Cycling around Sri Lanka is growing in immense popularity amongst many tourists visiting Sri Lanka. This is an excellent and relatively cheap way of getting around cities and towns and is undoubtedly an excellent way to explore the island.

The ardent cyclist will most certainly find Sri Lanka an absolutely pleasure to explore, atop a mountain bike, apart from the steeper areas of the Hill Country and the busy roads exciting Colombo and other main cities in the country.

Tourists looking to get around in cycles have two options:

Exploring towns by cycling

1)      If you just want to get about on a cycle from your out-of-Colombo hotel on

a bike, you can look to hire a day-to-day cycle from the hotel your staying at our ask your travel agent to organize the hirer. Now more and more hotels and travel agents offer this service and is an extremely cheap and easy way to get around.

2)      Helmets are not compulsory by law and you may not be able to hire them either but I do strongly recommend wearing one.

3)      Study the traffic flow and the general behavior on the streets. If you think it too complicated to try it out, then its best to go with your initial instinct. The roads in Sri Lanka are extremely narrow and large buses drive extremely fast along these routes. There are also no side-walks/pavements on most streets. So please do be aware of the risks involved.

Touring Sri Lanka on a mountain bike

If you are planning on touring the island by cycle there are a few things you ought to consider

1)      Its best to start cycling out of Sri Lanka. You can organize your Travel agent to recommend a suitable location or area to start your journey from and they will organize the transport out of Colombo.

2)      Start early in the day to avoid the heat and pack enough water and sunscreen. You will have to consider you daily limit of cycling due to the road conditions and traffic. You’ll have to negotiate a few obstacles such as stray dogs, pedestrians, pot-holes, lack of side-walks/pavements and buses that drive at maximum speed down narrow two lane roads.

3)      If you are bringing your own bicycle, I strongly recommend you pack a supply of spare tyres and tubes. These suffer from the poor road surfaces, and replacement parts can be hard to find. The normal bicycle tyre size in Sri Lanka is 28inches by 1.5inches. You may find imported 27 inch tyres from 10 speed bikes but there are generally only found in Colombo and at ridiculously high prices.

4)      You may want to keep an eye on your bike at all times and use a good lock straped to solid post or bar whenever you park it.

Regardless of how you choose to explore this fascinating island, one thing is for sure… it simply won’t disappoint you.

If you want more information on organizing a memorable bicycle tour in Sri Lanka, you can contact us for more information on targetravels@ranfer.com