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Discover Sri Lanka & Maldives From Those Who Know It Best

Blogs from Tikalanka are designed to enhance your knowledge of Sri Lanka and Maldives and keep you up to date with recent developments. We intend to post regular features on travel, news, lifestyle and accommodation as well as guest articles from current and past customers, which will give you first-hand experience of Tikalanka, Sri Lanka and Maldives.

Category: Health

Sir David Attenborough with gorillas in Rwanda (courtesy of the BBC)

TikaWeeks #42/2023: Sri Lanka update

Posted by John on 20th October 2023

Nature, carbon and humanity are inextricably entwined with 50% of man-made CO2 sequestered by nature – but the story doesn’t end there: 75% of food crops are dependent on insect pollination, 80% of registered medicines come from plants and 85% of the world's largest companies have a high dependency on nature across direct operations. Nature is at the heart of everything and considering the planet’s lifeblood while travelling is vital.

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Sri Lanka national flag

TikaWeeks #09/2022: Sri Lanka update

Posted by John on 2nd March 2022

Yesterday, the Sri Lankan authorities removed the requirement of a pre-arrival COVID-19 negative test result, which should aid the recovery of the island’s beleaguered tourism industry. This comes hot on the heels of Emirates no longer requiring a PCR test for transiting passengers through Dubai. Both are indications that countries are beginning to relax their pandemic travel requirements to encourage more foreign travel.

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Quintessential Ceylon - a pot of tea overlooking misty mountains in the magnificent Hill Country at W15 Hanthana Estate, Kandy, Sri Lanka

TikaWeeks #01/2022: Sri Lanka update

Posted by John on 7th January 2022

Happy New Year and now back to the last. Our ‘Northern Tour’ of Sri Lanka started with visiting a few special places to stay around Kandy before heading northeast into the Cultural Triangle – Dambulla, Sigiriya and Habarana – and on to Nilaveli just north of Trincomalee on the east coast. We then drove straight up to Jaffna at the northernmost tip of the island before returning south to the Anuradhapura and Wilpattu region. Our last stop was in the Negombo area before I flew home.

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Lunuganga, or Salt River, is Geoffrey Bawa's name for his private estate on Dedduwa Lake

TikaWeeks #50/2021: Sri Lanka update

Posted by John on 16th December 2021

Just returned from an 18-day research trip to Sri Lanka, which was a precursor to restarting our holidays by the New Year. Pathi and I travelled around the island meeting tourism colleagues, visiting current and new accommodation, and discussing the restart with our guides. Overall, the trip was a success and we are confident that a holiday in Sri Lanka will be a great experience despite the few extra precautions required due to COVID-19.

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Elephant family, Sri Lanka

TikaWeeks #46/2021: Sri Lanka update

Posted by John on 21st November 2021

Tourism is beginning to pick up in Sri Lanka once again. More than 7000 foreign visitors arrived to Sri Lanka in the first two weeks of October, out of a total of 45,413 tourists for the year as a whole. Visitors are required to always carry their COVID-19 vaccination card when visiting tourist sites around the country – 12 to 18 year olds who have had at least one dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine are considered ‘fully vaccinated’. There is now an online Health Declaration System at the airport to reduce cross-infection.

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Sri Lanka national flag

TikaWeeks #20/2021: Sri Lanka & Maldives update

Posted by John on 17th May 2021

From 12 May 2021, Sri Lanka has reverted to a 14-day stay in ‘Safe & Secure’ Certified Level 1 hotels for your initial period in the country as well as enforcing the previous, additional requirements of entry. As of 13 May 2021, on-arrival tourist visas in Maldives for those arriving from South Asian countries will be temporarily halted. This includes transit passengers from all other countries. This is academic since both Sri Lanka (Amber list) and Maldives (Red list) are “should not travel to” countries designated by the UK government.

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Union Jack flag of Great Britain

TikaWeeks #18/2021: Sri Lanka & Maldives update

Posted by John on 8th May 2021

Yesterday, the UK government confirmed international leisure travel can gradually resume from 17 May 2021 and released the initial ‘traffic light’ travel list, which will be reviewed every three weeks. Both Sri Lanka and Maldives are on the Amber list, which means you should not travel to either country for leisure purposes, with Maldives on the more restrictive Red list from 12 May 2021. We hope that both countries’ COVID-19 situations will improve in the near future to allow leisure travel at the earliest opportunity.

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Sri Lanka national flag

TikaWeeks #15-1/2021: Sri Lanka & Maldives update

Posted by John on 14th April 2021

As a consequence of the updated health protocol for arrivals to Sri Lanka, we have made a company policy decision of only accepting bookings from customers who are fully COVID-19 vaccinated and this is now a necessary prerequisite of booking with Tikalanka. We will require proof of vaccination at some stage before you fly to continue with a booking. I hope that you appreciate our commitment to ensuring the health and safety of our customers as well as the people of Sri Lanka and Maldives.

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Sri Lanka national flag

TikaWeeks #07/2021: Sri Lanka update

Posted by John on 19th February 2021

Earlier this week, the Government of Sri Lanka announced that the temporary restriction on travel originating from the UK to Sri Lanka has been lifted with immediate effect.This is certainly some good news amid the many downbeat remarks from our own government ministers about the possibility of reopening foreign travel in the immediate future. However, entry to Sri Lanka is still subject to an initial 14 days stay in ‘Safe & Secure’ Certified Level 1 hotels and regular PCR tests.

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Sri Lanka national flag

TikaWeeks #03-2/2021: Sri Lanka update

Posted by John on 21st January 2021

To date, the list of ‘Safe & Secure’ Certified Level 1 hotels in Sri Lanka runs to 55, of which 25 are offered by Tikalanka, and there are currently 17 approved tourist sites and attractions, mostly national parks and cultural sites. Let’s hope that the ongoing health audit continues apace in order to approve many more of our favourite accommodation and places to visit as ‘safe and secure’ in the near future. Visit Sri Lanka Tourism for up to date information on the things you need to know for safely travelling to Sri Lanka.

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