Five Activities for Your Family Adventure Holidays Sri Lanka
Don’t leave kids behind during your family adventure holidays in Sri Lanka, from backwaters of Sri Lanka to Yala national park.
Spanning in the southern tip of Indian sub-continent, tropical island of Sri Lanka is a wildland of rugged mountains, cascading waterfalls, ancient monuments and pristine beaches that lie bordering the Indian Ocean. The expanse of 1300km of isolated beaches and fort studded cities- a perfect setting to inspire the sense of adventure of kids. Sri Lanka family trip places not only restricted to natural tourist attraction but also the cultural and religious monuments such as ancient cities.
Sri Lanka entered into main-stream tourism in 17s. Family Adventure Holidays of Sri Lanka are popular among world travellers due to family-friendly hotels and local community make it an approachable holiday destination for families, yet it still feels intrepid. Sri Lanka’s year-round warm tropical weather is ideal to a Christmas break or a half-term.
The beaches and river mouth the forts once guarded is still coveted today, except that now it’s for its gently sloping beachfront, and shallow, warm waters that are ideal for kids. It is well worth of venturing out to sea in search of colossal Blue whale and dolphins, the sea off southern Sri Lanka is one of the best whale-watching destinations in the world.
Having kids should not essentially stop you doing bold explorations such as whitewater rafting and rainforest exploration, during your family adventure holidays in Sri Lanka. Here are five family-friendly holiday ideas to make your trip an unforgettable travel experience.
Bentota, Sri Lanka: The laid-back one on your family adventure holidays Sri Lanka
With its varied sights, sounds and smells, Sri Lanka can be overwhelming for the first time travellers, not least children. The mellow Bentota beach of Sri Lanka is one of the best places to acclimatize, where the travellers can experience the island’s richness of nature, culture, and history without hassle.
Flanked by the Indian Ocean and Bentota River, the slender strip of the palm-fringed beach makes the most popular and alluring half-island in Sri Lanka that attracts hundreds of thousands of beach lovers every year. Bentota River that hugs the Bentota beach, a tangle of backwaters of the west coast of Sri Lanka, 30 KM of emerald waterways flows windingly past rice paddy, riverside villages, and fields. Gliding slowly along in a small motorboat, watching local life play out and spend overnight under the stars, is undoubtedly one of Sri Lanka’s most magical experiences to share with kids during your family adventure holidays in Sri Lanka.
In the month of April, there is an additional treat; long, narrow snake boat races, in which teams up to about a dozen of oarsmen jump into a canoe-style boat and compete to win the yearly boating race, while the crowd is cheering. The boat races are organized in many parts of the country simultaneously to the dawn of Sinhalese-Tamil new-year.
Rowing competition
One of the most popular rowing competitions of the island is the national rowing completion held in Diyawanna in the month of September; a spectacle participated by top talented national oarsmen and women. Though the snakes in the island are metaphorical, Sri Lanka is a country to spot a large number of animals, especially the wildlife reserves such as Yala is teaming with leopards, elephants, wild buffaloes, crocodile, troops of monkeys and many other animals.
Boating as a family adventure
A family adventure in Bentota includes a guided boating tour along the Bentota River and short tour that lasts around 2 hours exploring the backwaters of Bentota. Cycling tours and nature treks along the Bentota River are also fantastic opportunities to experience the rich natural wealth of Bentota backwaters, visit local villages, village schools, Buddhist temples, and take part in a homestay.
Tangalle Sri Lanka: The weird and wonderful one for your family adventure holidays Sri Lanka
People of Sri Lanka believe in unseen powers, especially the people coming from southern Sri Lanka, and if there were a place where demons and gods played any role in the life, this other-worldly land could be it. Sitting near the southern Border of Sri Lanka, it is a playground for beach holiday enthusiast, nature lovers, wildlife enthusiasts and travellers who are learning to maintain the balance on the surfboard. With all these natural dramas Tangalle is an exciting prospect for kids and an emerging holiday destination on the island.
Whale watching family adventure
The whale watching off the coast of Dondra as well as visiting Rekawa with fall of dusk should be on top of the list, two unforgettable natural spectacles giving you the opportunity to see sea turtles and blue whales, both are categorized under critically endangered animals in the world, at their doorstep.
Another important natural attraction is the ‘Hummanaya’ that can be easily added to your family adventure holidays Sri Lanka; this phenomenon can be observed only in the fishing village of Kudawella of southern Sri Lanka. A cascade that thunder along a narrow ravine, and Sri Lankan Geysir, is ranked as the 2nd tallest natural fountains in the world. Sits on a jacked granite monolith that intrudes into the ocean from the mainland, surrounded by a rocky outcrop, the fountain can shoot up to 30 meters into the sky.
It is worth keep trying natural phenomena such as geothermal oddities that to be found in few places near Tangalle, Natural hot wells are not common in Sri Lanka like in Iceland, where lava fields heat up the water, however, a few hot wells with warm torque water to be found in southern Sri Lanka and East coast.
Visiting hot wells
Mahapalessa hot wells near Hambantota is the most popular hot wellspring in southern Sri Lanka, four tanks are filled up with warm water in different temperatures. Here, families can enjoy a refreshing bath with the natural warm water, in the backdrop of the photogenic woody surrounding; it is tempting to see the bubbling warm water coming from the deep down.
Wildlife adventure in Sri Lanka
The wildlife of Sri Lanka accounts for some of Sri Lanka’s memorable and magical family holiday experiences. Large tract of the rocky outcrop of southern Sri Lanka is up for exploration in the Yala national park, the second biggest national park on the island, which is the best leopards spotting jungle in the world. The vast, tract of dry zone forest, grassy flatland, large monolith rocks, lakes, sandy beaches, and hundreds of creatures are best viewed in safari jeep ride.
2 days family adventure southern Sri Lanka
2 days family adventure southern Sri Lanka is one of the popular short tours offered by Seerendipity tours, especially for families. 2 days Sri Lanka tour traversing the southern beaches, this tour takes in Galle, Hummanaya, Yala national park, Whale watching as well as Matara fortress.
Families visiting southern Sri Lankan should make a moonlight visit to one of the beaches in particular – that at Rekewa beach, a world-renowned beach for nesting endangered green turtles.
Optional activities include hot wells springs and boat tour at Madu estuary, and there is leisure time in family-friendly Galle fort.
Sigiriya: The young explorer’s one
Three hours from the main airport of Colombo, Sigiriya, is the home for a most prominent iconic tourist attraction Sigiriya rock fortress, is the vast ochre partially destroyed constructions, the palace complex where King Kashayapa lived, a renegade king who ruled the island in 5th century AD. Sigiriya is the heart of the cultural triangle of Sri Lanka, where most ancient marvels are concentrated.
Impressive Buddhist temples, multi-stories palaces, huge swimming pools, breathtaking paintings and awe-inspiring irrigation networks, where hydraulic principles are put into work, all done by hand. Some of the constructions are dating back to 3rd century BCE, Sri Lanka is the home for 7 UNESCO world heritage sites and five of those ancient marvels are residing within the three corners of the cultural triangle.
Sigiriya is a remote, calm and quiet locality with a small laid-back city, most hotels and guest houses are living in harmony with nature because the green cover in Sigiriya is vast and most hotels built while minimizing the destruction to nature. Having a local lunch, take part in a cooking class, riding an elephant, through the woods and perennial waterways would be ideal for a family with kids. Bullock cart riding as the ancient Sri Lankans did, boating in the lake, and make jeep safari through the Minneriya national park are somewhat traditional activities and memorable.
Sri Lanka’s history comes to life in the cultural triangle, where hundreds of temples, palaces, audience halls, and towers stand; most of them are in a dilapidated condition due to the foreign invasions.
Family adventure holidays in Sri Lanka
Seerendipity tours family adventure holidays in Sri Lanka begins with time in Colombo and takes in visits to temples, palaces, towns and forts, trekking through the rainforests and mountains, and a stay near leopard sighting abundant Yala national park. Towards the end of the tour, there are opportunities to swim in the sea, exploring Hikkaduwa marine sanctuary, boating in the Madu river estuary, visiting Cinnamon Island, spot whales and dolphin off Mirissa. The time is allocated to enjoy the coast, including one night stay with a private beach.
Yala national park: The wildlife one
Beaches are not an essential part of safari holidays, leopards, elephants and most other wild creatures are not quite attracted to balmy ocean views. At Yala national park in southern Sri Lanka, however, grasslands, sand and thick forest sit side by side, enabling for an unusual laid-back wildlife-exploration trip
Yala national park is home to every type of local animal you and your kids may have dreamed of. Sri Lankan Leopards, the biggest carnivore on the island, roam the rocky outcrop in families, alongside bear, crocodile, jackal, and wild buffalo are living here. You will encounter elephants in large herds or as a single elephant, and crocodiles and wild buffaloes wallow in the waters of isolated tanks and water holes.
Yala’s position near the popular Kataragama temple means that a trip to Yala is not confined to wildlife exploration. The month of July is the main festive season of the temple where many thousands of devotees gather daily in order to invoke the blessing of God Kataragama, the yearly festival wind-up with an unforgettable and colourful procession.
Seerendipity tours organize family trips to Yala and southern Sri Lanka that includes dawn and dusk game drives usually the trip includes few stops along the southern and western coast, allowing you to dip into the warm, torque waters of Indian Ocean, the tour package combined with beach holiday packages to further exploration and relaxing.
The mountains: the active one
From tea bush-cloaked mountains to primaeval rainforest, it is hard to find so much varied outdoor activities within a small geographical area like in Sri Lankan mountains. Towards the southern and western slope of the central mountain range offers vast canyons, giant trees, cascading waterfalls, white water, and surreal rock tableaux making an ideal backdrop for a light adventurous family holiday.
Horton plain’s National Park is a place of superlatives, with Sri Lanka’s last remaining cloud forest, tons of endemic Fauna and Flora, and worlds end. In the midst of the mountains, families can experience the taste of pure Ceylon tea; take a light adventure of trekking through the tea plantation like the colourfully dressed plantation workers do. A countless number of waterfalls in different sizes adds beauty to the mountains, these waterfalls plunge into natural pools ideal for a wild swim in nearby Zion.
One of the most impressive tourist attractions in the mountains is the Gregory Lake, which dates back to early 18s and founded by British governor William Gregory, which is a highlight for any family trip in the region. There are hordes of tourist around the lake playing, running, walking, trekking, chatting and pony riding, while some others are boating in the lake. The spacious and open area around the lake is carpeted with grass and ideal for kid’s activities.
A tour itinerary to cover Sri Lanka Mountains, while epic, can be done leisurely with a package tour. Sri Lanka’s mountain tour begins in Colombo and includes, Kandy, tea factory, Gregory Lake, visit few waterfalls and drive through the tea plantations. Horton plains national park is offered as an optional activity. Families stay in a colonial house that converted to a tourist hotel. From trekking and cycling to whitewater rafting on the Kelaniya River, there are plenty of adrenaline-pumping opportunities to get active – and leisure time to wind down and sharing interesting stories in between.
