Sri Lanka itinerary tips

My son and I visited Sri Lanka, Oct. 13-21, 2012, generating our own itinerary from suggestions off TripAdvisor.com (hotels, restaurants) and from the Lonely Planet guidebook and with the help of Mingkhwan Boonmanee of Diethelm Travel in Bangkok (Kian Gwan II Building, 14/F 140/1 Wireless Rd., Lumpini, Patumwan, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand; phone +662 660 7000, www.diethelmtravel.com).

We found Diethelm Travel to be very reliable. They inspected our hotel choices for health and security factors, and several of my suggested hotels were rejected. Mr. Boonmanee also was very patient with my many emails. 

The 8-night trip cost $2,640 and included two airport transfers and a driver/guide plus car and gasoline for seven full days and two hotel rooms (3- to 4-star), with breakfast. 

We drove around approximately one third of Sri Lanka. I would never recommend going to, in one week, all the places we went to and certainly not by car. We found the roads in Sri Lanka all to be 2-lane and very congested. 

It was my fault that I included seven UNESCO World Heritage Sites in our itinerary. Rather than visit all those sites, a better itinerary would have omitted Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa (which are mostly just foundation lines). Just visiting Sigiriya, Dambulla, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya (the British hill station), Marissa Beach, Galle and Colombo would have been better.

Kandy and those I’ve listed after are reachable by train. Sigiriya and Dambulla can be visited by train plus bus or taxi. The trains could be much better than the very congested roads.

The puja (daily ceremony) for the Buddha in Kandy was spectacular!

TOD HARDING

Houston, TX