Colombo Travel Forum

Hi, I will be travelling to Bangkok on the 7th April but will have a 7 hour layover on the way and a 15 hour layover on the way back, the 27th. We will arrive at Colombo Airport at 21:40 and need to back on the flight at 13:15 the next day. I have no idea what are the legalities of leavin the airport and what we could do? I heard the elephant sanctury is amazing, is 15 hours enough to visit there? Any help would be great! Thank you in advance! Emma

Hi - whether or not you need a visa (transit, etc.) to leave the airport would depend on your nationality which you don't mention. Since your flight leaves at 1:15 you'd have to be at the airport 2-3 hours before that - between 10:15-11:15 a.m. That doesn't leave you much daylight.

Hiya Emma,

Pinnewela Elephant Orphanage? it might be possible but it probably isn't practical. It's about 60km from the airport, assuming there are no visa restrictions you could get a taxi and be waiting at the gates at 8.30, you might get an hour maximum with the elephants and be back to the airport at 11-11.30 but you really would be pushing it.

There is no guarantee Pinnewela would open bang on time and there is not much going on (in terms of feeding and bathing of elephants) in the first hour so I don’t think there would be much to see there that you couldn’t see in Thailand. If you got held up on the way back, which is quite possible, you would be really stuck and security is tight in and around the airport, so no.

Problem is, there isn’t a great deal else to see or do in the time you have because all Sri Lanka’s ‘must see’ sites are at least as far away.

You could visit Colombo but there isn’t much to do there except shop (which you can also do in Thailand) and Colombo is maybe best avoided just now because of the security situation.

So maybe breakfast in Negombo and a look round there is all you’ll be able to manage, with a visit to a temple or something. I wish I could be more help but there really isn’t a great deal to do in the time you have, particularly as most of it is night.

I hope others have better suggestions?

Mark