Best time to visit Sri Lanka

3 destinations in Sri Lanka, each scored month by month, side by side.

Colombo — i

Photo by AKS.9955, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

February is the best month: a sweet spot at every one of these 3 places.

The destinations

Month by month

Place	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Colombo	30°	32°	31°	31°	30°	29°	29°	29°	29°	29°	29°	30°
Kandy	28°	29°	31°	31°	29°	28°	28°	27°	28°	27°	27°	27°
Sigiriya	28°	29°	31°	33°	32°	32°	32°	32°	32°	30°	29°	28°
Sweet spots	2	3	0	0	0	2	2	1	2	0	0	0

Place

Sweet spots

Sweet spot
Good
OK
Avoid
Busy

Each cell is that destination's own verdict for the month — sweet spot, ok or avoid — with its typical daily high, from the same ten years of climate readings its page is built from. A dot marks a busy month. The last row counts the sweet spots, and the best months are marked.

Routes through Sri Lanka

Goa to the Maldives 4 stops

Before you go

Cost of living	very cheap — prices run about 27% of the United States' (World Bank, 2025)
Currency	Sri lankan rupee
Languages	Sinhala, Tamil
Plugs	Type D and G, 230 V
Driving	On the left
Calling code	+94
Travel advice	No advice against travel — UK Foreign Office, updated 2026-09-21
Health	UK Foreign Office health advice

Facts from Wikidata (CC0), the UK Foreign Office (Open Government Licence) and the World Bank, refreshed 2026-10-07. The advisory is written for British travellers; entry rules depend on your passport.

On arrival

Apps — Rides: PickMe, Uber. Maps: Google Maps. Messages: WhatsApp. PickMe covers more of the island than Uber, and both book tuk-tuks as well as cars.
Paying — Most hotels, restaurants and shopping centres take cards, but cash still dominates; carry rupees for buses and small shops. Many shops show LANKAQR codes, which LankaPay says tourists can pay with their own phone apps.
UPI, for visitors from India — Works at participating shops, hotels and restaurants showing a LankaQR code: scan it with your UPI app.
Tipping — Not expected but welcome; about 10% for good service, unless the bill already has a service charge.
Emergency — police 118 or 119 · ambulance 1990 · fire 110. The tourist police are on 011 2421052.
TravelCharika is not an emergency service: we cannot call for help or send anyone. Numbers can change; if one fails, ask someone local or your hotel.

Put together by hand from the sources listed, checked 3 October 2026. Apps, cards and rules change, so check before you rely on one.

Sources (16)

Every verdict here is the destination's own: ten years of climate readings, the public holidays that crowd it, and what the flight costs. Nothing is said about Sri Lanka as a whole that was not first measured at each place in it.