We had so much fun on our trip to Sri Lanka, and we learned so much in our travels that I have decided to combine more travelogue and vacation tips into another post. Look, efficiency!
Tip #1: Use a tour company.
Most tour companies in Sri Lanka will organize ambitious itineraries for you so you can see as much as possible in the time frame that you have. I didn't like the idea of a different hotel every night and therefore balked at using a company, but I really should have. Tour companies can negotiate special rates with hotels, know of places to stay not listed anywhere online, and have all sorts of inside information you will benefit from in a place as...um...flexible? as Sri Lanka. In retrospect, what I should have done was be very specific with a company about what I did and didn't want, not being afraid to modify their suggested itineraries but leaving the arranging of lodgings up to them.
Tip #2: Get a driver you trust; then, trust your driver.
Having a driver is a must in Sri Lanka, for reasons of safety and convenience and even expense. Most local tour companies will provide you with a driver and a vehicle for a flat rate that includes gas and the driver's meals and accomodations, so finding a driver isn't really all that difficult but it pays to ask around for recommendations and find someone with a proven track record. We found our driver through a tour company recommended in the Lonely Planet forums and he was good, but I think we could have done better if we had been more aggressive in asking around among our friends who had already gone to Sri Lanka. As it was, it took me a few days to realize that our particular driver was A, generally more optimistic than accurate, yet B, really knowledgeable if I could just get him to tell me what he really thought about our plans. In the end, he recommended and arranged some tours we never would have found on our own, resulting in some of our best experiences of the trip, and the hotel he arranged for us on our last night was the best of our trip, by far.
Tip #3: Build in more time than you will think you need.
This is a good rule of thumb for any vacation with kids, but in Sri Lanka this rule was even more important. Overland travel in Sri Lanka is very, very slow. A good rule of thumb is to take the amount of time Google Maps says it will take you to get to a given destination, double it, and then add on another hour or so for good measure. The serpentine local roads make travel take much longer than it seems like it should, and the two expressways are so far away from where people actually live that it takes forever to get to them, making the fact that travel on them is faster almost moot. In addition, as we found, there are so many unexpected places to stop along the way and you will want to be able to stop and see them. On our trip, we made unplanned stops at many fabulous restaurants, a sea turtle hatchery, a spice garden, a woodworking factory, a batik factory, and a beautiful waterfall. These stops made our travel times even longer but they were totally worth it! Plus, and this is key for any trip with kids, of course: leave enough time for downtime. My boys were happiest collecting shells and building an interminable sand castle and playing in the top of the tree house cottage and we were happy we had left lots of time for them to do just that.
Tip #4: Suspend your reliance on the internet.
Though every hotel listed WiFi as being available, in almost all cases this wasn't really the case. If you need to do any research about your trip, do it before you leave home and print out anything you think you might need, including itineraries, hotel confirmations, visas, e-tickets, etc. I was able to check email twice the whole week and was never able to upload any pictures or blog or anything like that. We streamed Netflix for the kids once. In other words, it was a real (electronic) vacation, which was actually great but was also a bit frustrating when we were trying to look up information en route. Along those same lines, bring as many converters and chargers as you can for your electronic devices. We brought three but still didn't have the right one for many of the outlets in most of our hotel rooms. Fortunately, most of the rooms had at least one adapter for the television, and we had brought a dual USB charger so we were always able to get everything charged in the end with some creative planning, but it would have been so helpful if we had realized that Sri Lankan outlets are an entity unto themselves and not part of the standard universal adapter collection.
Tip #5: Be prepared.
Even though we traveled carry-on only, I took with us many items I was glad I had brought. We used my custom-filled first aid kit multiple times for abrasions, cuts, and even a fever (E had one for our first two nights in country, of course!). I brought 3 ounces of Skin-so-Soft insect repellant and wished I had brought twice that much. As it was, we ran out on the last day, but fortunately that night the winds were very strong and we were right on the ocean, so we were lucky. We used lots of sunscreen. My motion sickness pills kept me alive during our interminable and rough whale riding adventure so I was able to nurse E through his own pitiful bout of sea sickness. I wish I had brought twice or even three times as much candy/dried fruit/granola bars for eating on the go while we were tramping around through various sites because grocery stores and ready-made, packaged food was almost impossible to come by. Bring an extra (empty) bag; you will most certainly come back with more souvenirs than you think. Do not plan on finding laundry facilities anywhere. I don't think I saw a washing machine the entire trip and was happy to have planned on enough clothes for the duration. Do not forget hand sanitizer, twice as much as you think you will need. And bring travel blankets! I put one in for each of the boys and me because we had night flights both ways, and we ended up using them every night of our vacation but one. Most Sri Lankan hotels, even many of the fancier ones, provide bottom and top sheets only, which isn't enough if you're running the AC to keep mosquitos at bay at night.
Tip #6: Pack light.
That being said, pack as light as you possibly can. There are not a whole lot of elevators in Sri Lanka! We loved the freedom of being able to pick up all our backpacks and carry them ourselves, and we completely freaked out all the porters and hotel employees everywhere we went when we calmly shouldered our own bags and took them to our room ourselves. I would not have liked to pull roller bags through the often muddy roads, particularly near the beaches during monsoon season.
Tip #7: Embrace the adventure!
Everyone around us, including our youngest, was throwing up on the whale watching tour...but now it's a great story! The train ride ended up taking 4 hours and we rode through the rain and the bathroom door wouldn't stay shut so the smell was often overpowering...but we loved every minute of it! In one town, no restaurants were open for dinner before 7:30pm, there were no grocery stores, and all the vending stalls were only selling bananas and raw vegetables we had no way to cook...but we didn't starve! We were attacked by ants in not one but two hotel rooms; elephants demanding fruit blocked the road on our way to the national parks and then ambled after us when they felt we hadn't given them enough; and the boys were playing away in the sand at one outdoor restaurant on the beach until the owner's puppies came over and peed everywhere like they did it every day, because they probably did...and we still had fun!
Tip #1: Use a tour company.
Most tour companies in Sri Lanka will organize ambitious itineraries for you so you can see as much as possible in the time frame that you have. I didn't like the idea of a different hotel every night and therefore balked at using a company, but I really should have. Tour companies can negotiate special rates with hotels, know of places to stay not listed anywhere online, and have all sorts of inside information you will benefit from in a place as...um...flexible? as Sri Lanka. In retrospect, what I should have done was be very specific with a company about what I did and didn't want, not being afraid to modify their suggested itineraries but leaving the arranging of lodgings up to them.
Tip #2: Get a driver you trust; then, trust your driver.
Having a driver is a must in Sri Lanka, for reasons of safety and convenience and even expense. Most local tour companies will provide you with a driver and a vehicle for a flat rate that includes gas and the driver's meals and accomodations, so finding a driver isn't really all that difficult but it pays to ask around for recommendations and find someone with a proven track record. We found our driver through a tour company recommended in the Lonely Planet forums and he was good, but I think we could have done better if we had been more aggressive in asking around among our friends who had already gone to Sri Lanka. As it was, it took me a few days to realize that our particular driver was A, generally more optimistic than accurate, yet B, really knowledgeable if I could just get him to tell me what he really thought about our plans. In the end, he recommended and arranged some tours we never would have found on our own, resulting in some of our best experiences of the trip, and the hotel he arranged for us on our last night was the best of our trip, by far.
This is a good rule of thumb for any vacation with kids, but in Sri Lanka this rule was even more important. Overland travel in Sri Lanka is very, very slow. A good rule of thumb is to take the amount of time Google Maps says it will take you to get to a given destination, double it, and then add on another hour or so for good measure. The serpentine local roads make travel take much longer than it seems like it should, and the two expressways are so far away from where people actually live that it takes forever to get to them, making the fact that travel on them is faster almost moot. In addition, as we found, there are so many unexpected places to stop along the way and you will want to be able to stop and see them. On our trip, we made unplanned stops at many fabulous restaurants, a sea turtle hatchery, a spice garden, a woodworking factory, a batik factory, and a beautiful waterfall. These stops made our travel times even longer but they were totally worth it! Plus, and this is key for any trip with kids, of course: leave enough time for downtime. My boys were happiest collecting shells and building an interminable sand castle and playing in the top of the tree house cottage and we were happy we had left lots of time for them to do just that.
Tip #4: Suspend your reliance on the internet.
Though every hotel listed WiFi as being available, in almost all cases this wasn't really the case. If you need to do any research about your trip, do it before you leave home and print out anything you think you might need, including itineraries, hotel confirmations, visas, e-tickets, etc. I was able to check email twice the whole week and was never able to upload any pictures or blog or anything like that. We streamed Netflix for the kids once. In other words, it was a real (electronic) vacation, which was actually great but was also a bit frustrating when we were trying to look up information en route. Along those same lines, bring as many converters and chargers as you can for your electronic devices. We brought three but still didn't have the right one for many of the outlets in most of our hotel rooms. Fortunately, most of the rooms had at least one adapter for the television, and we had brought a dual USB charger so we were always able to get everything charged in the end with some creative planning, but it would have been so helpful if we had realized that Sri Lankan outlets are an entity unto themselves and not part of the standard universal adapter collection.
Tip #5: Be prepared.
Even though we traveled carry-on only, I took with us many items I was glad I had brought. We used my custom-filled first aid kit multiple times for abrasions, cuts, and even a fever (E had one for our first two nights in country, of course!). I brought 3 ounces of Skin-so-Soft insect repellant and wished I had brought twice that much. As it was, we ran out on the last day, but fortunately that night the winds were very strong and we were right on the ocean, so we were lucky. We used lots of sunscreen. My motion sickness pills kept me alive during our interminable and rough whale riding adventure so I was able to nurse E through his own pitiful bout of sea sickness. I wish I had brought twice or even three times as much candy/dried fruit/granola bars for eating on the go while we were tramping around through various sites because grocery stores and ready-made, packaged food was almost impossible to come by. Bring an extra (empty) bag; you will most certainly come back with more souvenirs than you think. Do not plan on finding laundry facilities anywhere. I don't think I saw a washing machine the entire trip and was happy to have planned on enough clothes for the duration. Do not forget hand sanitizer, twice as much as you think you will need. And bring travel blankets! I put one in for each of the boys and me because we had night flights both ways, and we ended up using them every night of our vacation but one. Most Sri Lankan hotels, even many of the fancier ones, provide bottom and top sheets only, which isn't enough if you're running the AC to keep mosquitos at bay at night.
Tip #6: Pack light.
That being said, pack as light as you possibly can. There are not a whole lot of elevators in Sri Lanka! We loved the freedom of being able to pick up all our backpacks and carry them ourselves, and we completely freaked out all the porters and hotel employees everywhere we went when we calmly shouldered our own bags and took them to our room ourselves. I would not have liked to pull roller bags through the often muddy roads, particularly near the beaches during monsoon season.
Tip #7: Embrace the adventure!
Everyone around us, including our youngest, was throwing up on the whale watching tour...but now it's a great story! The train ride ended up taking 4 hours and we rode through the rain and the bathroom door wouldn't stay shut so the smell was often overpowering...but we loved every minute of it! In one town, no restaurants were open for dinner before 7:30pm, there were no grocery stores, and all the vending stalls were only selling bananas and raw vegetables we had no way to cook...but we didn't starve! We were attacked by ants in not one but two hotel rooms; elephants demanding fruit blocked the road on our way to the national parks and then ambled after us when they felt we hadn't given them enough; and the boys were playing away in the sand at one outdoor restaurant on the beach until the owner's puppies came over and peed everywhere like they did it every day, because they probably did...and we still had fun!
Oh the memories your kids will have!
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