Ride with the Elephants in Sri Lanka

10-days travel enduro adventure tour through Sri Lanka

During this adventurous motorbike tour, you will experience the most beautiful areas of Sri Lanka, visit the Yala national park with its great variety of animals and plants, view the Dambulla rock cave temple, dive into the local cuisine in the Matale spice garden and generally enjoy an exciting motorbike adventure.

Day 1: Welcome to Colombo

After arriving at the airport of Colombo, our tour guide will welcome you with a traditional greeting in the airport lobby and afterwards, you will be driven to your hotel in Negombo. Here, you can check-in, relax in your room and start exploring your new surrounding.

Day 2: Rock cave Dambulla

After breakfast, we will head to our motorbikes and you can choose which one you would like to ride for the rest of our tour. After doing so, you will receive all the necessary protectional gear as well as a brief instruction on the route we are going to ride and on the Sri Lankan road regulations you need to consider while riding. We check-out of our hotel, load our luggage into the provided vehicle and start our motorbike tour with a ride to Dambulla where we will visit the rock cave temple. During our 1 hr excursion, you will experience the temple that was built in the 1st century BC by King Walagamba and that is now a world heritage site. The complex of five caves with over 2000 m² of painted walls and ceilings is the largest painted area in the world and makes the temple the most impressive cave temple in Sri Lanka. It contains over 150 images of the Buddha of which the largest is more than 14 m in height. After we have seen everything, we will continue our ride to Habarana, check-in at our hotel and spend the rest of the evening relaxing.

Day 3: From Sigiriya via Matale to Kandy

We have breakfast, check-out of our hotel and start riding our motorbikes to the Sigiriya rock fortress. Sigiriya is perhaps Sri Lanka's most dramatic sight with its near-vertical walls that soar to a flat-topped summit containing the ruins of an ancient civilization that is thought to once have been the epicenter of the short-lived kingdom of Kassapa. As Sigiriya refuses to easily reveal its secrets, we'll have to climb a series of vertiginous staircases to reach the top - look out for some of the quite remarkable frescoes, a pair of colossal lion's paws and the lily-pads covering the surrounding landscape on your way up! After we enjoyed the views, we will continue our ride to Matale, where we will stop at a spice garden. Here, we can observe the therapeutic values of spices and processes over a refreshing cup of herbal tea or spend some more time on the road and experience a real town adventured filled with voices and colors. Our day ends with a ride to Kandy, where we will check-in at our hotel and have a relaxing evening.

Day 4: Knuckles mountains

After breakfast we will check-out and ride to Knuckles where the ride of your life is waiting for you! The Knuckles mountain range lies in central Sri Lanka, in the districts of Matale and Kandy. Its name stems from a series of recumbent folds and peaks in the west of the massif which resemble the knuckles of clenched fist when viewed from certain locations in the Kandy District. Whilst this name was assigned by early British surveyors, the Sinhalese residents have traditionally referred to the area as Dumbara Kanduvetiya meaning mist-laden mountain range. We will continue our ride to Mahinyanganaya and check-in to our hotel.

Day 5: Uphill to Ella

After breakfast we will check-out of our hotel and ride to Ella on our motorbikes. Ella is a small town in the Badulla district of the Uva province that is situated at an elevation of 1,041 meters above sea level. The area has a rich bio-diversity with a seemingly endless variety of flora and fauna. Ella is surrounded by hills covered with cloud forests and tea plantations. Due to its elevation, the town also has a cooler climate than surrounding lowlands which is very welcoming. Our day ends with the stunning views the Ella Gap grants us with before we check-in to our hotel and relax.

Day 6: Ravana Waterfall and Yala National Park

After breakfast we will check-out of our hotel and ride to Tissamaharama. On our way, we will visit the Ravana waterfall, which is about 25 m high and cascades from an oval-shaped concave rock outcrop. During the local wet season, the waterfall turns into what is said to resemble an areca flower with withering petals. We leave the falls that form part of the Ravana Ella Wildlife Sanctuary and upon our arrival at Tissa check-in to our hotel, where we will relax for a bit before another highlight is waiting for us in the afternoon: a jeep safari at the Yala national park. Spreading into a vast 1.259 km², Yala - with its glory spinning around vast grasslands, shrubs, tanks and dunes - rightfully is the heartland of wildlife in Sri Lanka. As our jeep rumbles through the giant gates of Yala, we are not only stepping into the most visited national park in the country, but also the lands of a civilization which thrived during the reign of Sri Lankan kings. You name it, Yala has it! Its usual inmates cover herds of elephants, sloth bears, spotted dears, jackals, a great variety of birds as well as the highest density of leopards in the world that garnish the park to be one of the finest destinations in the country. Feel the rough track as your jeep thunders over rocks and swish passing narrow bends for an exhilarating experience blended with the cries of wilderness under the tropical sun before we return to our hotel and enjoy a relaxed evening.

Day 7: Mirissa beach paradise

We enjoy our breakfast, check-out of our hotel and ride our motorbikes to Mirissa. Mirissa is a small town on the south coast of Sri Lanka, located in the Matara district of the Southern province. Mirissa's beach and nightlife make it a popular tourist destination, it is a fishing port and one of the island's main whale and dolphin watching locations. Upon arrival at this tropical paradise, we check-in to our hotel and enjoy the rest of the day relaxing at the beach.

Day 8: City tour through Galle

After breakfast we will check-out and ride to Galle, where we enjoy a city tour. Galle is the intersection where classic Dutch architecture meets a tropical setting creating a vivid atmosphere in beauty. We walk the Dutch-haunted streets listening to the creaks of wooden saloon doors and observe how European architecture mingles with South Asian traditions today flooding cultural enthusiasts on a global scale. Its original ramparts and bastions preserved up to date showcase evidences of a heritage preserved for more than 3 1/2 centuries. We walk clockwise within the fort to observe the 'old gate' carrying the British coat of arms. Flanking the old gate is the Zwart bastion - the oldest of all - and the lighthouse standing in its glory next to the Point Utrecht Bastion. This Dutch bliss is painted with streets that spread in a rectangular grid pattern pierced with houses carrying Dutch colonial style verandas. However, its hallmark stands a reality where the Dutch fort remains a working community with its usual buzz of administrative offices, court complex, commercial buildings, churches and Southern folks frequenting its streets bracing the air of the Elysium of architecture! After pur exciting excursion, we check-in at our hotel and enjoy a relaxing evening.

Day 9: Back to Colombo

We enjoy our breakfast, check-out and ride back to Colombo, where we enjoy a city tour through the capital of Sri Lanka. Colombo, like many capital cities in developing countries, is quickly changing its face. Almost overnight, skyscrapers arise from where old buildings once stood, yet in some parts, the old-world charm is retained. A 100-year-old clock tower and several British built, colonial buildings are still to be seen in the city. The Pettah bazaar – where one can shop for bargains, a Hindu and a Buddhist temple, residential areas where you find the stately homes of the affluent, the Colombo museum, the Bandaranaike memorial international conference hall – an outright gift to Sri Lanka from the people’s republic of china, the new parliament in Sri Jayewardenepura and the folk art center are some of the places of interest that we will visit during our tour. After the excursion, enjoy another relaxing evening in our hotel before you are traveling back home tomorrow.

Day 10: Departure day

After breakfast, you will check-out of our hotel so that our driver can drive you to the airport according to your flight's departure time.