Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Honeymoon advice please.

cherabelle

Good Morning All,

My soon to be husband and I will be going to book our honeymoon in a couple of weeks. Prior to getting quotes though we wanted to make sure we'd got as much information as possible.

Our plan is a tour of Sri Lanka for around a week and then fly across to the Maldives for 10-14 days of relaxing.

Initially we planned to go to Sri Lanka in the July for my 30th as it's been my dream to see the elephants but considering their proximity it made sense to just do an epic honeymoon.

Would anyone have any recommendations on where to go in Sri Lanka (which National Park areas etc) would be good for seeing the elephants. I want to see the elephants in the wild however I would consider a sanctuary whereby I can wash them etc provided they are rescued and not worked (if such a place exsists). I did find one but the mixed reviews.left me unsure. If you have spent anytime travelling the area what are your must see things? A couple of travel agents have 8 day tours which looked pretty good and like they would cover off a lot.

Moving towards the Maldives, we are aware there are hundreds of islands. We'd like somewhere that we can do the whole lying on a beach thing but also a couple of activities such as maybe snorkelling etc. Any recommendations for nice resorts?
Thanks in advance and any advice in general would be amazing, this will be our holiday of a lifetime so we want to make sure we plan it properly.

C 😊

cherabelle

His was the tour we had found initially.

https://www.travelbag.co.uk/tours/asia/sri-lanka/product/8-day-discover-sri-lanka?productid=136

bigadaj

For elephants you want udawalawe park which is teh centre south of the country. It's a fair way inland so away from the beaches, road travel in Sri Lanka is painfully slow, it took us around 4 hours to travel less than 100km from the airport so something to consider.

We went to Yale in the south east as it's probably the best place in the world to see leopards, though elephants were present as well.

The south coast is very nice, north and inland not so much for me, and the west coast is a bit package tourist and grim.

Pollycat

We've also been to Yala National Park.
And Pinnawala Elephant Sanctuary which we found a bit touristy - and that was 20 years ago.
Even that long ago, we only had a faraway glimpse of 'proper' wild elephants.

We loved the ancient sites - Sigiriya, Polonnaruwa, Anuradhapura, Dambulla and we always did an overnight trip to Kandy. Visiting the Temple of the Tooth before breakfast (and the crowds) was great.
IIRC, there's a massive festival in Kandy around the time you're planning to go.

We also had a wonderful trip to Nuwara Eliya (the Hill Country - tea plantations) staying in the Hill Club where you had to 'dress for dinner' but I'm not sure you can stay there anymore.

What companies are you looking at for tours?

Can't help with the Maldives as it's not my cup of tea.

scd3scd4

Vilamandoo and Kuredu..............Maldives. Been to both.

glentoran99

cherabelle wrote: »

Moving towards the Maldives, we are aware there are hundreds of islands. We'd like somewhere that we can do the whole lying on a beach thing but also a couple of activities such as maybe snorkelling etc. Any recommendations for nice resorts?
Thanks in advance and any advice in general would be amazing, this will be our holiday of a lifetime so we want to make sure we plan it properly.

C 😊

We stayed here, it was amazing


https://www.booking.com/hotel/mv/sun-island-resort-spa.en-gb.html?aid=356983;label=gog235im-hotel-XX-mv-sunNislandNresortNspa-unspec-gb-com-L%3Aen-V%3A0ahUKEwiT1rm6ub3WAhVL1BoKHYixBtUQjxwIAw-O%3AwindowsS7-B%3AinternetSexplorer-N%3AXX-S%3Abo-U%3AXX-H%3As;sid=9fc0f7caf60759b59e2de73d7440f477;dist=0&sb_price_type=total&type=total&

Placitasgirl

Take a look at the Maldives Forum on Trip Advisor - it's a really great forum for getting suggestions from both fellow travellers and Maldives Destination Experts (DEs) and specialist Travel Agents.

We've visited Reethi Beach three times and would highly recommend it. Next June we're visiting it's brand new sister island Reeti Faru for 11 nights.

The top question in the like above "which resort island?" will explain the information you can share with forum members for suggestions that will match your budget and wish list:

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowForum-g293953-i7445-Maldives.html

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowForum-g293953-i7445-Maldives.htmlhttps://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g293953-i7445-k10520269-Which_Resort_ISLAND_should_we_choose-Maldives.html

cherabelle

Thank you so much for the replies everyone. Lots of good advice, got a lot more research to do this evening ready to go holiday shopping :-)

[Deleted User]

Sri Lanka.
The Mermaid Hotel in Kalutara is a very good,three-star all-inclusive hotel very popular with British tourists including many who travel and book independently ( although you can do it via a tour company. )

More importantly there's a licensed tour operator called Suresh.You can read about him on many of the Tripadvisor reviews of the hotel especially if you opt for reviews that mention Red Mohican.( It's how he's recognised ! )

It's a great story.Suresh started out as a beach boy outside the hotel although not in any official capacity and started off doing errands and tourist runs for the visitor.He was so good and so successful that he's built up a business offering things like whale watching and elephant exchanges.You can contact him before you go and he will be considerably cheaper than anything else you might book. Suresh Pushpakumara is trustworthy and knowledgeable.Personally I'd much rather fund someone like him than an anonymous Sri Lankan tour company to act as my guide.

https://www.tripadvisor.ie/Hotel_Review-g304136-d316671-Reviews-Hotel_Mermaid_Club-Kalutara_Western_Province.html#apg=2cab450ce850408fbd3dc01184e95628&ss=5171254F3FF592EBE6F3C1F312BC8E06

https://www.realsrilankatours.com

email suresh.pushpakumara@yahoo.com

Tel: 0094776665141