Motorcycle trip

Sri Lanka

We run one tour in Sri Lanka, a 12-day crossing of the island with 10 riding days: On the Roads of Ceylon. It starts in Negombo, near Colombo airport, climbs Sigiriya’s Lion Rock, reaches the bay of Trincomalee, crosses the Knuckles range and the tea country of Nuwara Eliya and Ella, stops in Udawalawe National Park and ends at the fort of Galle. For more of southern Asia, check out our South India motorcycle tours.

$4,090 per rider and $3,390 per passenger, the same price for every published departure. This covers the motorcycle and its fuel, the tour leader, the mechanic and the support vehicle, lodging, breakfast and lunch on riding days, a jeep safari and your Sri Lankan driving permit. You budget for your flights, the electronic travel authorization (ETA), dinners, drinks and a $41 registration fee on your first tour with us. The tour page has the full list.

From December to April, the dry season in the west, the south and the hill country, where most of the tour runs. Expect around 86°F on the plains and much cooler early mornings around Nuwara Eliya, at over 6,000 feet. Early in the season, the northeast monsoon can still bring showers to the east coast. Our published departures, through February 2028, fall between December and early March: dates and open spots are on the tour page. We do not ride in the southwest monsoon, from May to September.

Our tour is rated Intermediate: a motorcycle endorsement and regular riding are enough, and no off-road experience is required. You ride mostly on small paved roads, with a few easy stretches of dirt. What wears you out is rather the heat, riding on the left, the busy buses on the plains and the switchbacks of the hill country. If in doubt, your travel advisor will talk it through with you before you book.

To enter, a passport valid for 6 months and an electronic travel authorization (ETA), applied for before you leave on the official eta.gov.lk site; conditions and fees depend on your nationality and change often. To ride, a Sri Lankan driving permit is required: we obtain it for you from your state license with motorcycle endorsement, an International Driving Permit (from AAA) and an ID photo. The full list is in Preparing your trip to Sri Lanka, in our help center.

Through Colombo’s international airport (Bandaranaike), at Katunayake, a few miles from Negombo where the tour begins. You book your own flights: from the US, you connect at least once, usually in the Gulf, Europe or an Asian hub, so plan to land a day early and get over the jet lag. Our team meets you at the airport on the first day and drives you back from Galle on the last.

The main risk is the road itself: private buses passing on climbs, tuk-tuks stopping short, dogs and cows on the pavement, sometimes elephants near the parks of the east. We ride at a steady pace behind an English-speaking tour leader; a mechanic and a support vehicle follow the group, and our team in France can be reached day and night. Some stages are far from hospitals. Before you go, read the State Department travel advisory and country information for Sri Lanka and enroll in STEP.

Yes, Sri Lanka drives on the left, a legacy of British rule, the opposite of the US. Most American riders settle in within the first morning by following the tour leader; stay focused at intersections, at traffic circles and when pulling away after a stop, when the reflex to keep right comes back. We do not rent motorcycles without a guide in Sri Lanka: our self-guided rentals are in South Dakota’s Black Hills.