk Eagles, White-Bellied Sea Eagles, Black Eagles, Black Capped Bulbuls, Racket-tailed Drongos, Malabar Pied Horn Bills, White-necked Storks, Open Bills, Ibis, Shama (the forest Nightingale), Strol-Billed Kingfishers, and peacocks. The migrant birds can also be found here such as the forest wagtails, Indian Pitta, Whiskered Terns, Osprey sand Pipers and Terns. Dinner and overnight stay in a campsite in the park.

Day 15: Yala National Park
After breakfast, we travel overland to Yala National Park, lies 24km northeast of Tissamaharama and 290km from Colombo on the southeast coast of Sri Lanka and spans Southern and Uva provinces. The park consists of 97,878 ha. The attitude is 90m from sea level. The vegetation in this park comprises secondary forest, possibly a few hundred years old at the most. It is predominantly semi-arid thorny-scrub, interspersed with pockets of fairly den forest and small patches of mangrove vegetation occur along the costal lagoons. Yala is renowned for the variety of its wildlife and its fine coastline and associated coral reefs. A large number of important ruins bear testimony to earlier civilizations and indicate that, much of the area was populated and well developed. We return to Yala Safari Lodge for dinner and stay overnight.

Day 16: Bundala - Yala
After early breakfast serving, we depart for Tangalla via Bundala for bird watching.

Bundala: Bird Watching
The high species richness of birds associated with the Bundala lagoons resulted in it being declared a Sri Lanka's first Ramsar site - a wetland of international importance for migratory waterfowl, in 1990. The park consists mainly of dry thorny scrubland and lagoons. The highlight of Bundala is the migratory Greater Flamingo, which visits in large flocks of over 1000 individuals, from Rann of Kutch-India.

In the evening, you are free for you own activities or pick the turtle watch at Rakawa as an optional tour.

Optional: Turtle Watch at Rakawa
Find out of 7 species of marine turtles come ashore to nest in Sri Lanka. The turtle watch program is a nature tourism initiative developed by the TCP (Turtle Conversation Project). "Rekawa",which is one of Sri Lanka's most important marine turtle nesting where all 5 species come to the nest throughout the year. The peak season takes place between February and July. Nevertheless we cannot reckon on the coming along of the marine turtle every night but we can guarantee that you will have an exciting nighttime adventure on one of the world's most beaches. Dinner and overnight at Tangalle nature Resort.

Day 17 - 20 Tangalle
After breakfast, we go to Tangalle for your excitement and adventure. It is four days of marine exploration by your own self, is one of the nicest spots along the coast, particularly if you just want somewhere to laze and soak up the sun. Dinner and overnight at Tagalle Nature Resort.

Day 21: Departure
After breakfast, we will be transferred to the airport for your next destination flight.

 

 

Tours in Sri Lanka  |  Hotels in Sri Lanka  |  Travel Guide  |  History of Sri Lanka  |  Tourist Attraction  |  Adventure & Trips

Home - About Us - Send Enquiry - Online Reservation - Tour Reservation - Email Us - Sitemap

Travel Resources - South Asia - SE Asia - America - Europe - Pacific

Sri Lanka Tour © Copyright 2003-2008 All Rights Reserved