School trips to Sri Lanka offer your students the unforgettable opportunity to explore a real tropical island paradise!
Sri Lanka lies just south of India, in the warm waters of the Indian Ocean. With a cultural heritage spanning thousands of years, miles of unspoilt beaches and fascinating wildlife, including elephants and the elusive leopard, this country has much to offer in terms of educational experiences. It’s especially popular as a destination for cultural school trips designed to introduce students to an ancient Asian culture.
School trips to Sri Lanka offer a wonderful cultural experience, thanks to the possibility of visiting so many UNESCO World Heritage Sites and temples within a relatively small geographic area.
Sri Lankan culture has primarily been influenced by the two main traditional cultures, the Sinhalese and the Tamil, and also by the religions of Buddhism and Hinduism.
On your school trip to Sri Lanka, you will have the opportunity to visit sites of cultural importance including temples, and palaces. And you’ll have the opportunity to explore both Kandy and Colombo, both of which are bustling cities.
Your students will also have the incredible opportunity to visit a local village school, where they will be able to join in lessons with local children, learning about the local culture through interaction with their peers.
With a documented history that spans three millennia, as well as evidence of prehistoric settlements dating back at least 125,000 years, something Sri Lanka definitely isn’t short of is history.
On your school trip to Sri Lanka, you must not miss out on the opportunity to visit Sigiriya, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Thought to be one of the best-preserved examples of ancient urban planning, Sigiriya is an ancient rock fortress built by King Kashyapa in the 5 th century and boasts some of the oldest landscaped gardens in the world.
Sri Lanka has one of the highest rates of biological endemism in the world. That means that much of the flora and fauna here are native to the country.
The Sri Lankan elephant is, of course, one of the most famous residents of the island, but there are also lorises, macaques, langurs and civets, to name but a few of the other mammals here.
We can arrange for your group to visit Horton Plains National Park and Muthurajawela (‘the swamp of royal treasures’), where you’ll have the opportunity to see some of the country’s incredible wildlife for yourselves.
Read some of our latest blogs covering school trips to Sri Lanka.
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We do. Travel insurance is an optional extra and you can find out more about it in our travel insurance resource (which includes the policy documents and FAQs).
If you decide against arranging this insurance through us (which is absolutely fine, by the way), please just remember you must have suitable travel and medical insurance to cover your group.
Every single trip we arrange is tailor made, so absolutely yes.
Our Tour Advisers and Itinerary Coordinators are all experienced school travel specialists. They'll work closely with you to make sure your itinerary supports your learning objectives. They'll be able to offer suggestions and advice to make sure you make the most of your time.
So, when you're browsing through our school trips, just remember that the itineraries and activities you see are there for inspiration only - your own itinerary can look as similar or as different as you want.
Equally, we've suggested trip durations based on what groups usually request - if you want to go for a shorter or longer duration, just let us know.
As a general rule, we recommend that you start planning your trip 12-18 months before you want to travel. This gives you plenty of time to get it approved and launched to students and parents.
Planning early will mean you have a greater choice of accommodation and travel options - and it will make paying for the trip easier for families, as they'll be able to break it down into smaller, more manageable payments.
You can check out our trip-planning timeline for a better idea of the process and when you should expect to be doing things.
If you are looking to travel sooner than this, it is possible. But it will depend on availability and you may find prices are a bit higher - but get in touch and let's see what's possible.
The accommodation options that are available vary depending on the destination but we're usually able to arrange everything from hostel-style accommodation to more luxurious hotels.
On each of the trip pages, you'll see some accommodation options - these are usually the most popular for those destinations, but we often have plenty of other options available. You'll discuss accommodation options (and budget) with your Tour Adviser when they're putting your quote together, so don't be afraid to let them know if you want something different.
We only work with accommodation options that are suitable for schools. As a member of the School Travel Forum (STF), you can be certain that all accommodation contracted by us complies with local legislation with respect to fire and general safety, is contracted by trained Halsbury Travel staff or reputable agents, receives a standard audit and risk assessment prior to use by Halsbury Travel and receives a supplementary audit if it is used on five or more occasions in a year.