Ayubowan! Welcome to Sri Lanka. Living up to its nickname of the ‘Pearl of the Indian Ocean’, this country is peppered with palm beaches and fascinating ancient sites. It’s also a food lover’s paradise – with Indian, Portuguese, Malay, English, Arab and Dutch influences. Your adventure begins in the seaside city of Negombo, where you’ll meet your local leader and fellow travellers at a 6 pm welcome meeting. Spend your first night on the coastline, getting to know your fellow travellers and watching the fishing boats float by. It’s very important that you attend the welcome meeting as we will be collecting insurance details and next of kin information at this time. If you are going to be late, please let your travel agent or hotel reception know. Ask reception or look for a note in the lobby for more information on where the meeting will take place. Some travellers have reported being approached by locals offering excursions before their Tuuur trip commences. This has been particularly prevalent in and around the hotels used by Intrepid. These guides are in no way connected to Tuuur and we cannot guarantee the safety or quality standards of their tours. We advise customers against joining any tour offered by the unauthorised guides.

Wake early this morning to catch the action at the Negombo fish market. Situated at the northern end of a lagoon, the market is renowned for lobsters, crabs and prawns. Continue to a coconut plantation to discover why this super food is so central to life in Sri Lanka. Learn how all parts of the tree play an important role in daily life, sip the water of a king coconut, watch ‘toddy tappers’ extract the palm wine from the coconut sap and taste the results. Enjoy a Sri Lankan rice and curry lunch before heading inland to Dambulla, home to ornate cave temples and surrounded by natural wonders and historic sites. Your evening is free to explore. You may like to join your leader on an optional street food crawl for an introduction to some staple Sri Lankan 'short eats' (snack food), including famous hoppers (bowl-shaped savoury pancakes). Your travel time today will be approximately 3 hours.

After breakfast, make the short drive to the UNESCO World Heritage site of Sigiriya. Here, you can climb to the top of Lion Rock and visit the ancient fortress complex. The 200 m high ancient remains of a defensive capital, Lion Rock houses fifth-century frescos, terraced gardens and fountains. Next, see the age-old traditions at a nearby chena cultivation area, which is one of the oldest forms of agriculture known to humans. It’s particularly popular in the dry zone of the country where it rains for only a few months of the year, and principal crops are tropical vegetables, cereals, grains, yams and corn. Then, feast on tropical vegetables, curry made with tapioca and fried fish caught in the nearby lake for lunch. In the late afternoon, return to Dambulla to explore the wholesale market. Boasting an incredible array of fresh food, much of which is transported to Colombo, this is the perfect place to get a sense of Sri Lanka's agricultural diversity. The rest of the evening is free for your own adventures. Your walk to and from Lion Rock will take approximately 2.5 hours, including the time it takes to climb the many stairs. Scaling Lion Rock involves walking up lots of rough, narrow steps and tight walkways. Good walking shoes and a reasonable level of fitness are recommended for this activity. If you prefer not to participate, you will be able to enjoy the gardens and museum at the base of Lion Rock.

Located high on a cliff face are the impressive Dambulla Cave Temples. You’ll have time to explore these this morning and admire the many Buddha images, frescoes and paintings. On the way to the physical and spiritual heart of the country and the former home of the last Sri Lankan king, stop for lunch at a spice garden in the renowned spice-growing region of Matale. Sri Lankans are the masters of spice and here you can learn how spices aren’t just used in food, but also cosmetics and ayurvedic medicine. Smell the cumin, cinnamon and curry leaves before tasting pumpkin curry flavoured with aromatic fenugreek, with a side of dry chilli sambol and the uniquely Sri Lankan coconut roti. Continue to Kandy, home to a lake, old shops, a bustling market and some great restaurants. This evening, observe locals worshipping in Kandy’s Dalada Maligawa (Temple of the Tooth), one of Sri Lanka’s most sacred shrines that houses a tooth relic of the Lord Buddha. With your free evening, perhaps follow the sound of rhythmic chopping to watch a chef transform a ball of dough into a huge sheet of wafer-thin roti, skilfully slice, griddle, mix with vegetables and spices and create kottu roti. Your travel time today will be approximately 2 hours. There are many steps to reach the caves and a dress code which requires you to remove your shoes and cover up your shoulders and legs.

Kick off the day with a guided walk around Kandy's busy city centre, then visit a tea factory. After, take a tour of the Central Market and samples of local fresh fruits. The rest of the day is free for you to explore. Kandy is home to a National Museum and several monasteries, and there are many scenic walks around town. In the early evening, join a Sinhalese family to get your sugar fix with a Kandyan sweet-filled Sri Lankan dinner and cooking class. Try your hand at crafting string hoppers, pressing a smooth rice dough into noodle-thin strands to form perfect discs (this is an art that takes some practice to master!), try a chicken curry made with spice-infused coconut milk, closer to a Thai curry than a North Indian one. Then fill up on specialty sweets inspired by Dutch and Portuguese dessert traditions.

Have your camera at the ready and take a scenic journey into the highlands to Bandarawela. Journey past waterfalls, villages and up through the mountains on the way to this town in the cool highlands, once popular with British plantation managers. Look down over the bright green tea bushes and vegetable gardens. Tonight, take a look behind closed doors and experience a slice of local life when you’re invited into a local home for a cooking demonstration followed by a traditional dinner. Your travel time today will be approximately 7 hours. To secure a reserved seat for your train journey we require your full passport details at least 45 days before departure. If we receive your passport details after this, we may not be able to secure your train ticket. We always try our best to secure tickets, in cases where train tickets are unavailable due to high demand, you will continue your journey by private vehicle.

Rise early and head to the region's tea plantations. Take a hike through the tea fields, learning about the country’s most important export and meet local tea pickers who will show you their craft and let you have a go at picking and weighing tea. After, travel out to the town of Haputale for a home-cooked lunch with a Tamil family. Tear into traditional Tamil cuisine with dosa (a crispy rice pancake) and idli (a savoury steamed rice cake served with curry sauces or chutneys). Return to Bandarawela in the late afternoon and soak up the rural charm of the town and the beautiful surrounding landscapes. Your travel time today will be approximately 2 hours. Your hiking time will be approximately 2.5 hours or 5 km. Comfortable shoes and clothing are recommended for today. If you'd prefer not to join the hike, you will be transported to our lunch spot where the group will re-join you after the hike.

Drive out to the wilderness of Yala National Park (or Udawalawe National Park in the off season). Encompassing a variety of diverse ecosystems, the park has an impressive array of wildlife, including sloth bears and lots of birds. In the evening, take a safari and search for the elusive leopards that lounge in trees or stalk through the brush, crocodiles that patrol the river or wild elephants that graze across the grasslands. Your travel time today will be approximately 2 hours. In September and October, when Yala National Park is closed annually for infrastructure development and rejuvenation, we follow the alternate itinerary of Udawalawe National Park. Please note that during times of inclement weather, such as heavy rainfall, it may not be possible to visit the national parks, and an alternative activity will be arranged. Overtourism and lack of sustainable management practices have become a major concern for us in continuing to visit Yala. In order to reduce our impact on wildlife and the environment we are trialling visiting a less touristed section of Yala, known as Block 5. Should we determine that high tourist numbers at Block 5 also make it difficult to continue visiting responsibly we will change our itinerary to visit Udawalawe National Park, where wild elephants, wild buffalo, sambar deer and leopards also reside.

Start the day by discovering one of Sri Lanka's favourite ingredients. Try buffalo curd, served in bright terracotta pots with golden treacle, which is often eaten as a snack or as an accompaniment to meals or as a dessert. Spend the day relaxing or exploring the golden sands of Sri Lanka’s southern coastline. You may like to take a bicycle ride or tuk-tuk to watch colourful fishing boats bring back their loads of fresh fish to sell along the shore.  You will gain a unique insight into local life this afternoon when you meet with a local fisherman and learn about the craft, and how the lives of fisherman have changed since the tsunami. Enjoy the freshest seafood lunch with a fisherman's family – likely, a crab curry. Your travel time today will be approximately 3 hours. Previous travellers have raised animal welfare concerns about whale watching experiences in Mirissa. Tuuur follows the best practice guidelines for whale and dolphin watching provided by our Tuuur Foundation partner, Whale & Dolphin Conservation. Unfortunately, there are currently no operators in Mirissa that comply with these guidelines. For this reason, we are currently not able to offer or recommend whale and dolphin watching as an optional activity here.

Today you'll visit to the wonderfully preserved township of Galle, with a blend of European architecture and South Asian traditions. Have a lunch of Biryani and and watalappam (coconut custard pudding) with a local family. In the evening, take a tour of the Royal Dutch Fort, exploring the winding maze of gallery-filled narrow streets and 400 years of rich history. Return to Mirissa for the night. Your travel time today will be approximately 2 hours.

Head north for the final stop on your food adventure, Colombo – Sri Lanka’s commercial heart. This city is a mix of street markets, historic buildings, museums, restaurants and great shopping. Snack your way through on an included city tour around lanes filled with short eats and popular local eateries, finishing at Galle Face Beach, famous for its street food. Enjoy a final Dutch Burgher-influenced meal and celebrate the end of your food adventure with new friends. Your travel time today will be approximately 2.5 hours.

Your food adventure in Sri Lanka comes to an end this morning. There are no activities planned for this final day and you are free to leave at any time.