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oh I'm shaking the wind is blowing I hate this my mother would kill me welcome back to another budgeteers bite-size now don't worry this isn't gonna be one of those videos where we talk about all the beautiful features we've been to these last four weeks on this amazing road trip around sri lanka today we bring you our top 12 hidden gems of Sri Lanka that we found during our six-week a road trip around the entire island most of the places on this list we had never heard of when we were doing our research so hopefully you can use this as a way of finding some unique places soak up more of the real show Lankan culture and avoid some of the more over height and overrated must-see places such as the candy - Ella train
the temple of the tooth and cigarette this bite size is going to be really useful for you if you're thinking of coming to Sri Lanka so grab your flip-flops and your beach towel and we'll see you on the beach after the intro just before we get into this awesome list we want to take a minute to tell you about this episode sponsor XP hello it's a brand new immersive platform to help you discover the world share your footprints with the world and get involved with its unique location-based chat rooms to share your moments and experiences with other travelers you can explore the world with its stylish map interface and find all the places you never knew about from other travelers you can chat everywhere
you go has chat rooms unique to your location so jump into any chat room and start making friends there's events are always happening around the world and now you can make sure you don't miss them whether that's music festivals or cultural events they got you covered and you can leave footprints post about the places you visit so you can look back and remember your past travels ex PLO is available to download for free in the App Store today okay first on our list is mount lavinia beach this stunning little beach is set just south of the city of Colombo in the suburb town of Matt Lavinia home to a large five-star hotel that used to be home to the British Consulate this Beach
also has a gorgeous train station a cute little town and a really nice hostel in the form of island hostels we spent a good four nights here and not only did it have a really fun backpacking vibe but the beach itself is really stunning people will tell you to leave Colombo as fast as you can to see the more scenic parts of the island but we were really surprised by this quiet part of the city and we really do think that Matt Lavinia beech is a massive hidden gem within the biggest city in sri lanka number two is the knuckles of mountains these stunning mountains can be found in the center of the island and are very much less traveled than many parts of the island we spent two nights here exploring the treks and trails that lead
through and up the gorgeous plains that burst with wildlife this part of sri lanka is also home to some unique and extremely rare species and the whole time we were there we learnt so much from our awesome guide if you want to learn more about our time in the knuckles and any other place on this list for that matter we will link each episode from our bigger Sri Lankan series below so if you want to research more about the knuckles and any other place on this list please feel free to immerse yourself in our ethnic travel series number three is here we get Rhea Beach this was our Beach of choice and we spent the last 10 days of our trip at this Beach it has the perfect blend of local Sri Lankan village life with more
Western comforts and restaurants the beach is tiny and hidden down some sandy paths and the seasoned Sri Lankan visitors that live here are desperately trying to keep this place a secret and it's for good reason the swirls are perfect for beginner surfing and the sands are white the beers are cold and the whole Beach has a really relaxing and peaceful atmosphere number four is the temple on the cliffs of trim commonly this temple which I really don't want to try to pronounce is perched on the most ragged rocks on the coastline and gives an amazing view back down towards Trin McCauley and the Indian Ocean this Hindu temple is alive with color ceremonies and burning incense it's also surrounded
by grazing deer foraging monkeys and flocks of black crows this was one of the most beautiful temples we saw on the whole island and somewhere we really recommend you come and check out number five is jungle Beach this beach we saw from the neighboring town of God we could see from afar that it looked gorgeous and seemingly deserted however when we drove over and found the path that led down to the beach we did see that there is in fact a few restaurants and bars selling refreshments we thought was this was going to be secluded but there are a few shops over here people selling stuff so it might not be totally pristine but it doesn't take away from the fact that it's stunningly beautiful and somewhere you can
certainly come and enjoy a quiet beach day away from the crowds over at the goal city centre number six is olifant tea plantation this is the highest tea plantation in new warrior Elia and arguably the most beautiful you will want to explore the tea plantations when you come to sri lanka and you might think that the highest plantation would be the most visited but actually you would be wrong we drive up there parked our tuk-tuk and we only found a few other villages and tea pickers who are at work and they invited us to explore and we spent a good few hours pushing through the thorny bushes in the hunt for the best lookout points number seven is the east coast
this region of Sri Lanka was completely unknown to us and we expected to just drive through it on our way up to Jaffna the largest city in the north however we found rich cultural history here and we were able to see better than anywhere on the island the real Sri Lankan way of life okay it's nearly the time these guys have nearly finished dragging it in we also got to drive through a national park for free and if we had waited a few hours more than we might have seen wild elephants however because we drove through during the hottest part of the day most of the wild animals were seeking refuge away from sight but don't overlook the east coast of Sri Lanka guys especially if you're looking for a more local adventures
number eight is the white buddha in candy is packed with touristy things to do and say and we were drawn to a few of them most notably the temple of the teeth however we didn't really have the best experience there and in the afternoon we were really trying to find a place to escape the crowds and enjoy a nice view of this gorgeous city luckily the white Buddha statue towering over the city was the perfect choice it was very cheap to enter and we were one of only about a dozen other people there and we got to enjoy learning about Buddha's life and taking in a gorgeous sunset together so this is actually inside the Buddhist actually and it was amazing wall murals extra stones and the history of the wood is life number nine is Turtle Bay there is a
loafer Lee su thee Turtle Bay is actually right bang in the middle between Marissa and coconut tree hill - of shoreline cos most popular destinations however this tiny little Bay is very overlooked as it's so small and seemingly just another little Bay along the coast however there is an awesome little restaurant here with hammocks cold beers and the best part as the name suggests is the grazing turtles that frequent this Bay all day long we jumped in and found these gorgeous animals almost instantly and it was such a great afternoon in this gorgeous little beach
this city in the north of the country was somewhere we knew would be less visited because tourism hasn't really had much time to develop here thanks to the civil war that raged here until just over ten years ago however there is so much history here and exploring the marshlands of Jaffna in our tooktook still remains one of the highlights for all of us from our entire trip on the island sighs Alena have swapped driving because it's a bit scary and Tyson's got experience driving on the crappy road when we drove through the national park the other day this is exactly why we came up north number 11 is a MIDI gamma beach this Beach can be found on the touristy south coast but it really is a gorgeous little spot there are only a few little
cheap places to get food and the surfing is really great especially for beginners and want to learn on soft sandy banks grabbing beers from the wine shop across the street and enjoying sunsets at midday gamma is the perfect way to spend an evening in Sri Lanka and we were lucky enough to watch the Sun sink into the ocean in a glorious blaze of colour more than once MIDI Gama Beach guys don't forget this one this structure is still something we cannot wrap our heads around and I won't try to pronounce this one either this building has imagery from all major religions of Sri Lanka and so it seems to be built to celebrate all of the people on the island and their beliefs and apart from being a sight to behold
and having amazing views of the Sri Lankan highlands this tower also has a challenging element to it wrapping itself around the spire at the top there is a tiny spiraling staircase that only the most brave people can sum it sting no you're not concrete no time those nuns yes vamos clearly only one of us made it to the top and so if you come here and if you make it to the top please let us know tag us in a selfie on Instagram we are at the budgeteers we would love to know how many of you are brave enough to make it to the top just like Lena did
again if you want to learn more about each of the places on this list or you just want to learn more about what traveling in sri lanka is really like please head to our Channel and watch the entire series each location on this list will be linked below as I've said so please feel free to enjoy more of the footage from each of these hidden gems thanks again for watching this budget is bite-sized we hope to see you again in another installment very soon safe travels and thanks again for watching
