Travelling to Sri Lanka for holiday

[shall]

I want to go to Sri Lanka in August for a holiday. Could anyone tell me what mosquitoes etc are like there. If anyone would like to give me feed back of what Sri Lanka is like for a holiday Iwould be appreciated ie weather, sea ,best places to stay etc.

[JK2]

Depends which part of Sri Lanka - more of a problem in some areas than it is in others. If you are going to get bitten it is more likely at night time. Just make sure you you have a DEET spray with you for your arms & legs.

Climate is hot & humid all year round but you soon get adjust to it. Make sure your clothers are cotton - not polyester - so that they absorb sweat. It is cheap and easy to get clothes laundered during your stay.

Sri Lanka is beautiful, a really lovely holiday island with some good sightseeing - especially places like Anhuradhapara, Sigyria, Kandy. The people are friendly.

It is a good idea to tour - or stay inland at somewhere like Habarana - for the first week so you can see some of the places I mentioned above, and then transfer to a beach resort for the 2nd week. Lots of companies offer this kind of combination.

Or you can go on Safari for part of the holiday.

You could look on Tripadvisor for beach hotel recommendations and find an area that appeals to you or just browse through some of the online brochures.

[Cugetit]

I have been on several holidays to Sri Lanka and many moons ago spent a couple of years on the island. On each of the holidays we stayed at the Mt Lavinia Hotel, Mt Lavinia ... not far from Colombo and Negombo. This hotel is the old Governor's residence and was also used in the film Bridge Over The River Kwai, doubling as a convalescent hospital. As JK2 states, it is very hot and humid all year round and you certainly will not need to take any woollens!!! The hotel mentioned, although very old, has had a modern annexe built on with air conditioned rooms but if you prefer the ceiling fans these are available in the old section. From there you can visit Ratnapura, the gemstone area, the tea plantations, up-country, or the game reserves and elephant nurseries. The "troubles", which have been ongoing for many years take the edge off it a little, particularly when travelling up north to Jaffna or China Bay (the Tamil areas) but generally speaking the people are very, very friendly (known as the smiling nation) and if anything too subservient, in my view. Have a king coconut , which used to be their national emblem, and the milk from it is very refreshing. Fantastic assortment of tropical fruits available. Anyway, enjoy.

[mjwman]

A lovely place - so lng as you keep the persistent hawkers at bay! We had no mossy problems at all.
Went with The Travel Collection (on line only and part of Kuoni). We were a group of ony 17 with our own guide and coach with driver. Excellent value!
There are at least 2 cliamate areas . We had a lovely dry inland stay but the Negombo beach part was still monsoon and not so good.

[shall]

Thank you for your comments also looking at Jamaica as a possibility now. Thinking of going with Sandals to avoid the children as I work with them all year! Montego Bay looks appealing. Can anyone comment? as you have been helpful so far.