Sri Lanka Trip Cost from India: 5 and 7 Days for a Couple

For a couple, a mid-range 5 day Sri Lanka trip from India costs about Rs 1,24,000 to Rs 1,50,000 all in, and a 7 day trip about Rs 1,64,000 to Rs 1,96,000, as of September 2026. Guesthouses and a basic car bring the 5 day version down to roughly Rs 80,000 to Rs 96,000. Hotel tier moves the total most, then which airport you fly from. There is no visa fee to add, because Indian passport holders now get a free tourist ETA.

Below I break the total into flights, the car and driver, hotels, entry tickets, food and a SIM card. Figures are in Indian rupees, converted at 1 INR = 3.43 LKR (Wise, checked 25 September 2026). Treat them as approximate ranges, not quotes, because fares and room rates move week to week.

Flights: your departure city matters

If you are flying out of Chennai, Bengaluru or Kochi, it is a short hop, roughly 1.5 to 2 hours in the air, and return economy fares usually land between Rs 13,000 and Rs 23,000 per person as of September 2026, depending on how far ahead you book and which airline (SriLankan Airlines flies all three direct, and IndiGo also flies Chennai and Bengaluru). That is a clear advantage if you live in the south. On a morning flight you can land in Colombo, clear immigration and be at your hotel before lunch.

From Delhi or Mumbai, you are either on a longer direct flight or connecting through Chennai or Bengaluru, and return fares generally sit between Rs 22,000 and Rs 36,000 per person. Hyderabad and Kolkata usually fall somewhere in between. If your dates are flexible, flying out of a southern hub and taking a short domestic connection can still save you a few thousand rupees per person after you pay for the domestic leg, so price both before you book anything else.

Visa: the ETA is free for Indians

The tourist ETA for Sri Lanka is free for Indian passport holders as of 25 May 2026, one of forty nationalities on that list, and it is valid for 30 days with double entry allowed from your first day of arrival. You still need to apply online before you fly, at eta.gov.lk, the official portal, ideally a few days ahead so you have the approval PDF in hand. There is no fee to pay and no visa line item to add to your budget. Staying beyond 30 days needs a paid extension, but for a standard 5 or 7 day holiday you will not touch that.

Sri Lanka trip cost from India: 5 days

Here is the line-item maths for a 4 night, 5 day trip: Colombo for a night on arrival, Kandy for a night, and two nights on the coast at Bentota or Galle. I am pricing a couple sharing one car and one room, with flights out of a southern city as the base case.

That covers flights, hotels, a private car and driver for four days, the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic and a couple more sites, food and a SIM card. Add roughly Rs 9,000 to Rs 13,000 per person if you are flying from Delhi or Mumbai instead of Chennai, Bengaluru or Kochi.

And for 7 days, the fuller circuit

Stretch it to 6 nights and you can properly cover the hill country: Colombo, Sigiriya, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Ella and a coastal stop. If you can spare the days, this is the route I would pick for a first trip. It is fast, roughly one night per stop, so skip it if you want a slow beach holiday.

The extra two days go on two more hotel nights, more days of car hire (hill roads take longer than the distance suggests), and paid sites like Sigiriya and a Yala safari, both worth the money once.

The private car and driver, and why I would book one

Sri Lanka's train network is scenic but slow, and its buses are not built for someone carrying luggage between five towns in a week. I would steer almost every couple toward a private car with an English-speaking driver, not a self-drive rental. I plan on Rs 4,000 to Rs 6,500 a day for a sedan or small SUV with driver and fuel. That is my planning range, not a published tariff, and hill-country days sit at the top of it because the road switches back constantly and a day's drive covers less ground than it looks on the map. Split across two people that is a modest add to the daily budget, and it buys you door-to-door transfers, a driver who knows which viewpoint is worth the stop, and no stress about parking in Kandy.

Hotels by tier, town by town

Nightly rates below are for a double room and approximate, as of September 2026. Colombo is mostly a one-night stop on most itineraries, arrival or departure night, so do not over-invest here. Budget guesthouses run Rs 2,800 to Rs 5,000 a night, 4-star hotels sit at Rs 7,000 to Rs 12,000, and the handful of 5-star options push past Rs 15,000.

Kandy, Nuwara Eliya and Ella are full of small boutique guesthouses, often the nicest part of the trip for the price: budget rooms from Rs 2,500 to Rs 4,500, boutique mid-range from Rs 6,000 to Rs 10,000. Nuwara Eliya in particular has colonial-era bungalow hotels that are good value for what you get.

Bentota and Galle are where the beach resort money goes. Budget guesthouses near the beach run Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000, mid-range beach hotels Rs 8,000 to Rs 14,000, and proper 5-star beach resorts from Rs 18,000 upward, sometimes well past Rs 30,000 in peak season. I would put your one splurge night here rather than in Colombo.

Entry tickets that surprise people

Sri Lanka's headline sites are not cheap for foreign tourists, and this is the line item that catches people out because it is rarely priced into flight-and-hotel budgeting. Sigiriya, the rock fortress, charges South Asian passport holders about US$15 to 20 depending on the source, roughly Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000 at Rs 96 to the dollar (Wise, September 2026), against US$35, about Rs 3,400, for other foreigners. Carry your passport, you need it to get the SAARC rate.

The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic in Kandy charges SAARC visitors, which includes Indian passport holders, LKR 2,500, about Rs 730 per person. That ticket also covers the on-site museums. A Yala National Park safari, entrance plus service charge plus a shared jeep for half a day, comes to roughly Rs 3,500 to Rs 6,000 per person depending on group size, which is my planning figure rather than a published tariff. It is worth doing once for the leopards and elephants, but I would not build two safari mornings into a 5 day trip. One is plenty unless wildlife is the whole point of your holiday.

These are approximate rates as of September 2026. Site fees get revised, so confirm at the gate and treat them as planning numbers, not quotes.

Food, SIM and the small stuff

Food is cheap if you eat where locals eat. A rice-and-curry plate or kottu roti runs roughly Rs 350 to Rs 450 per person, and a mid-range restaurant dinner for two in Colombo comes to about Rs 2,300 to Rs 2,600. Vegetarian food is easy to find: most rice-and-curry spreads are built around vegetable curries by default and you simply skip the fish or chicken portion. Ask for no meat and you will be fine almost everywhere, including at hotel breakfast buffets.

Dialog and Mobitel both sell tourist SIMs, and you can buy one at the airport. Data for maps and photos for a week costs roughly Rs 600 to Rs 1,000 per person, one-time, and it is worth buying the moment you land rather than relying on roaming.

When to go and when to book

The west and south coast beaches, Bentota and Galle, are best December to February: calm seas, clear skies. This is also peak season, so hotel rates run higher. The hill country, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya and Ella, is at its sunniest from January to March. March and April are still good, and October and November are green and quieter, but those are inter-monsoon months, so expect afternoon thunderstorms, and October and November can be unsettled across the island, hills included. If you want lower hotel rates and can live with that, March to April and October to November are the months to target. Flights and 4-star hotels usually price a notch lower than the December to February rush.

I would not book a beach-only trip for May to September if the west coast is your priority. That is the southwest monsoon, and Bentota, Galle and the hills get heavy rain. If you are set on travelling then, go east instead, to Trincomalee or Arugam Bay, though this breakdown does not price that.

Is Sri Lanka worth it over Bali or the Maldives on price

Sri Lanka usually costs less than Bali on flights, since Bali is a much longer trip from India, and less than the Maldives on the ground, because resort islands price every meal, drink and transfer at a premium. What you give up is the overwater villa and infinity pool version of a beach holiday. Sri Lanka's beaches are good, but you stay in beach hotels and small resorts, not overwater rooms. For a first international trip as a couple, on a tighter budget, or if you want temples and tea estates alongside the beach, I would pick Sri Lanka. For a pure honeymoon where the resort itself is the destination, the Maldives still wins.

If the Maldives is on your shortlist, the same line items are here:

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