Day 1 | Depart Heathrow on Sri Lankan Airlines non-stop, non-smoking flight to Colombo.
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Day 2 | Arrive Colombo and commence our Elephants in Focus tour. Transfer to the Club Palm Bay for overnight.
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Day 3 | Visit the elephant orphanage at Pinnawela en route to the Kandalama Hotel. The orphanage, the first of its kind in the world, is a unique place caring for approximately 60 abandoned and disabled elephants. Arrive at the Kandalama Hotel and check in for your 2-night stay.
The Kandalama is a 4* hotel set on the edge of a large ancient reservoir (tank), surrounded by jungle with the Sigiriya Rock Fortress in the distance.
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Day 4 | After breakfast take an elephant-back safari past picturesque scenery and keep an eye out for wildlife.
Depart for an evening safari to Minneriya Nature Reserve. The Minneriya Tank and the wetlands in this National Park provide a very important habitat for the animals and plants found here including wild elephants.
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Day 5 | In the morning depart for Kandy and a tour of the city. Kandy (a World Heritage Site) was the last capital of the Sri Lankan kings and just the name conjures up visions of splendour and magnificence. Drive around the Kandy Lake built by the last Sinhala king Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe in 1798. Visit Kandy town and Bazaar, the arts & crafts centre, a gem museum, and the Temple of the Tooth Relic.
In the afternoon, continue to Nuwara Eliya for overnight at the Tea Factory, a 4* hotel converted from factory to hotel, but still retaining exactly the same exterior from its original construction by British planters in the first half of this Century.
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Day 6 | Visit ‘Eth Athuru Sevena’, where abandoned & orphaned baby elephants are taken care of. During feeding times, there is the opportunity of seeing the baby elephants being bottle-fed.
Visit the Uda Walawe National Park, famous for its elephants, seen in herds of both adults and babies bathing and playing in the water, or feeding. Proceed to Hambantota.
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Day 7 | Safari in Bundala National Park. Continue to Yala, en route stop and see strategies
in place to manage the human-elephant conflict. Evening safari and overnight in
Yala.
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Day 8 | Transfer to the Lighthouse at Galle to check in for your 5 night stay.
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Day 9 | At leisure, Galle. Inspired by the local Dutch Fort, this charming 4* hotel is situated in on the south-west coast with superb views of the Indian Ocean. It only has a small beach but the rest of this delightful hotel more than makes up for it.
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Day 10 | At leisure, Galle. Inspired by the local Dutch Fort, this charming 4* hotel is situated in on the south-west coast with superb views of the Indian Ocean. It only has a small beach but the rest of this delightful hotel more than makes up for it.
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Day 11 | At leisure, Galle. Inspired by the local Dutch Fort, this charming 4* hotel is situated in on the south-west coast with superb views of the Indian Ocean. It only has a small beach but the rest of this delightful hotel more than makes up for it.
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Day 12 | At leisure, Galle. Inspired by the local Dutch Fort, this charming 4* hotel is situated in on the south-west coast with superb views of the Indian Ocean. It only has a small beach but the rest of this delightful hotel more than makes up for it.
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Day 13 | Transfer to airport hotel for use of room until departure.
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Day 14 | Transfer to early morning flight to Heathrow arriving same day.
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Explore Sri Lanka and spend time with the elephants at various locations including the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage before staying in the Lighthouse at Galle on the beautiful Sri Lankan coast.
