Climate, Seasons & Travelling in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is located in Indian ocean by South-East of India. 5°-10°N,79°-82°E is the exact location of Sri Lanka. The island get rain from through main monsoons and South-West monsoon gives the highest rainfall. It is better to consider the rainy season before you plan a journey in Sri Lanka.

Rainfall Seasons

1. The South - West monsoon period (May to September) 

2. The Inter-monsoon period following the South-West monsoon (Oct to Nov) 

3. The North - East monsoon period (December to February) 

4. The Inter-monsoon period following the North- East monsoon (March to April) 

Climate zones map

Journey Tips

• Chundikulam Sanctuary, located in Northern part of Sri Lanka would be more attractive on the North-East monsoon period.
• If you are interest to visit Sri Padha (adam' peak) on off-season, it will be more adventurable in South-West monsoon period, specially July & August. 
• If you like to travel around down south of Sri Lanka, it is useless in south west monsoon period.
• As a waterfall tracker, south west monsoon period would be make you wonder. But be careful.
• When you travel in inter monsoon periods, your eye will be track more green area min hilly country.

As a traveler normally I follow this link for pre planing.  

Why you should travel in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is one of the most beautiful and attractive islands in the world. It has more than 2500 years old written history. Beyond that there are lots of evidences and locations about prehistoric man and their caves around the island. As a backpacker you can walk around and go back to more than 34,000 years with a low budget.

Even though Sri Lanka is limited to 65,610 sqr. km, you can travel through different climate zones and different geographical areas with low budget public transport service. Beyond that Sri Lankans are the best in hospitality so you can take a “lift” of motor bikes, lorries and private vehicles  in some rural areas, if you want.

Transportation

Transportation system of Sri Lanka can be categorized into four types. Public, Private, Para, NMT (Non-Motorized Transport). As a backpacker all these four types are important to you. According to your destination the mode should be changed inorder to get the benefit .

The below link would give you the map of Sri Lanka drown by Survey Department of Sri Lanka (map )

Public Transport

There is a good public transport system in Sri Lanka and it's consist of railway and buses.

Railway Transport

Train with locomotive

Railway system is fully owned by the government and it is the cheapest travelling mode in Sri Lanka. The hub of the rail network is Colombo Fort. But there is a small negativity in connectivity between air and rail. So you can't directly walk to railway station from the BIA (Bandaranayake International Airport).See below map, get a rough idea about rail network.

Rail Network in Sri Lanka

If you are interested in get a train from the start, select  a route from below route solutions. check from train time table

1. Use Katunayake South Railway Station (you won't be able to find from the time table list) or Katunayake Railway Station you can reach it by tuk tuk and charger will be normally around US $ 1.00-2.00. But there is not a good railway schedule through the stations.
2. You can travel to Colombo Fort Railway Station (Commercial Capital) by bus and there are two choices as normal way or express way  and normally express way bus can be taken at the departure of BIA, fare will be around $ 1. Normal way bus fare is lower than express way one, but it will take too much time.
   You will notice that suburb railway stations mentioned below are more closer to BIA than Colombo Fort railway station. 
3. You can travel to Vayangoda Railway Station 22 km away from BIA by using a bus. Route No:1 or 245 (Negambo – Kandy/Kegalle) you can get from the bus halt near the arrival terminal of BIA. Bus fare is around $ 0.4. Route No: 245/1 (Air Port – Veyangoda/ Nittambuwa) can get from the Averivatta Bus Stand.

   

   Map BIA – Veyangoda Railway Station

4. Finally You can travel to Gampaha Railway Station 19.5 km away from the BIA.

Bus Transport

SLTB Bus

Bus route network is covered whole island and Colombo fort is hub of the network. These two links would help you to find bus routes in Sri Lanka. You should go to Bastian Mawatha Bus Stand or Colombo Central Bus Stand to take a long journey bus.You can find bus route numbers from below links.
Travel by buses around the Sri Lanka
Travel in Western Province

if you want more information about bus transportation (long distance), click here

Para Transportation

Tuk Tuk

Tuk Tuk ( Trishaw) is the main para transpotation mode in Sri Lanka. You can find them easily and high mobility of the vehicle is main positive point of it.
But there are few problems with the service.

• Safety issues
• Considerably high charges for foreigners
• Limited carrying  capacity.

But you can get “Meter Taxi” and it would cost US $ 0.3 per km. But in rural areas it is difficult to find metered one.