Responsible travel in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is a country with a lot of different landscapes such as misty mountains, lush tea plantations, unique cultural sites and beautiful beaches. Since a few years, Sri Lanka grown to become one of the main destinations in Southeast Asia. However, the country faces environmental problems such as waste management, the single-use plastic or pollution. Despite having one of the densest biodiversity in Asia, however, this fragile balance is now threatened by mass tourism

Here are our tips for a responsible trip to Sri Lanka:

1. Try not to pack items that have plastic wrappings or other articles that you will throw away while on holiday.

2. Use a bamboo or a reusable metal straw and systematically refuse plastic straws

3. For your purchases, use a cloth bag and refuse plastic bags.

4. A responsible trip to Sri Lanka also means avoiding some tourist places where animals do not live in their nature environment. Avoid riding on elephants or any other activity involved the exploitation of an animal.

5. Bring your own refillable water bottle rather than using disposable water bottles (89 billion bottles of plastic water are sold each year around the world, a plastic bottle takes 450 years to disappear from the earth's surface).

6. Respect the local customs. Do not get upset and yell, don't forget to take off your shoes when you enter a house or place of worship, do not eat with your left hand which is considered unclean and wearing decent clothes are part of the important cultural differences to know before a trip to Sri Lanka

7. Learn a few words of Sinhala and Tamil

8. Reduce your electricity consumption at your accommodation. Turn off lights, fans and air conditioning when you leave your room.

9. Follow the advice of your Sri Lanka Travel Expert and participate in activities related to the preservation of traditions.