Sri Lanka

Travel Sri Lanka on your gap year. Ideas for gap year travel to Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka gap year - Gap year programmes in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka has been described as the ‘teardrop of India' due to its distinctive shape and geographic position. In many ways this isn't a bad description, in that Sri Lanka offers many of India's delights - but on a far smaller, condensed scale. Sri Lanka has beautiful beaches, an amazing culture, ancient buildings and temples, superb wildlife, friendly people, low costs and beautiful scenery. What makes Sri Lanka such a great destination, though, is its size. Compared to somewhere like India, Sri Lanka is a small island, and it's possible to cover a great deal of this fantastic country on your gap year in a relatively short space of time - whether you decide to stay for just a few weeks or several months. 

Sri Lanka's largest city, and home to the international airport, is Colombo. A good area of Colombo to head to when you arrive in Sri Lanka is Galle Face Green, to the city's south. This lively district is right on the beach and you can also watch locals indulge in Sri Lanka's national obsession - the game of cricket.

The 2004 Boxing Day tsunami devastated parts of Sri Lanka and there is still loads of work needed to be done in many areas. If you are looking to visit Sri Lanka and want to get involved in a really worthwhile volunteer project then consider Real Gap's ‘Tsunami Volunteer Sri Lanka.' This project to re-build homes destroyed by the tsunami in Sri Lanka is very demanding and physical. However, it is also one of Real Gap's most rewarding programmes in that volunteers contribute directly to helping victims of the tsunami in Sri Lanka.

If you are not suited to physical volunteer work in Sri Lanka there are other ways to get involved. Real Gap also runs a ‘Sri Lanka Teach English Volunteer Project'. This programme gives volunteers the opportunity to help the communities of Sri Lanka by teaching English to local children. On this Sri Lanka project you actually live with a local family, giving you a unique insight in to a different culture.

Sri Lanka has its fair share of modern beach resorts but it's also equally possible to find relatively undiscovered places with simpler, more ‘beach-hut' style accommodation backing on to the sandy palm-fringed beaches. If you are after somewhere really idyllic and quiet then Mirissa, on Sri Lanka's southern tip, is a good option.

If you want to see more of Sri Lanka's unique and diverse wildlife then Uda Walawe National Park is the place to head to. Uda Walawe teems with Sri Lanka's exotic bird life, there are 30 varieties of snake, leopards, elephants, buffalo and sambar deer. This is the nearest Sri Lanka gets to the savannahs of Africa, and it's easy to hire a driver and tracker nearby in order to get stuck in to some serious wildlife-spotting.

Whatever you want from your gap year, if you fancy experiencing life in Asia then Sri Lanka is somewhere you should give some serious consideration to visiting.

Sri Lanka gap year - Gap year programmes in Sri Lanka


Back to Where to travel on a gap year

Back to Gap Year Advice Main Menu