Eco-Friendly Escapes

Welcome to Sri Lanka! You will be met by our own Beyondary representative who will be holding a board with your name and waiting for you in the arrival hall after you pass the baggage claims and customs. Gentle way to get your bearings when arriving in Sri Lanka. Famed for palm-tree fringed beaches, warm turquoise ocean and Hotel with indulgent spas, it is a favorite first stop for travelers looking to relax after a long flight

The hotel also gives a great grounding to the incredible (and often subtle) sustainability initiatives found across all Jetwing’s hotels and properties

 Jetwing Lagoon was the first place in Sri Lanka to have a vapor absorption chiller. Run via steam generated from the Biomass boiler – itself fed from byproducts of the cinnamon industry – the chiller provides all the hotel’s air conditioning requirements, drastically reducing the usage of grid electricity. Likewise, this was the first hotel to provide 100% lighting from LED bulbs and maximize use of solar power; all guest rooms in the hotel are illuminated using the power of the sun. When you down bags – and before hitting that lounger – you’ll see the energy indicator showing usage in your room.

Even that amazing pool is helping reduce chemicals by using a cutting-edge salt water chlorination system. This uses electrolysis to break down salt; the resulting chemical reaction liberates the salt’s chlorine ions to clean the water which is less expensive and less hazardous to the environment and human health.

Accommodation: Jetwing Lagoon 

Transport: A/c Vehicle with an English-speaking chauffeur guide

Meals: None 

After an early breakfast you proceed to Sigiriya.

A stone’s throw from the ancient rock fortress of Sigiriya -UNESCO world heritage sites – it is a jewel in Sri Lanka’s environmental crown and an unbeatably located base in the heart of the Cultural Triangle. The Rock fortress of Sigiriya rises almost 370 meters above sea level with the ruins of a palace dating back to the 5th century AD found on the summit of the rock. 1200 steps take you to the top of Sigiriya but the climb is broken up by terraces at regular intervals. Half way up another flight of stairs takes you to the paintings of the Sigiriya maidens. You will also see the mirror wall with its ancient and barely decipherable graffiti. The climb from the Lions Paw to the top of the rock is along a narrow metal stairway with railings but is worth it because of the spectacular views from the summit. For those unable to do the climb a visit to the Sigiriya Museum is highly recommended.

Spend the evening at leisure & relaxed by the pool.

In a 28-acre private nature reserve, the thatched villas here have all been designed around preserving and enjoying the wildlife. From water policy to the design of the dwellings, everything is about harnessing natural resources and minimizing waste and carbon usage. Villas are spread out across a bio-diverse, wildlife-rich spectrum of habitats that includes wetland, organic rice paddy, garden, lake and forest. Circling these is a web of interlinked paths connecting the communal spaces: a gym, spa, library, lounge and bar. There’s an outdoor pool overlooking one of the lakes – and its resident crocodile – and a wonderful, two-story fine dining restaurant, serving sustainable meats, fish and local vegetables and fruit.

Accommodation: Overnight stay at Jetwing Vill Uyana 

Transport: A/c Vehicle with an English-speaking chauffeur guide

Meals: Breakfast + Dinner

After having a light breakfast, you will proceed to experience Hiriwadunna Village tour with Lunch.

Take a short tuk tuk ride to the Hiriwaduna lake from where you will embark onto a local boat to continue your journey to the village. During the leisurely ride you will be able to see a large variety of dry zone bird life and vegetable plots of local farmers. Proceed to see the slash and burn (Chena) cultivation travelling by the traditional hand tractor. Learn how the farmers take care of their crops from atop a tree house and other aspects of their daily life. Ride on a Bullock cart (ox cart) along a dirt track and arrive at the village hut where you can see how the locals cook their rice and curry using earthenware pots and firewood for fuel. Enjoy the lunch prepared and served on a lotus leaf.

Spend the afternoon at to explore the Ritigala forest monastery.

Ritigala is a strict nature reserve and an ancient Buddhist monastery dating back to the 1st century BC. The road leading up to the ruins of the monastery is in a poor condition; however, it is a bumpy but exciting drive through lush tropical forest, with monkeys swinging on the branches of tall trees, and also teeming with a large variety of birdlife and butterfly species. When you reach the ruins, which is about an hour’s walk from the entrance, through the forest you get a real sense of the peaceful, tranquil surroundings of the ancient monastery.

Return back & Swim in the pool or take a stroll around the mix of habitats to appreciate the scale of the wildlife conservation undertaken here.

Accommodation: Overnight stay at Jetwing Vill Uyana

Transport: A/c Vehicle with an English-speaking chauffeur guide

Meals: Breakfast + Dinner 

After having a light breakfast, you will proceed to explore Tamarind Gardens Village with a local lunch.

Tamarind Gardens, a 10-acre farm, is a community development project based in Digana near Kandy. The project concentrates on agricultural and livestock farming, community support projects and villa-based accommodation. The ultimate objective is for the project to be viable and sustainable in the long-term. Ayesha and Nalin will show you around their farm and you may interact with the locals and observe their daily chores of a rural village such as milking cows, caring for livestock etc. to give you a different perspective of village life.

Later you will proceed to Knuckles Mountain range.

The Knuckles Mountain Range also called the Knuckles Massif; a bio-diversity hotspot located in the districts of Kandy and Matale in the Central Province of Sri Lanka. Situated at a height of over 3000 ft above sea level, covering a land area of approximately 21 ha it consists of five peaks; namely Kirigalpottha, Gombaniya, Knuckles, Koboneelagala and Dotulugala which form the shape of the knuckles in a clenched fist. The area situated above 1500 m was declared a climatic reserve in 1873 and a conservation forest in 2000, later a National Man & Biosphere Reserve and a World Heritage Site in 2009. It is today considered as one of South Asia’s important sites for the conservation of montane tropical forest habitats.Accommodation: Overnight stay at Wild Glamping in Knuckles.

Transport: A/c Vehicle with an English-speaking chauffeur guide

Meals: Breakfast + Dinner

Early morning you will proceed to explore Heeloya Village Trail with a local lunch.

This trek starts from Rangala which is a village amidst tea estates. Trekkers will trek through line houses, pine forests, lowland rain forest, water streams etc. while experiencing the village life. You can refresh yourself by having a bath in a freshwater stream which starts from the Knuckles Mountain Range. Then you’ll walk towards the Heeloya village. Heeloya is a rural, remote agriculture village which is situated in the Kandy district. Along with a unique attraction of understanding how justice meted out in the good old days. Further, the proceedings of hearing a case by the village-headman and the location are still intact.

Spend the evening at leisure & relaxed 

Accommodation: Overnight stay at Wild Glamping in Knuckles.

Transport: A/c Vehicle with an English-speaking chauffeur guide

Meals: Breakfast + Dinner

After a late breakfast you will proceed to Mahiyanganaya.

Located in proximity to the gushing streams of the famous Mahaweli River, Mahiyanganaya is a town located in the misty hills of the Badulla district. Whilst appearing to be a deceptively quiet little town, it boasts of a rich cultural and historical heritage, hailing back centuries into Sri Lanka’s past. The area is perfect for a quick stop for some sightseeing, particularly if you’re interested in indulging yourself in the religious allure of the country and region.

In the evening you will proceed to experience Dambana Indigenous Village

The Dambana Veddha Village is home to the last remaining tribe of indigenous people of Sri Lanka, known as the Veddhas. The Veddhas preserve a direct line of descent from their ancestors, and carry-on traditions from their culture which is as old as 18,000 BC. During your visit, you will get to meet the chief of the tribe and talk to him and others via an interpreter, learn about their behavior and explore interesting insights of their untarnished culture. The Veddhas were originally hunter-gatherers; you will be able to watch them make their traditional bow and arrows out of natural material and observe how to set traps to catch small animals. They will also explain how they used to preserve food in the olden days. The excursion also includes a visit to the Dambana Museum, which is one of the most historically significant places in Sri Lanka. Here you can see equipment used by the Veddhas, and gain immense knowledge about the Vedda’s way of life through pictures and artefacts.

On completion you can head to the hotel in Mahiyanganaya and enjoy the rest of the evening at your leisure.

Accommodation: Overnight stay at Mapakada Village

Transport: A/c Vehicle with an English-speaking chauffeur guide

Meals: Breakfast + Dinner

After breakfast you will proceed to Wellawaya & check in to your hotel

An escapist’s dream of a place at the foot of the Poonagala mountain range, 4km from Wellawaya village, this property has 25 smart, rustic lodges and a main ‘house’ space of restaurant, bar and pool set in 60-acres of emerald paddy fields and forest. Sustainability here is king – from the natural cooling system that avoids air-con to the progressive policies towards land and local farmers.

With shutters open, watch farmers tending rice and the team harvesting the organic kitchen garden as a wealth of wildlife – flying foxes, Sri Lanka hanging parrots and hornbills – goes about its business. As well as being a luxurious retreat, here you witness how tourism done well brings enormous benefits. Make no mistake, this is a ‘feel good’ place in every sense.

Kaduruketha presented a new opportunity: the first agro-tourism offering in Sri Lanka. Rather than importing ingredients for its kitchens, they invested considerably in the local farming economy, creating a real sense of security. At Kaduruketha, there are 31 farming families working, cultivating 50 acres of paddy. Jetwing awards a grant of LKR 25,000 per acre for farming per season, and then shares the harvest fifty-fifty with the growers.

One of the unique experiences here is the chance to have lunch with these farmers and their families in their homes. As well as the local red and white rice, try chicken curry, a ‘murunga’ or chicken drumstick curry, a ‘polos’ – tender, young jackfruit – curry, a pumpkin curry, ‘ela batu’ – Thai aubergine – curry, ‘wambatu’ – aubergine – red curry and ‘Japan batu’, a kind of sweet leaf green salad. 

Accommodation: Overnight stay at Jetwing Kaduruketha

Transport: A/c Vehicle with an English-speaking chauffeur guide

Meals: Breakfast + Dinner

Work it all off with a guided walk, bike ride and wild waterfall swim with the hotel naturalist. Or just potter around the organic kitchen gardens before cooling off in the outdoor pool, eating fresh mango with unbeatable views of the mountains. Then it’s another feast of locally grown food in the elevated restaurant as the sounds of the forest come alive with evening wildlife

Accommodation: Overnight stay at Jetwing Kaduruketha

Transport: A/c Vehicle with an English-speaking chauffeur guide

Meals: Breakfast + Dinner

Two hours south and you reach Sri Lanka’s coast and Yala – 

En Route local bus ride to the rural out-backs between kaduruketha to yala. It’s a fun way to intermingle with the locals and is amusing and interesting.

The stretch of national park and beautiful beach that is veritable paradise for nature lovers. The most popular wildlife destination in Sri Lanka because of the high chance of encounter and variety of animals, Yala National Park’s diversity of bird, mammal and reptile life is unrivalled in the country with particularly high densities of two keystone species: Asian elephant and leopard. Estimates suggest there are around 70 leopards and, as the apex predator in the park, they’re top cat here, so less fearful than in countries like Africa where lions rule the roost. This means you’re more likely to see wild leopards here than anywhere else in the world.

Impressive is the hotel’s incredible green record. Steam from a biomass boiler (with a virtually neutral greenhouse gas emission profile) powers the air conditioning system, rice steamers and the laundry. Like Jetwing Lagoon, the boiler is fed with cinnamon wood, a sustainable fuel and by-product of the spice industry. There’s 100% illumination via energy efficient LED bulbs and 40% of the hotel’s entire electricity requirement is generated by the hotel’s 300 KWp solar power system. Situated in the hotel’s grounds, this is actually the largest private solar farm in the country.

For those interested in pioneering green tech and inspiration to minimize their own home’s eco-footprint, take an (electric, of course) buggy cart around the grounds with one of the staff to see how wastewater is separated and re-used for the hotel’s own organic farm and further disinfected to be used in toilet cisterns. Yearly this saves over 14 million liters of freshwater, enough to fill five Olympic swimming pools.

Accommodation: Overnight stay at Jewing Yala

Transport: A/c Vehicle with an English-speaking chauffeur guide

Meals: Breakfast + Dinner

After a late breakfast you will proceed to Buffalo Curd Making Experience. 

Take a cycle ride to a local home in a rural village and learn the secrets of making authentic buffalo milk curd from the true experts. You can even participate in the process and enjoy the freshly made curd with some sweet kithul treacle for dessert!

In the afternoon you will proceed to Pottery Making Experience

Sri Lankan pottery is an intricate art. This is an art that has been passed down through generations of artisans. Learn how to make your own clay pot on a traditional wheel and take it back with you as a souvenir.

Accommodation: Overnight stay at Jewing Yala

Transport: A/c Vehicle with an English-speaking chauffeur guide

Meals: Breakfast + Dinner

Early Morning Visit Village Bakery to experience Sri Lanka’s Bakery Process and see how community bake with traditional ovens.

There are varieties of bread all over the world. you can gain that enriching experience that you seek! Early in the morning you can go to this local community bakery and participate in the process of making your own bun or bread. After a few hours, your bun will be ready to be consumed and during that time you will have the opportunity to have a friendly chat with the baker and gain an understanding about their life, productions, strategies they use to sell their products etc.

Wind along the idyllic south coast road to Ambalantota, the last stop of your holiday which lies away from the tourist trail.

Check in to your hotel which pride itself on its sustainability efforts, boasting naturally -ventilated rooms and an organic vegetable patch.

Accommodation: Overnight stay at Ravana Garden 

Transport: A/c Vehicle with an English-speaking chauffeur guide

Meals: Breakfast + Dinner

Enjoy Beautiful boat safari that climates with breakfast on a rock.

Join with local fisherman on a “Madal fishing” session

Finish your day with an invigorating stroll through the lush greenery in private gardens, with the gentle Southern winds blowing through your hair.

Accommodation: Overnight stay at Ravana Garden 

Transport: A/c Vehicle with an English-speaking chauffeur guide

Meals: Breakfast + Dinner

After breakfast transfer to Colombo Airport to catch your flight back home accompanied with all the happy memories of the tropical isle Sri Lanka once known as TAPROBANE.