Sri Lanka is a island in the Indinan ocean just below Indian subcontinent . It is a small country with tropical climate , mostly famous for its culture , beaches, spices and tea . It is like a paradise for the tourist .
I am a tourist and have visited Srilanka in November 2021. As a budget traveller, I always need to plan my expenses in advance . When I travel in a new country ,first I have to find out what will be price of that item or service i used in my currency . I am just giving here a rough idea of the price of different items or services in sri lankan local currency . local currency of sri lanka is Sri Lankan Rupees (LKR) .
Food :
Food prices in sri Lanka is a little higher than the Indian Prices . Major agricultural products sri lanka export to the other world are cinnamon , cardamon , Black paper and tea , which are Comparatively cheaper than India . But many vegetables and fruits are costlier than India . There you can find different types of dried fishes . Fishes are little cheaper than India . Being a budget traveller sometimes you need to cook a bit and eat lots of fruit to avoid going to big restaurant .
Vegetables
Fruits
Spices
Grocery
Accomodation and processed food
In any form of travelling, the major cost comes as food and hotel accommodation. Though you get cheap street foods, but getting cheap accommodation is always not possible. especially when you go toward northern Sri Lanka . In sri lanka mostly accommodation have a private bathroom , hot /cold water and a locker .In Sri Lanka hostels are less and mainly concentrated in bigger city like colombo , kandey and dambulla.
Accomodation
Here accommodation of hostels starts from $ 2 and budget hotel rooms start from $5 . I have mostly stayed in $5 room , I must say room are clean and all basic facility like private bathroom , hot water are available . You may go up your budget according to your financial condition. There is all sorts of accommodation available in Sri Lanka . Here in most of the hostel breakfast price is included. One exciting fact about sri lanka is that , in every hotel or hostel there is a small garden . I must say sri lankans are very fond of their garden .
Processed Food :
Here Processed food are cheaper and you can get a dinner / lunch starting from 130 – 400 LKR in normal resturent . You can have a good breakfast in 100 LKR . Mineral water price is 50 LKR / 1 l . This are prices in normal shops , if you go in expensive hotels , they may charge according to their price.
Transportation :
There is mainly two modes of transport used by people here. As this is a small island , air transport is not really required for domestic trip . Major two modes of transport for inter-city travel is road and rail .
ROAD
For intercity transport Bus are good option . There is mainly two types of buses red colored SLTB govt buses and another one with blue and white color private buses . There is some small buses with A C . For SLTB buses fare start from 17 LKR and for privete buses around 20-24. I have travelled 100 km in AC buses with fare 350 LKR , 70 KM in SLTB buses with fare 130 LKR .
Train
Train is cheaper than buses but this are less frequent and slower than buses . In normal third class Non AC train 100 km costs 250 LKR . I am not sure which class fare it is but this is the fare written in colombo fort rail station for journey price to Kandey which is almost 100 km .
Museum ticket :
There is all total 8 UNESCO world heritage site in sri lanka , among them 2 are natural sites . As a foreigner you want to visit these spots . There is also lots of small monument , stupa and ancient monuments spread across the country . Some are free but renowned spots are chargeable for foreigner. For SAARC country members , there is a concession in the ticket price in some spots.
Internet and mobile sim :
Internet is moderate rate in Sri Lanka . In cyber cafe one hour internet cost is 120 LKR with good speed . In most of the hotel there is free Wi – Fi available .
For Mobile sim good network is Mobitel , Dialog and Airtel . Don’t buy data offer from Airport . They will charge you 4-5 times more than normal SIM Shop . In Normal sim Shop you can get SIM with some local call and 10 GB Data around 600-700 LKR . SIM will be activated instantly .
