Camping Tours in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka is a leading holiday destination in Asia with many cultural attractions, historical places, natural attractions. Some travellers mistakenly think that the island is a small country like the Maldives and has no geographical variation within its borders. But Sri Lanka is a country with a large extent of forest, and some of the forests of Sri Lanka are dating back many millennia.
Sri Lanka tour packages tour
Even though Sri Lanka is a small country, it has a large number of wildlife reserves suitable for wildlife tours, mountains, tropical rainforests, tropical cloud forests and one of the oldest patch of rainforests in the world, known as Sinharaja rainforest. The vastness of Sri Lanka’s natural wealth is so immense you may not able to explore the Sinharaja rainforest alone within many years. That’s why we have meticulously plan your camping tours in Sri Lanka to give you the top-notch camping experiences on the island.
Take part in a Sri Lanka road trip, that’s the best way to get hold of the rich culture and history of Sri Lanka while enjoying the natural beauty of the country.
There are few camping tours available to book in the country, offered by several tour operators in Sri Lanka such as seerendipity tours. But most tour operators do not touch this segment of tourism, because they have no experience in this field and there were not many travellers looking for camping tours in Sri Lanka.
How to book a camping tour of Sri Lanka
Most camping sites belong to private companies and they have their offices in Colombo. Many hotels around the island have also started to offer campsites due to the high demand for camping, as an extension of the existing inventory at the hotel and provide comfortable camping accommodation for the customers.
Most camping sites are found in the western and southern parts of the island and it might be difficult to find a campsite in the northern and eastern Sri Lanka, due to the unpopularity of north Sri Lanka as a holiday destination on the island.
What to expect in a Sri Lanka camping tour?
Usually, the camping tours of Sri Lanka evolve around mountains such as knuckles mountain, patches of forests, beach areas and important places in the cultural triangle of Sri Lanka. Making a camping tour in Sri Lanka allows you to base in a very beautiful scenic surrounding. Our camping tours cover a wide range of areas in central Sri Lanka, western province and southern Sri Lanka. The camping tours in Sri Lanka is a great way to experience the breathtaking scenery and tranquil surrounding to the fullest.
Why is Sri Lanka a good place for camping tours?
The year-round tropical climate on the island makes Sri Lanka an ideal destination for camping tours. The campers will not encounter difficulties due to the snowfall, volcanoes or earthquakes, but torrential rainfall during the monsoon can make some difficulties during your camping tour in Sri Lanka, so try to avoid the camping sites located in the monsoon triggered areas.
There can be different weather conditions based on different camping areas, for instance, the temperature in the mountains may drop to around 0 degrees Celsius while the temperature in the lower elevated areas can be as high as 35 Degree Celsius, therefore, camping is difficult and good physical and mental fitness is required to tolerate varying weather conditions and other features.
The distance between the low-elevated areas (beaches) and the highest point of the mountain is around 225 km and one can reach the mountains from the lower elevated areas or vice-a-versa within few hours time. If you feel that you will not able to cope-up with the huge change of the temperature make an overnight stay in a camping site in between two locations.
The nice experience of camping in Sri Lanka gets elaborated with never-ending green foliage that you encounter during the trip. Enjoy the touch of fascinating flora that comprised of huge trees, plants, grass and orchid species.
In case you are a diehard adventure, have camped in Kitulgala (at the foothills of the central mountain range), for a delightful camping experience, Kitulgala is known to the travellers as the playground of adventure travellers.
What are the best places for camping in Sri Lanka?
As the name suggests “the playground of adventure lovers”, Kitulgala offers a wide range of adrenaline-pumping activities such as white water rafting, rock climbing, trekking, waterfall abseiling, caving etc. Most camping sites in Kitulgal are permanent establishments providing year-round accommodation for nature lovers as well as the adventure enthusiast.
Kitulgala
The Kelaniya river is one of the most important attractions in Kitulgala and featuring in many activities such as white water rafting, kayaking, bathing, fishing etc. Many camping sites dotted along the Kelaniya river and they provide comfortable accommodation with meals for the foreign as well as local travellers, who wish to have camping tours in Sri Lanka. Kitulgala and the surrounding area is been used as the base for many camping tours, it is easy to reach many important tourist attraction from Kitulagala such as Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Horton Plains, Sinharaja rainforest, Udawalawe national park and many other sites are lying at the foothills of the central mountain range.
Sigiriya
Another place to have an enjoyable camping experience is Sigiriya, where you find many interesting places to explore. Sigiriya is another good place to have a memorable experience during your camping tour in Sri Lanka, where you can connect with the untamed wilderness due to the large extent of natural forest cover. This remote area is a heaven for those who looking for a way to get away from the chaos of the busy city. Sigiriya is one of the best places for bird watching in Sri Lanka and Sigiriya is included in every bird watching tour in Sri Lanka.
Minneriya safari is one of the very popular activity among the travellers who stay in Sigiriya because it enables them to spot a large number of animals such as elephants, wild buffaloes, crocodile, monkey, wild boar etc. A large number of foreign travellers are choosing Sigiriya as their base while they explore cultural triangle of Sri Lanka because Sigiriya provides them easy access to many important sites such as Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and Dambulla
of the cultural triangle of Sri Lanka.
Udawalawe national park
Udawalawe is an isolated remote village in the dry zone of southern Sri Lanka and it is rank among the best places for camping. There are many camping sites along the border of Udawalawe national park and they are managed by private companies. Udawalawe is popular for nature holidays and it provides patches of forests, rivers, lakes, rice paddy and wetlands useful for Faun and Flora exploration. The accommodation of camping is offered as a combination of meals, accommodation and safari. Several campsites can be seen around Udawalawe national park and all of them are managed by local companies.
Nuwara Eliya
In the camping sites, on the mountains (high altitude areas) such as Nuwara Eliya offers you hotels as well as camping sites for an overnight stay. The green-capped mountains in the back-yard add to the tranquillity of the area and enable visitors to bask in the picturesque surrounding while experiencing the camping tours in Sri Lanka to a new level. The temperature in the high altitude area can drop sharply after the sunset making it cold for the campers.
Yala
The apt location of Yala in the southern province of Sri Lanka has also become a popular place for camping tours in Sri Lanka, due to the Yala national park. Large number fo wildlife explorers, who are visiting the park, are demanding for accommodation near the parks and it has been difficult to accommodate travellers near the national park due to lack of hotels because most hotels in Yala are located at least 10 km away from the national parks. Therefore the demand for camping accommodation is on the rise and owing to that several new camping sites were started alone the border of Yala national park. Yala is a very remote area on the island offers a wide range of faun Flora to explore. not only wildlife exploration here you can have enjoyable trekking, exploration of archaeological sites and beach hopping.
The camping tours in Sri Lanka crafted by Seerendipity tours provide you with the ability to escape the monotony of life expose you to the mesmerising surrounding of the alluring places. If you wish to have a relaxing tour still these camping tours in Sri Lanka is a great way to indulge yourself in a peaceful holiday.
Can the new rules of the government make a bad impact on nature tourism
Sri Lankan government is planning to change the existing fauna and flora act, in order to enable the use of buffer zones of nature reserves of Sri Lanka in the future projects. The naturalist has seen the danger of the upcoming changes with rules and regulation has protested against the proposed change of regulations.
As per the regulation that prevails at the moment construction of any kind is not allowed within the 500 meters of the buffer zone. Deforestation is a serious threat to the environment in the country. Therefore what authorities need to do is strengthening the existing rules and regulation to protect the environment.
Recently a proposed road, which was going through the Sinharaja was stopped by court order after the complaints lodged by naturalists in the country. The proposed road was planned to be constructed through the Last remaining primaeval rain forest in the southern part of the island.
Earlier in a rural road development project funded by ADB, a new road was constructed through a secondary forest in the Galle district, which resulted in removing 26 valuable trees.
Similar road construction was undertaken by the Samurdhi Authority of Sri Lanka, through another portion of the same forest was stopped with the intervention of Police and people in the village.
A rural electrification project with the help of ADB was initially planned through a forest in southern Sri Lanka. If it was implemented a large number of valuable trees could have been removed from the forest. But the environment authority intervened and diverted the cause of the line to an alternative route rescuing the part of the valuable forest.
Legal action against encroaches
Meanwhile, environmentalists in Sri Lanka are accusing several people, who are actively engaged in clearing the protected forest within the Ruhunu National Park, Sri Lanka. According to the information of The Nations, local news portal, as much as 20,000 acres have been cleared so far and surprisingly the Department of Forest Conservation (DFC) is not taking any action against it.
The areas encroached so far are located in Niyadella, Demodara, Upaliya, Kaludiyaella, Thenagallanda, Bopitiya, Ethimale, and Kotiyagala areas. Land cleared believed to be in very high value since its proximity to Buttala international airport due to complete in November 2012. Cleared land is in the Buttala Divisional Secretariat in the Monaragala District. According to the Environment Conservation Trust, the cleared area is divided into separate blocks of 10 to 300 acres. Cleared areas are already being used in gem mining and Chena cultivation according to The Nations.
