Escaping The Cold - Sri Lanka

If you want to go somewhere hot and sunny in February, you’re looking at long-haul realistically. Even European countries that are generally hot, like Turkey and Spain, can be chilly in the early months of the year. So we want somewhere long haul, and ideally somewhere cheap. To me, this screams Asia –we narrowed it down to one of the south eastern countries (Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand) or Sri Lanka. I’ve travelled extensively around the Southeast Asian countries in my youth and Emma wasn’t overly fussed either way, so we opted for Sri Lanka. We also got ourselves some cheap travel insurance at www.insureandaway.co.uk, as it is always best to be prepared when adventuring these places.

There are a number of reasons I feel Sri Lanka will make a great holiday choice, which I will list here:

1. Sri Lanka has the advantage of being one of the cheapest destinations anywhere on earth at the moment. Aside from the cost of the flights, which you can get for around £500 return, holiday spending should be minimal.

2. Sri Lanka has the benefit of being fairly compact. You can get around very easily I understand, which is perfect for a two week holiday. At one point we were thinking of doing India, but it’s just so big. If you’re happy to stay put in one resort or one small area that’s fair enough, but we like to travel around and see as much as possible when we go away.

3. 

   Despite its relatively small size, there is a wealth of things to see and do in Sri Lanka. There are numerous National Parks such as Yala and Uda Walawe, you can explore Tea Plantations in the Hill Country, you can climb the sacred Adam’s Peak mountain, you can venture into the jungle and hike up to the ancient Sigiriya rock, visit a turtle hatchery and release baby turtles into the sea and much more. Plenty to keep us occupied for two weeks!
   
   

4. The beaches look amazing. As I mentioned earlier, one of the main reasons for taking a break at this time of year is to get reacquainted with the sun, so I’m hoping to also spend a good few days relaxing on some beautiful tropical beach somewhere. Fortunately Sri Lanka has these in abundance, with Hikkaduwa and Unawatuna looking particularly spectacular.

So there you have it! If anyone has been to Sri Lanka before and has any advice of things to do or just general tips, I would be happy to hear from you. I’d like to know the name of a decent Sri Lankan cookery course as well if anyone has any info about this.