Reasons to visit Sri Lanka is many, the most important reason is the beautiful country in itself and the people. When I was traveling Sri Lanka, they were all telling me ”Please tell your friends, that Sri Lanka is in peace and beautiful – You know what, I already told my friends it´s beautiful.

 7 Great Reasons to Visit Sri Lanka, Today!

When leavening New Zealand and entering Sri Lanka. I had now idea or expectations about Sri Lanka, only my curiosity. Arriving to a country that has suffer from a tsunami that killed over 35 000 people and a civil war that killed 40 000 Tamil civilians, I was in tremendous respect and humbled to see that the people in Sri Lanka was happy, friendly and optimistic about the future.

It´s finally peace and the country is recovering, now the people are looking into the future with hopes and smiles. Welcomes you to their home. It´s time for Sri Lanka to grow and show it beauty to the world, Sri Lanka has so much to give if you just want to receive it.

1. Richness and Diversity

One of the main reasons to Visit Sri Lanka, is the richness in diversity that Sri Lanka deliver to you and all the places you can discover. It gives you endless of opportunities: Gorgeous beaches, incredible hiking, great massage, world heritage site, welcoming people, surfing, diving, whale watching, budget friendly, pineapple juice from heaven, tea and pumpkin curry. It´s a small country you can see a lot with a vacation from 12 to 16 days itinerary. My best friend and I went backpacking in Sri Lanka for a month; we felt in love with Sri Lanka.

Love is Honey and Life is Jolly

On the back side of a tuk-tuk

2. Gorgeous Beaches

There are so many beautiful beaches to visit in Sri Lanka, and some times you are alone on the beach. If you are lucky there will be some turtles, if not have a coconut and enjoy life. Or go scuba diving or surfing. There are so many options. We mostly went swimming and watched the surfers. My personal favorite was Mirissa Beach. We stayed in Mirissa for 5 days just enjoying beach life and Whale Watching.

Beaches we stayed at: Hikaduwa, Talalla, Mirissa, Marakollya, Arugam Bay

3. Amazing Curry Keeps the Doctor Away

The best food you get is when you keep eating the local curry and it´s always the best price. The Sri Lankan people are excellent at making curry; the spaces are full of flavours and super tasty, and most likely you will need a beer to it. You will get five different curries with it: 1 chicken, 1 fish, and 3 vegetable curries and it all comes with a big load of rice and some poppadoms. The dahl is so good but my favorite was the pumpkin curry it was seductive.

The juices, drink everything it´s so good. Pineapple will never be the same at home, after having it in Sri Lanka.

4. Wildlife & the National Parks

One of maybe the best reasons to visit Sri Lanka, is the Yala National Park, were you would see incredible nature life. From Monkeys, water buffalos, elephants, and leopards if you are lucky. In Mirissa whale &dolphin watching, that was my personal favorite. The blue whales are so majestic when they go up with their tales and than disappear back into the deep ocean, an incredible moment to see this animal in their nature habit, free and wild. In Marakollya beach, you can watch big turtle laying egg on the night – Another incredible animal moment; Sri Lanka delivers unique experience wherever you go.

5. Mountain Climbing

Hit some hiking up in the hill country at Ella. Amazing scenery of the highland and some action after all the curry eating in Sri Lanka. If you have short on time, you can do the tea plantation, Dova temple and little Adams Peak, then fish the day with great massage.

The most breathtaking hike is Adams Peak, the best travel experience so far in my life. The atmosphere and we are all waiting for the sunrise with the prayers from the Buddhist. Incredible moment, that is one of the main reason for why you should travel to Sri Lanka.

6. The Budget

I you have you just been to Australia or New Zealand and fucked up your budget. Then visiting Sri Lanka can help you to get back on track with the budget. It sure helped me. The prices are great and you get good standards on a small budget, 20 U dollars you have pretty nice room. The guesthouse gives you a comfortable bed, private bathrooms and Sri Lankan breakfast. As long as you keep eating the local food the budget will recover or you will stay inside budget everyday.

7. The People

The people are warm and welcoming, and always with a smile and curious about you and your country. The people do not stress much about things it all has its own speed, which is a process to adapt. When you do, things go in Sri Lanka flow, when it happens it happens. The food is done when it’s done. Furthermore the people want you to explore the best, they are always around to give and advice or help you out with whatever. They are very polite and respectful, even when two girls are travelling alone around the country. We were never harassed, the boys always respected us, and they always carried our bags without even asking for it. This gentlemen gesture never happened in Australia or Thailand. We had to be strong and independent women.

These are the 7 reasons on why you should visit to Sri Lanka; of course there are more reasons for visiting Sri Lanka. These are some of the 7 highlights that will meet you if you visit Sri Lanka. In 2013 Sri Lanka was one of the top travel destination at Lonely Planet list. Why you should you visit Sri Lanka now? People have started to discover Sri Lanka, just for now there are no big hotels taking over the beach line and the people are friendly and have not changed into taking advantage of tourists.

Other cool blogs about Sri Lanka, is Sunshine stories it’s more than just surf & yoga retreat, they have great content about Sri Lanka and overall experience about living and being in the country.