Sri Lanka

CAE

Anyone travelled to Sri Lanka recently? A friend has booked to go to Galle in a couple of weeks, and would like to know what currency or travellers cheques she should take. Travel Agent said to take US dollars, and M&S FEX said to take sterling travellers cheques. Currency is Sri Lankan Rupees.
Is now very confused, so thought we would try and get info from someone who has visited recently.

I guess a mixture of local currency and travellers cheques, but Dollar or sterling? (Doesn't use credit cards normally, but will have one for emergencies only, and is not Nationwide / Post Office)

Also, if anyone has an idea of cost of things out there that would be really useful so she can budget for spending money.

Thanks in advance

Incapuppy

We weren't terribly organised spending wise when we went in June of last year (despite having booked the holiday 9 months previously).

I seem to recall reading somewhere that we would get a better rate of exchange over there so we just took a load of sterling travellers cheques and changed a chunk at the hotel on arrival and then more later as we needed it. This was quite possibly not the absolute best in MSE terms but we weren't worried about losing a few pounds either way. Having spoken to a few others that had taken rupees with them we did actually get a better rate locally than they had in the UK.

I can't remember much about local costs, for the most part we were half board on a tour and then AI at the beach. Iirc it was cheaper to drink cocktails at the bar than order say just a G&T.

There is hopefully some useful info here for starters:

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/sri-lanka/

Remind your friends to check the current situation regarding malaria precautions and tell them that they must haggle when buying any souvenirs etc. Tell them also to prepare themselves for an ermmm interesting drive from the airport to their hotel ;0)

That was our first visit but certainly won't be our last, it is a wonderful country, we left a chunk of our hearts behind there and hope to return as soon as possible.

cundall

Just take cash... and your debit card though your normally can get a very good rate on the black market...

Disab_2

Just got back from 3 months in Sri Lanka. Don't know about money as I just used my nationwide in the ATMs. There are plenty of ATMs.

Costs

Local beer (3 coins or Lion) in a nice hotel should be aounrd 200-300 Rs (£1-1.50). Cocktails in a posh hotel about 550 Rs (£2.50). Car and driver for 200km for a day around 4,500 Rs (£20). Clothes, food and fruit all cheap and great. Public transport is ridiulously cheap but maybe not adivsable given recent secutriy issues. And as always, imported items are a lot more expensive. But my general advise would be to take little and shop when you get there.

Enjoy!