Cost to Travel in Sri Lanka
Hey everyone, in this article we will share with you our complete budget breakdown and what it really cost to travel in Sri Lanka.
We loved our time in Sri-Lanka, and it is now one of the main destinations we would recommend, Sri-Lanka were amazingly friendly, travelling was cheap, and the country is breath-taking. Plus, it had so many different things to offer. From historical site in the north, a unique train ride and beautiful mountains in the center to the surf vibes of the south.
It’s incredible how welcoming the country is today for travelers. Especially knowing its history. After two decades of internal conflict, a tsunami that claimed tens of thousands of lives and an economic crisis that saw the country run out of basic commodities such as fuel, tourism is finally starting to pick up again on this beautiful island off India’s southern coast.
Our itinerary was a 2-week itinerary in Sri Lanka, including: Dambulla, Sigiriya, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Ella, Yala National Park, Mirissa and Unawatuna.
During our time in Sri Lanka, we never felt like our budget was tight and on the contrary, we were able to afford better transportations around the country and budget up for the accommodation in the south.
So, let’s get to it.
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What’s included in our budget
Our cost of travel in Sri Lanka and complete budget breakdown covers what we spent on accommodations, transportations in the country, food, activities and other side costs.
We do not include our flights into Sri Lanka as it is something that will var significantly based on where you start your travel to Sri Lanka.
However, all the cost are for a couple, as this is how we travelled there.
The amount in our cost of travel in Sri Lanka article are all in euros (€) but of course there we paid everything in Sri Lanka Rupees (LKR), so, you will also see some of those.
Our complete itinerary
To get some perspective, our detailed itinerary was the following:
- Day 1: Arrive in Sri-Lanka, overnight in Negombo
- Day 2: Transfer to Sigiriya, stop at the Dambulla Cave Temple, and then visit the Pidurangala Rock
- Day 3: Visit Lion Rock in the morning, and do a safari in the afternoon
- Day 4: Transfer to Kandy, visit the tooth temple and the royal botanical garden
- Day 5: Transfer to Nuwara Eliya, stop at the Ambuluwawa Mountain hill and tea factory.
- Day 6: Nuwara Eliya and the train to Ella
- Day 7: Hike to Ella Rock in the morning, rest by the swimming pool in the afternoon, cooking class in the evening
- Day 8: Hike to Little Adam’s Peak, Visit the Nine Arch Bridge Transfer to Tissamaharama
- Day 9: Morning Safari on Yala National Park, transfer to Mirissa and Secret beach in the afternoon
- Day 10: Visit Coconut Tree Hill and Turtle beach in the morning, in the afternoon visit Spa Ceylon and Weligama
- Day 11: Visit Parot Rock and Mirissa beach, transfer to Unawatuna, stop at a turtle Hatchery and then Galle Fort
- Day 12: Visit turtle beach in the morning and in the afternoon Unawatuna beach and the Peace Pagoda
- Day 13: Visit Heenwella beach, Thalpe natural Pool and jungle beach. Transfer to the Airport and return.
This itinerary is a loop going around the country and the best spots Sri Lanka has to offer. You can of course, do the opposite, which is apparently less crowded, especially on the famous train to Ella. In any case, this will not change the cost.
Cost of Accommodation in Sri Lanka
We booked all our accommodations in Sri Lanka on booking.com. There we found various type of accommodation, from homestays to guesthouses and even hotels. In any case, we were always warmly welcomed by Sri Lankan. And one thing is sure, they have an outstanding hospitality.
To be honest, we were always looking for accommodation ranging from 30 to 80€ depending on where we were in the country. What’s important to mention is that the more south you get, the more accommodations are expensive.
Here is what Sri Lankan accommodations cost us:
- Negombo: 42 €/night
- Sigiriya: 25 €/night
- Kandy: 32 €/night
- Nuwara Eliya: 74 €/night
- Ella: 25 €/night
- Tissa (Yala National Park): 27 €/night
- Mirissa: 80 €/night
- Unawatuna: 75 €/night
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Even, if we loved our experience. On some occasion, we would recommend budgeting a little bit up to get an accommodation with a swimming pool has Sri Lanka is supper hot.
Here is a list of accommodations we recommend based on your budget.
- Negombo: Mango House Japanese Guest House
- Sigiriya: (€): Shady Mango Villa, (€€): il Frangipane, (€€€): Sigiriya King’s Resort
- Kandy: (€): Remli Villa, (€€): The Summit, (€€€): Aarunya Nature Resort & Spa
- Nuawra Eliya: (€): Heidis Home, (€€): La Grande Villa, (€€€): W15 Lake Gregory
- Ella: (€): Lavendra Paradise, (€€): Chill Ville, View Point Hotel, (€€€): Tea Cabins
- Tissa: (€): La safari inn, (€€): Hotel River Front, (€€€): Wild Coast Tented Lodge – Relais & Chateaux
- Mirissa: (€): Mimoza Mirissa, (€€): Peacock Villa, (€€€): Weligama Bay Marriott Resort & Spa
- Unawatuna: (€): The Horizon Hill Top Villa, (€€): Sergeant House, (€€€): Agnus Unawatuna
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If like us you mixed it a little bit but stay on the lower end, we ended up with a total cost for accommodation in Sri Lanka of 585€ for two. Which represents around 45€ per night for two.
Cost of Transportation in Sri Lanka
Transportation around Sri-Lanka is easy and quite affordable. Sri Lanka isn’t big enough for you to fly around the country making your options the following: Drivers, Buses, TukTuk, Train.
Drivers: This is the most developed mean of transportation in Sri-Lanka. It is fast, comfortable, with AC, and to be honest even if it is the most expensive mean of transportation, it is affordable for most. This is the mean of transportation in Sri Lanka that we used the most. We always asked our accommodation to reserved it for us, mostly a day in advance and it was always easy to find a driver to take us somewhere. But you can also hire a driver for your complete trip, many people are doing it, and it make their journey super easy. Cost wise, here we are around 35 to 80€ for long distance. Oh, and remember that this option also allow you to make stops where you want along your journey.
Buses: Buses are the real cheap alternative to move around Sri-Lanka as here we are talking about real cheap tickets. From a few cents for a short trip to 3 to 4€ for a longer trip.  However, taking the bus can take much more time and some of them don’t have AC.
TukTuk: Tuktuk are a common and economical way of travelling in Sri-Lank, they are the taxi of Sri Lanka. And it is definitely the best way of moving within Sri-Lankan cities. Be wary of scam though, some tuktuk driver will try to overcharge you. Against that, we recommend asking your host or accommodation to organise you a tuktuk, that way, you will always have the best and right price. Plus, the cool thing is that tuktuk drop you somewhere and then pick you up. So, no worry about scam on the way back.
You can also use them for longer trip, but it isn’t the most comfortable way to travel. You can even rent one and make a complete trip around Sri-Lanka, most of them we saw were from tuktuk.rental.com.
Cost wise, short city trip to your accommodation cost around 1,30€, while a return tuktuk to some places to visit cost between 3 to 8€. A longer trip between to cities can go up to around 11€. Renting a tuktuk for a complete road trip cost around 20€ per day, so around 300€ for the complete trip.
Train: Trains in Sri Lanka are cheap, often late, take forever but FUN. However, you will only be looking at taking the train between Kandy to Ella or even Nuawara Eliya to Ella (which we recommend).
There are 5 types of carriage: 1st class reserved, 2nd class reserved, 3rd class reserved, 2nd class unreserved, 3rd class unreserved. Not a lot of people go to first class because it is Air conditioned and therefor you cannot open the windows nor the doors. 2nd class reserved is where most tourists want to go, to get a ticket there you must book weeks in advance, 3rd class reserved is where we were and we loved it, once in Ella, we saw the other class carriage and we must say that preferred the 3rd class reserved.
The main difference between 2nd and 3rd being the type of seat you get and their configuration 2+2 in 2nd versus 2+3 in 3rd.
The difference between reserved and unreserved is that in unreserved, you buy your ticket last minute and it is first arrived, first served, meaning you are not guarantee to have a seat and if the train is full, people will be standing. This cannot happen in reserved class.
Regarding the cost it will all depends on your type of carriage, but you can expect to pay between 5 to 30€ for two tickets.
Our journey was the following:
- Airport to Negombo, Driver: 15€
- Negombo to Sigiriya, Driver: 75€
- Sigiriya to Kandy, Driver: 52€
- Kandy to Nuwara Eliya, Driver: 48€
- Nuwara Eliya to Ella: Train: 28€
- Ella to Tissa: Driver: 39€
- Tissa to Mirissa: Driver: 50€
- Mirissa to Unawatuna, Tuktuk: 12€
- Unwatuna to Airport, Dirver: 52€
So, transportation and tuktuk to move around cost us in total 453€.
Cost of food in Sri Lanka
We often like to cook our own meals, that way we reduce cost and do not need to worry about finding whole food plant-based food and vegetarian food. While traveling we are more flexible with what we eat.
In Sri-Lanka, we never cooked a single meal, ate all our breakfast at our accommodations and either ate at restaurants or in our accommodation for lunch and dinner.
We loved the food there and some of the best things to try in Sri Lanka are:
- Dhal curries
- Vegetable curry
- Vegetable Kotu
- Egg Hoppers
- Coconut Sambals
Regarding cost, in north our meals cost between 10 and 18€ for two. In central, we were between 12 and 20€ and in south between 18 and 28€. That include of course drinks and often one or two beers.
Including waters, drinks and all the food (except breakfast, that was always included in our accommodation), it cost us 336€ for two.
Cost of Activities in Sri Lanka
Travelling to someplace new, means that you will be doing some activities. Sri lanka has tons of things to do and see. From temple, safari, hiking, and just chilling on the beach, there is a lot of fun and adventure to have in the country.
Our favorite things to do in Sigiriya were the Lion Rock, Pidurangala rock and a safari. But the Cave temple of Dambulla on our way to Sigiriya was also impressive.
In Kandy it was the botanical garden where we also met local students. Then the road trip between Kandy to Nuwara Eliya was amazing with the Ambuluwawa mountain tower and a visit in a tea factory.
The train to Ella was obviously amazing, and later Ella was so cool especially with Ella rock and the Nine Arch bridge.
No need to mention that the safari in Yala national park was super cool and we got to see most of the big ones like sloth bear, leopard, elephants…
Here is a breakdown of some the cost: (Always for 2)
- Cave temple of Dambulla: 14€
- Perindula Rock: 6,5€
- Safari in Sigiryia: 60€
- Tooth Temple Kandy: 13€
- Royal Botanical Garden Kandy: 20€
- Ambuluwawa Mountain Tower 13€
- Ella Rock: 6€
- Yala Safari: 115€
- Cooking Class: 40€
- Turtle Hatchery: 10€
And the total of all our actives goes up to 300€ for two.
Other cost in Sri Lanka
VISA: As far as we have seen, most people will need a VISA to enter Sri-Lanka. However, it is super easy to get it as the application is done online. It takes up to 72 hours to have your visa process and with a tourist visa you will be able to stay up to 60 days, have multiple entries and a validity for up to 180 days. The Sri-Lanka Visa cost 50€. After, if you don’t want to bother yourself, you can use iVisa for the application.
Souvenir: We love to bring some little souvenirs. This time, we got great souvenir from SPA CEYLON such as soaps and local cosmetics. But we also got some coffee and Kiltup.  Alltogether costing around 105€.
SIM Card: One of our least favorite things to do when we arrive in a new country is to have to figure out how to get a good sim card. From finding where is the shop, in the airport, or the city center? To deal with the registrations, giving ID and even finding which operator is the best… Well, it’s a true headache.
That’s why, we started using Airalo, for countries where our sim card doesn’t have free coverage. Airalo is the world’s first eSIM store that gives you access to eSIMs (digital SIM cards) for 200+ countries/regions to be connected anywhere in the world the second you land.
For 10 GB, you will pay 11€, 20 GB, 17€.
Travel Insurance:Â Frankly, we did not take a travel insurance. Our French credit card company is offering a full travel package that we have. So, if something happen to us, we are covered.
However, if you don’t have such coverage, a travel insurance is recommended for all. WorldNomads offers excellent travel insurance and covers most if not all that could happen during your time abroad.
Total Cost of our trip in Sri Lanka
It is time to sum-up everything. In total for 2-week in Sri Lanka, for two of us, it cost us 1880€ which is 940€ per person and 72€ per day.
In detailed we have:
- Accommodation: 585€ in total, 292€ per person, 22,5€ per night per person.
- Transportation: 452€ in total, 226€ per person, 17,5€ per night per person.
- Food: 336€ in total, 168€ per person, 13€ per night per person.
- Activities: 300€ in total, 150€ per person, 11,5€ per night per person.
- Others: 207€ in total, 103€ per person, 8€ per night per person.
It is not the destination where you end up but the mishaps and memories you create along the way
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Why pin one by one when you can get them all at once? With this map, you get all our pins, destinations, things to see, where to eat and sleep, and so much more in one time.
