By daily living standards, Sri Lanka is a very cheap country to travel through.
However, if you start getting into the national parks and the stricly designated tourist attractions, the cost significantly shoots up.
My traveling style is more about exploring random places on foot, eating loads of authentic street food and doing most things at a slow-ish pace. I’m not big on tourist designated sights, so this budget guide will cover mostly the daily cost of travel in Sri Lanka.
Also throughout this budget I was traveling with one friend of mine, which is always a good way to ease the cost of travel.
Cost of 20 Days in Sri Lanka
Total amount I spent = 18,138 LKR Sri Lankan Rupees (ranges around $160 – $165)
Amount per day that I spent (average) = 906 LKR – that’s less than 10 USD bucks a day – in fact it’s more like $8!
My budget costs could have even been less had I not purchased 3,000 LKR ($27.18) of tea and spices upon leaving.
Minus the major attractions, day to day living in Sri Lanka is similar to the cost of travel in Egypt.
NEAR UNAWATUNA, SRI LANKA
Main Places I Visited in Sri Lanka
- Colombo – Spent over a week in Colombo getting my Thai visa and just hanging out, walking around and eating Sri Lankan food
- Kandy – Spent about 4 days in Kandy, wandering around – not my favorite place in Sri Lanka
- Pusselawa – Just a tiny little town that I visited because a friend lived there, spent around 4 days hanging out in the tea fields!
- Jaffna – Was in Jaffna for 4 days and had an amazing time, Jaffna is a wonderful place to visit with a Sri Lankan Tamil culture and a lot of remains from the civil war
- Galle – Actually didn’t even spend the night in Galle but just took a day trip from Colombo
- Unawatuna – Also I didn’t have time to spend much time in Unawatuna as I did a lot of relaxing in Pusselawa and Jaffna – but if you enjoy the beach this area is fantastic
COST OF SRI LANKAN FOOD
If you are looking to save money on your budget while traveling through Sri Lanka, food and transportation will come to your rescue.
Sri Lankan food is extremely cheap.
I was eating giant meals that included a huge mound of rice and a mix of curries for less than $1 per meal. If you are a big eater like me, you’ll be happy to know that most of the normal restaurants give you a first plate of rice and you can ask for a re-fill!
Vegetarian meals are the cheapest, but seafood and fish are still quite affordable and chicken is a little more expensive.
- Vegetarian curry and rice – 100 LKR ($0.91)
- Fish curry and rice (includes veggie dishes too) – 150 LKR
- Huge feast of paratha, daal, fish curry – 200 LKR
- Plate of kottu – 100 LKR ($0.91)
- Fresh coconut – 40 LKR ($0.36)
- Bottled water (big bottle) – 60 LKR ($0.54)
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