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We had an incredible trip. A perfect balance of cycling, nature, culture and relaxation. Our tour leader Ruwan and and his team were amazing , the whole thing was perfect…..
Reaching the top of the big climb day - a challenge but worth every drop of sweat 😁
Ruwan was superb- so knowledgeable, great organisation and crystal clear communication and a really nice guy to boot !!
Just go and do it / you won’t regret it !!
What a fantastic trip. Our tour leader, Ruwan and the support crew were excellent, with great communication and no detail overlooked. Cycling is a great way to enjoy Sri Lanka and was made all the better with visits to local family-run businesses and homes to really get an insight into the lives of the local people. There were also many opportunities to see a variety of wildlife and birds. The two weeks seemed much longer because we packed so much in. All in all, a great holiday.
Managing to cycle all the way up to the tea plantation on Day 6 and seeing wild elephants in Yala National Park.
Ruwan is an excellent leader with such incredible knowledge of Sri Lankan history and wildlife & birds.
Don’t be put off by the day cycling up to the tea plantation, as the support bus is there if needed or alternatively opt for an e-bike. Take some warm clothes for Nuwara Eliya as you'll need a fleece for the cycle down the following day and it can be a bit chilly in the evening.
Amazing trip with a fabulous leader, Ruwan, great support team and group of other cyclists. The team ensured everything always ran smoothly with lots of smiles.
Getting up the big climb! Ruwan makes sure you are eased gently into the cycling. The stops are well positions with lots of wonderful snacks and fresh fruit. Cycling through the tea plantations is really scenic and takes your mind off the climb!
Ruwan was a fantastic leader. Great organisational skills. He gave detailed information about the stages both verbally and gradient profiles on the WhatsApp group chat. He was a fountain of knowledge about Sri Lanka with a real passion for its history. He organised lots of interesting non cycling activities as well, like a meal and cookery demonstration at a family home. Ruwan organised transport for us on our day off in Kandy, recommending places to go. Ruwan is also excellent at spotting wildlife, especially birdlife as we cycled along.
Bring a flannel to wet and go under your helmet to help with the heat. Although Ruwan organised purchases of these for those of us that didn’t have one. Half and half pedals were great for cycling in traffic and then being clipped in for the big climb! Do some endurance training if you don’t cycle regularly, however the gradient on the big climb is steady not horrendous so don’t worry about that! If possible arrive a day early, stay in Negombo (closer to the airport than Colombo) I recommend the Belmont Boutique Hotel with free airport shuttle, lovely small hotel with great food and close to beach. A lot of our group including us stayed on longer. Our home stays were amazing.
Get off the beaten track and see how ordinary people in Sri Lanka live, yet still visit many of the well-known tourist sights.
Cycling the climb up to Nuwara Eliya (even though I pulled a hamstring close to the top and didn’t make it!) - not only is it a challenging ride, but the countryside it goes through is peaceful and idyllic.
I’ve been on many Exodus trips with some leaders well known to the Exodus community of travellers, but Ruwan was a gear ahead of the rest: relaxed, sociable, efficient, punctual, great at communicating the plan for each section of the ride, excellent at working with his support team and possessing an encyclopaedic knowledge of his country’s history, culture flora and fauna.
Pack a flannel - soaked in water and put on your head under your helmet it cools you down on long hot rides (of which there are many). Eat as much curd (buffalo milk yoghurt) and treacle as you can lay your hands on - it’s delicious.
The accommodation we stayed in was of a high standard and the different parts we saw of Sri Lanka were very varied and I feel we saw so much of this special country during this trip.
The food was absolutely outstanding on this trip and we went to some amazing off the beaten track restaurants. One of our favorites was the ladies who cooked the vegetable curries, the dinner at a locals house, and another was the buffet at the old colonial hotel, you may burn 2000 calories cycling but you will eat 3000 calories of amazing food if you want too. Suresh has a saying ‘do maximum damage’ at the buffet and that we did! wait till you try the egg hoppers you will be hooked!
A bit of detail about the cycling: my husband and i were the youngest on the trip at 44 and 52 but we decided to go for the e bikes as it was our first cycle holiday. I highly recommend this option, whilst we had a good level of fitness, and I had trained for this trip doing 100km cycles. Even though we had done level 4 graded Exodus hiking trips before,we wanted to make sure we enjoyed the big climb days and did not slow everyone down, not that it is ever an issue with a lovely exodus group! We also didn’t know if everyone would be super amazing club cyclists and we would be the slow ones, but we had a complete mix of lovely people and we didn’t have anything to worry about. We have just booked our next Exodus cycle trip and have gone for normal bikes.
We had the e bikes turned off most of the time and actually felt after a couple of days we should of gone for normal bikes but it did mean we could enjoy the big climbs and not worry at all, but the van is close behind you on those days and very easy to jump into, so if you are worried you are not fit enough for this trip or not a super keen cyclist i highly recommend going for the ebike option as the trip is definitely worth it and an amazing experience, the ebikes were a very good standard and brand new. At the time of the trip I was a modest cyclist and cycled mainly during the summer months at home, I did properly train for the trip and made sure i had done the 100km distance on a few occasions but this was just to give myself confidence and I just wanted to make sue i was well prepared, don’t think you have to do a lot of training for this trip, the pace is good and no one was ever left behind, it is a level 4 so you do need some fitness but with a good level of fitness you could do it, if you are worried definitely go for the e bike option.
I would agree with some of the other comments that it wasn’t aways back roads and sometimes the traffic was crazy but we always felt safe with Suresh at the front another guide at the back and the bike mechanics were often following us, i really cant thank the whole crew enough just an amazing team who were brilliant and everything was seamless.
It can be hot and I recommend bringing some electrolytes with you, the crew carry more water and food than you could ever need so nothing to worry about there. Have cold gear for the mountains in the evening as it does get cold.
I felt there was also a good amount of things organised outside of the cycling and it felt we always had plenty of things organised in and out of the saddle, the tea plantation visits were amazing also the jewelry factory, the visit to the gardens in Kandy also really great mix of things to see and do outside of the saddle. Finishing the trip at the beach was fabulous as well, there are so many different sides to Sri Lanka I felt we saw them all.
We had a totally amazing group of people in the group who shared this adventure with us, and we all got on so well it was wonderful to get to know them all, we have always had great groups with Exodus. but this was the best group yet, so thank you also to all of them who made the trip so memorable.
So many to choose from but for me the most memorable moment was always the little kids running out of their houses to say hi, they loved it when we said hi back.
Suresh was brilliant and always on hand to give us history about the country and we were very well looked after by him and the crew. A huge mention goes to the bus drivers and the bike mechanics who were always on hand with water and food and i felt like every time we cycled round the corner they would just appear with snacks and water, they even stopped the traffic for us a busy junctions. Everything was seamlessly organised and we felt very well looked after. Our bikes were always clean and ready the next morning for us and nothing was too much trouble.
Don't hesitate to book this trip you will love it
From start to finish, the trip felt thoughtfully curated rather than just ‘planned’. Routes flowed naturally through coastal roads, lush tea country, and quiet village back roads, giving a real sense of Sri Lanka’s contrasts in a relatively short time. There was a balance between time on the bike and cultural stops. Suresh chose routes that avoided the worst of the traffic and heat, favouring early starts, stops in small towns you’d never find on your own, favouring up-to-date routes. One day your riding past rice paddies and temples, the next you’re winding through ‘undulating’ tea plantations with cooler air and big views, constantly changing scenery, friendly faces at every tea stop and what incredibly tasting tea it was.
Suresh our guide set a clear standard of safety:maintained bikes, clear hand signals, calm, confident road positioning around buses, tuktuks, and the dogs. Hydration and breaks were planned at sensible pauses.
Suresh gave depth of local knowledge wherever we were and each stop became a mini-lesson in history, religion, food, wildlife: you never felt rushed away from a conversation with a local or from a viewpoint. His love for his country shone through as we too fell in love with their country.
Long, flowing descents from the tea highlands, when the road tipped downwards through bends and switchbacks, tiny villages, fragrant smells of woodsmoke, lorries passing by full of vegetables like leeks and the countryside opened up.
I cannot recommend Suresh highly enough. He is skilled guide, a careful guardian on the road, and a wonderful ambassador for his country - the kind of person who turns a holiday into a lifelong memory.
Take all old clothes to wear so to donate at the end of your trip.
We went there in December, just after the country suffered severe cyclone and flooding. Very nice hotels, plenty of food (maybe too much), and well looked after by the team. Nice relaxing pace of cycling. Plenty of interesting places to see on the way.
We made a Youtube video to share our experience: https://youtu.be/N06BHdyCL00?si=VRTgl8lFxGbMP4uA
Excellent job done by Ruwan. Lots of last minutes rearranging due to the damage done by the flooding.
Use your insect repellent Bring covering for your legs when entering the temples Don't worry about the street dogs-they are not aggressive
This was a great opportunity to bike and see Sri Lanka (even impacted by a typhoon) but marred by a seriously inadequate ebike. It was underpowered at best, power on my bike and another one cut out on occasion and the governor at 25 kph makes an ebike worse than useless since one has to pedal a heavy bike hard to stay up with the group sometimes doing 27-28 kph on good roads. After my complaints, guide Surech stried to help and swapped out my bike for a slightly better powered but much heavier urban stile bike but it was not really an improvement.
And I had a very heavy urban ebike on an Exodus Japan tour last year that I complained about with little result.
Great
enquire carefully about ebike rental
We arrived in Columbo to rain to be met by our smiling guide for the trip who introduced himself as Suresh. From there on, everyday was different, due to the time of year the weather was a little chilly in the hills but improved greatly as we descended to the lower levels. Suresh was amazing and everyday, he showed us something different and made sure our holiday experience was amazing. Suresh’s ability to spot wildlife on our cycling trips was unbelievable, almost as if he had planted the wildlife!!. I have taken some amazing photographs from the holiday and Suresh has provided us with his amazing photographs also. Suresh always seemed to go out of his way to make our holiday experience better and better, he is a star. The whole team was incredible, nothing was too much trouble and they were always looking out for our best interests, including keeping us safe. Best Exodus cycling trip yet, amazing wildlife, amazing Sri Lankan experiences, amazing leader, amazing team.
Suresh was fantastic, he made sure our every needs were looked after and provide so many experiences we were not expecting. His ability to ensure everyone we interacted with, hotel managers, chefs, guides, café owners etc. all looked after us and made sure our wellbeing, tastes etc. were all catered for.
The bike ride on day 6 marked as challenging is VERY challenging, if you are determined to ride it, be sure you are very fit, it is unrelenting. If in doubt, take the train option...or an electric bike!
I’ll try not to be too gushing about my praise of this but it was a truly excellent trip; at the end we felt like starting again. Exodus at its best, it’s all about the bits in-between not the usual tourist sights, though you do see those. Most of the time you are staying in hotels used by other tour groups and you do feel sorry for them being shunted from temple to city to viewpoint in a coach, all looking bored. They do not pass through villages where locals wash themselves and their clothing in rivers or see the smiles which greeted us, gaudily clad aliens in Lyra.
Thought the accommodation was the best I’ve ever had on one of these expeditions.
Difficult to say but guess has to be the climb up to Newara Eliya - nearly 7000 feet of ascent not the 4921 listed in the trip notes. Close second was the descent from Ella; we were awestruck by the scenery.
Wajee is a great guy with a passion for his country and a strong sense of social justice. He was very informative, particularly about the socio-economic situation in the country.
The name of the trip is misleading - we certainly cycled some lovely, quiet backwaters of roads but a lot of time is spent on fairly main ones and, at times, there is a considerable traffic. Beware the Tuctucs, whose movement is akin to random thermal motion but less predictable. It was very hot when we travelled which sapped energy a bit - think that was unusual for time of year. Take factor 50 sunscreen- for me, at least, avoiding skin cancer preferable to a nice tan. We loved the food but it was quite spicy - don't come if you are curry averse. The free lunches are usually buffets - very nice but a good way to pile on weight unless you are careful. Sri Lanka is a beautiful country and one we hope to return to.