Sri Lanka Solo Female Travel Safety Tips and Advice

On this page you will find first-hand, unbiased, and real safety tips, advice and reviews from women traveling solo, submitted directly from their personal experiences in the country.

Their opinions are unfiltered and submitted independently as part of the Solo Female Travel Safety Index, a ranking of 210 countries and regions based on how safe they are for women traveling solo.

The safety scores range from 1 to 4 with 1 being the safest and 4 being the most dangerous for solo female travelers.

You don’t need to login to read the below reviews. But do sign up or login to share your solo travel experiences, country safety rating and comments.

Sri Lanka Country data

We have compiled a few data points below that can help you better understand Sri Lanka and have more context when thinking about travel safety.

Official country name: Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.

Etymology: The name means "resplendent island" in Sanskrit.

Capital: Colombo is the commercial capital and Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte the legislative capital.

Independence / foundation: The Portuguese controlled the coastal areas of the island in the 16th century followed by the Dutch in the 17th century.

The island was ceded to the British in 1796, became a crown colony in 1802, and was formally united under British rule by 1815. As Ceylon, it became independent in 1948; its name was changed to Sri Lanka in 1972.

Population: 23 million.

Currency: Sri Lankan Rupee (LKR)
1 USD = 298 - 307 LKR
1 EUR = 322 - 336 LKR

Time zone: UTC+5.5

Languages spoken: Sinhala (official and national language) 87%, Tamil (official and national language) 28.5%, English 23.8% Note - data represent main languages spoken by the population aged 10 years and older; shares sum to more than 100% because some respondents gave more than one answer on the census; English is commonly used in government and is referred to as the "link language" in the constitution.

Religions: Buddhist (official) 70%, Hindu 13%, Muslim 10%, Roman Catholic 6%, other Christian 1%, other <1%.

Climate: Tropical monsoon climate with two monsoons, a northeast monsoon from December to March and a southwest monsoon from June to October.

Real GDP (ppp – purchasing power parity): $270.6 billion.

Real GDP per capita (ppp): $12,200.

Main airports: Bandaranaike International Airport .

World heritage sites in Sri Lanka

There are over 1,100 world heritage sites spread across more than 165 countries. New ones are added every year, and some may be removed from the list for various reasons.

Number of UNESCO listed sites: 8.

Top world heritage sites:

- Ancient City of Polonnaruwa.
- Sinharaja Forest Reserve.
- Sacred City of Kandy.
- Ancient City of Sigiriya.
- Sacred City of Anuradhapura.
- Old Town of Galle and its Fortifications.
- Rangiri Dambulla Cave Temple.
- Central Highlands of Sri Lanka.

Interesting facts about Sri Lanka

- Sri Lanka elected the world’s first female prime minister in 1960, Sirimavo Bandaranaike.

- This is one of the best safari destinations outside of Africa. There are 26 national parks where you can see lots of wildlife including wild leopards. It is also probably the only country where you can see the world’s largest land mammal, the elephant, and the world’s largest marine mammal, the blue whale, in a single day.

- Sri Lanka is the world’s fourth-largest tea producer. Lipton Tea was founded in Sri Lanka.

Further reading: N/A.

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Sri Lanka Travel tips

More about Sri Lanka on Solo Female Travelers

Coming soon.

Did you spot any errors? We do our best to keep this information updated and accurate, but things change. If you saw anything that is not right, let us know so we can fix it: [email protected].

About the Solo Female Travel Safety Index

Safety matters to solo female travelers, you told us so in our annual Solo Female Travel Survey, where year after year, women prove that this is their most important concern when traveling solo.

We wanted to do something about it, so we built these country-specific pages where you can find reviews and scores for 7 key variables affecting the safety of women traveling solo.

How to use the Safety Index

On this page, you will find the country score and the personal opinions on safety of other women traveling solo.

You can sort the comments by:

• The level of experience traveling solo of the reviewer (beginner = <5 trips solo, Intermediate = 5 to 10 trips solo, Experienced = >10 trips solo).
• The age of the traveler.
• Whether they are a visitor or local.
• The date they were posted.

The safety scores range from 1 to 4 with 1 being the safest and 4 being the most dangerous for solo female travelers. 

Thus, the lower the score, the safer the country.

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Looking for more safety resources?

This entire website is devoted to helping women travel solo. Check out the links below to learn more:

Solo Female Travel Stats: Results from the the largest, most comprehensive and only global research study on solo female travel trends, preferences and behaviors published.

Thanks to Jacobo Vilella for creating the Solo Female Travelers Safety Index ❤️