Dambulla Travel Forum

A group of us are planning to visit Kandy and Dambulla. From Dambulla, is there a bus to Colombo – preferably AC Bus starting from Dambulla – as the transit buses are crowded and we cannot get seats.

Alternatively, we could go to Dambulla first by AC Bus from Colombo and then from Dambulla travel to Kandy. Are there buses from Dambulla to Kandy - preferably AC Bus starting from Dambulla – as the transit buses are crowded and we cannot get seats.

Any information on frequency of the above buses would be very useful.

there are busses to everywhere going always. about AC-busses i'm not sure, but the normal busses are not that bad (and extremely cheap as they are supported by the state)....

Just to back up what number 1 said there are plenty of a/c buses going between Kandy, Dambulla and Colombo. There's no timetable, they just leave when full so frequency partly depends on time of day. But i don't think I've ever waited more than half an hour for one so it's no problem.

You can easily get seats on both a/c and big buses providing you get on at the original starting point. Dambulla is on the Kandy-Colombo route so that can be trickier as many buses pass through it rather than orginate there. But as it's a big city many people get on and off here so if you're prepared to wait a while longer I'm sure you'll find one eventually. The main problem is what size is your group? Remember a/c buses have about 25 seats at most so if you need to take half the bus up you might have a problem.

Might be more practical and not too expensive if there's a lot of you to hire your own minibus.

Dear Mr. fipsi

I am thankful for your ready response. I shall fooow your advice and take the bus to and from Dambulla

skmal

Dear Mr. mafi_moya

I greatly appreciate your detailed response. Our graoup has only Five but two are lederly. I intend to travel first to Dambulla from Colombo using the AC Bus, as we could get seats in the long four hour journey. Hope to catch an early morning bus. Then from Dambulla, we would take AC or ordinary bus fo Kandy.
Presume the bus service to Dambulla from Colombo would start early enough to reach Dambulla in the early hours of forenoon. Understand that the Cave Temple is closed during lunch hour. IWonder whether there would be provision for reserving seats in bus in advance.
Thank you once again

That sounds like a good plan. Buses leave Colombo from the Pettah bus station from first thing in the morning - you can easily be in Dambulla by mid-day. There's no chance of reserving bus seats but there's not really any need. Just turn up at the station and the buses will be waiting - if the first one doesn't have five vacant seats then just wait a few minutes for that one to leave and the next one to start up.