Discover Maldives & Sri Lanka

Day-to-day itinerary

• Day 1

  Depart for the Maldives

• Day 2

  Arrive and begin your Maldivian adventure

  Arrive to Malé, the Maldivian capital today and transfer to your chosen liveaboard. The rest of the day is yours at leisure to settle into your cabin and relax.
  
  If you prefer a resort stay, you’ll be greeted and transferred to your Maldives dive resort by speedboat, seaplane or domestic flight.

• Days 3-8

  Dive the Maldives!

  Dive some of the finest dive sites of the Maldives, with the chance to see some extraordinary marine life. Dive sites vary from exciting channel dives to pinnacles and more sedate fringing reefs. Marine life highlights, depending on the time of year, include manta rays, whale sharks, turtles, eagle rays and more.

  A typical Maldivian liveaboard will spend seven nights touring the central atolls, including the famous Ari Atoll, making three dive per day.

• Day 9

  Continue to Sri Lanka

  Your liveaboard (or resort stay) comes to an end today. From Malé, you’ll take a short domestic flight east to Sri Lanka, where more adventure awaits.
  
  On arrival in Sri Lanka, you’ll be met and transferred north towards Wilpattu national Park, ready for your first wildlife safari tomorrow. You’ll be based here for the next three nights, with breakfast and dinner included.

• Day 10

  Enjoy Willpattu National Park

  Today is an early start to enjoy a 4x4 jeep safari of this beautiful national park. Despite Wilpattu's location in Sri Lanka's dry zone, it boasts nearly 60 lakes and is renowned for leopard, elephant and sambar deer sightings. The park is also home to a large number of wetland bird species and reptiles.

• Day 11

  Take in Sri Lankan history and culture

  Your focus this morning will be Sri Lanka’s ancient capital, Anuradhapura. ancient city flourished for 1,300 years before being abandoned and lost to the jungle. It was rediscovered once again in the early 19^th century, and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

  Your excursion today will continue to Mihintale, a sacred peak considered to be one of the most important ancient sites in the Buddhist religion.

• Day 12

  Transfer to Sigiraya

  After breakfast today, you’ll continue to Sigiraya, where you’ll spend an additional three nights, again with breakfast and dinner included. The rest of the day is yours at leisure.

• Day 13

  Discover Minneriya National Park

  Today begins early once again as you enjoy your second 4x4 wildlife jeep safari, this time in Minneriya National Park.
  
  This park features a diverse range of habitats, but is best known for large herds of Sri Lankan elephants between May and October as they gather to drink. Some say this is the largest gathering of elephants in the world!

• Day 14

  Gaze in awe at the Sigiraya Rock Template

  A morning climb brings us up to the redoubtable Sky Fortress of Sigiraya. The ruins of this fifth century fortress are one of Sri Lanka’s major attractions, a stupendous sight to behold and a feat of consummate engineering skill. A switchback series of steps and steel stairways (sometimes steep and challenging) ascend to the top.

  Halfway up, tucked beneath a sheltering overhang of rock, are the famous frescoes - the Sigiriya Damsels, their colours still glowing. Magnificent views can be enjoyed from the summit of the rock palace (200m high). In the afternoon we explore the ancient city of Polonnaruwa, which reached its height of glory in the 12th century. The city still has many interesting and spectacular buildings and monuments. There is the Royal Palace Group with its Audience Hall, Bathing Pool and Quadrangle - a very compact collection of ruins.

  Close by is the Circular Relic House, a curious round structure with a beautifully preserved ‘moonstone’ carved at the foot of a flight of steps. Another famous feature of the deserted city is the group of carved images of the Buddha known as Galvihara. Here there are four colossal figures, all of which are hewn out of solid granite. The Reclining Buddha is no less than 14m long!

• Day 15

  Depart Sri Lanka

  After a morning at leisure, it is time to transfer south again to the airport for your flight home.

• Day 16

  Arrive home