A Teardrop in the Indian Ocean

Custom travel to Sri Lanka

 The best way to custom-travel, in private, to Sri Lanka. From coconut-palm-lined riverbanks and tropical flatlands covered in rice paddies and virgin beaches; to legendary Ceylon tea cultivations and the old colonial mansions, here and there, many of which are now splendid hotels. This small island republic surprises you with a mix of natural and cultural riches like no other in the world, surprisingly nice weather and faint British traces hungover from the old Raj days.

Wild and authentic, the “pearl of the Indian Ocean” stands out as one of the most surprising and least overrun destinations in all Asia. Wherever you travel in Sri Lanka, you can expect a smile on practically every face.

NUBA EXPERIENCES

It’s a must-do: fabulous old tea factories now become fabulous luxury hotels.

In what in colonial days was called Ceylon, there’s a unique, sylvan enclave nestled into the Nuwara Eliya mountain range. Once a tea factory, it’s now a luxury hotel featuring head-spinning views. Get ready for monkey-scamper on columns they handle like trees, swifts building nests in shady corners and elephants that stop in for a drink and a dip in the lake just in front of the hotel.

Part of the experience is learning how to harvest tea leaves in the surrounding fields, helping them dry and packaging them. You’ll never forget your days on the tea plantation.

Recommended travel time: Spring

Sri Lanka enjoys a tropical climate with very pleasant year-round temperatures and occasional low-impact monsoons. Thanks to a central mountain range that acts like a dividing apparatus, monsoons only affect the northeast coast from November to January and southwest coast from May to July. In the interior and highlands (Nuwara, Eliya, Peak Adam, etc.), temperatures tend to get cooler and can even drop to 15˚C at night.

Seasonal experiences

 Under full moons in July and August, residents of the city of Kandy celebrate the Buddhist festival known as Esala Perahera. It lasts ten days and coincides with the lunar month Esala on the Singhalese calendar. The city’s quaint lanes fill with pilgrims, onlookers and seasoned travelers who make their way to the Temple of Buddha’s Tooth, home to the namesake religious relic. Don’t miss the huge, gloriously arrayed elephant that parades as well, bearing a replica of the tooth alongside dozens of other elephants, musicians and dancers in traditional costumes that file through romantic, torch-lit streets.

It’s a spectacle worthy of your stunned attention that fuses a variety of cultural and religious traditions from both Hinduism and Buddhism.

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