A Taste of Northern Sri Lanka - Jaffna to Colombo

Our tour starts today in Negombo, a coastal town that's famous for its fishing industry and golden sands. The perfect introduction to Sri Lankan life, Negombo is a busy coastal town with a lively fish market and traditional ketti-maran (catamaran) fishing boats scudding across the waters - the capital, Colombo, is a short distance away, too. Head down to the water to catch the sunset and spot locals bringing in the day's catch.

For those arriving in time, our tour leader plans to meet you in the hotel reception at 6pm for a welcome meeting and for those that wish, there is the chance to go out for dinner. There are no other activities planned today, so you're free to arrive in Negombo at any time. If you'd like an airport transfer, you'll need to arrive into Colombo's Bandaranaike International Airport (CMB), which is a 30-minute drive from our hotel. If you miss the welcome meeting, your tour leader will inform you of any essential information as soon as you catch up.

If your flight arrives earlier in the day, you might like to head to the beach or make use of the hotel facilities which include a swimming pool overlooking the Indian Ocean.

We rise super early this morning for our train ride to Jaffna, located in the far north of the 'Pearl of the Indian Ocean'. First of all we drive to Colombo train station to board and the train departs at around 5:45am. After a journey of around 7 hours we reach Jaffna and head the short distance to our hotel. Later this afternoon we will head out to the countryside on the outskirts and learn all about the traditional art of Palmyrah toddy tapping, where skilled local tappers climb towering palms to harvest the fresh sap that has been an integral part of Jaffna's culture and livelihood for generations.

Our Sri Lanka food tour starts in earnest this evening in the heart of Sri Lanka's Tamil community - distinct from the rest of the island. Jaffna is best known for its unique cuisine and historic Hindu temples and, over the next couple of days, we'll get an insight into the local culture and, of course, food. For dinner we dive straight into Tamil cuisine at a local's home where our host treats us to Jaffna specialities such as seafood broth (kool), mutton curry, vegetable curries, pittu, sambal and roti.