Whether you’re planning on spending your time in Sri Lanka lounging on their perfect sandy beaches, visiting the elephants in Udawalawe or Yalla, the tea plantations throughout the country or the cultural temples and ruins of the north, chances are your trip to Sri Lanka is going to start and end in Colombo.
Travelling with your kids anywhere off the beaten path can always be a bit daunting and Sri Lanka’s capital city, Colombo, is no different. Whereas the beaches, temples and safari parks have obvious things for kids to do, it’s less obvious what’s available in Colombo when you first arrive.
When we first arrived in Colombo, having spent a month in the sleepy seaside towns of Weligama, Hikkaduwa and Galle, it was quite a culture shock and we spent a bit of time online, trying to find something for us to do as a family. However, resources online were hard to come by and we ended up having to do a lot of walking around and discovering as we went. There’s nothing wrong with that approach (I always enjoy the happy accidents you have when you discover new places while travelling this way), but if time is short, bags are heavy and kids are grizzly, it’s ideal to have a plan in mind before you head out.
With that in mind, we’ve spent a good deal of time traversing the length and breadth of Colombo to find the best things do to as a family – outings that are fun for both parents and the kids. Here’s our list of fun things to do in Colombo with kids.
Things To Do In Colombo (With Kids)
Colombo Basics
After spending a month as beach bums on the southern coast of Sri Lanka, it was a bit of a culture shock to be thrust back into a bustling city. While it can be overwhelming when you first arrive, Colombo is actually a very easy city to get around and has plenty to do for you and the kids.
Getting Around In Colombo
Colombo is a large capital city but the majority of the tourist attractions are concentrated around the north-west of the city, making getting around a lot easier than you might expect.
Tuk Tuk
The city is full of tuk-tuks, some with meters and some without. I generally found that sticking to the metered tuk-tuks ended up being cheaper but, if you must travel in an un-metered tuk-tuk, be sure to negotiate the rate before you take the ride to avoid unexpected fares and confrontation.
Uber
Uber is very active in the city. We mostly used Uber and found they arrived within 5 minutes of us booking the car, although your mileage may vary. Note that if you’re getting an Uber from Colombo to the airport, be sure to order one of the larger cars – the Uber Airport Express that we initially booked for 4 people (with luggage) didn’t have a boot when it turned up, so we had to cancel and book another.
PickMe
We didn’t try it ourselves, but I’ve also seen several people online recommending a local Uber clone, called PickMe.
Things To Do In Colombo (With Kids)
While most travel guides are aimed squarely at backpackers, solo travellers or couples, we found it very difficult to find things to do in Colombo with kids when we looked online. This meant that we had to do a lot of exploring, knowing where were going to end up. These are the things we found that we enjoyed the most.
Viharamahadevi Park
A park doesn’t always make it to the top of a travel guide in any city, but after a month of backpacking and roughing it through the surfing beaches of Sri Lanka, I’ve never been so happy to see a colourful plastic climbing frame in all my life.
We visited Viharamahadevi Park in Colombo on our first day but had to beat a hasty retreat as it was the middle of the day and we were rapidly burning to a crisp. My advice is get here early in the morning, to avoid the baking sun.
Ride a Pedalo
Pedalo’s are available to hire from 10:00 every day and cost 100 LKR (£1.00 / $1.40) for an hour. The lake itself is not massive, but it had some decent birdlife and turtles and the kids loved it.
Let The Kids Drive Electric Cars
For about 100 LKR (£1.00 / $1.40), your kids can ride electric cars for 10 minutes. It might not seem like a long time but it was probably one of the highlights for our kids. So much so that they asked if we could go back the following day. As much as I love exposing them to cultural experiences, sometimes you just need to ride a plastic electric car for 10 minutes!
Visit The Aquarium
The aquarium in Viharamahadevi Park is unlikely to compete with the likes of London, Lisbon or Cape Town. In truth, you’ll have seen the entire exhibit in around 5-10 minutes. But if it’s distractions for the kids, you’re after, you’re not going to find better value. Entrance to the aquarium costs 30 LKR (£0.13 / $0.17) per person and kids, as always, go free.
I’m in two minds about how I feel about this aquarium. On the one hand, it’s clear they’re trying to do the best they can with the little resources they have. On the other, I wasn’t happy to see how small some of the spaces were that the animals were kept in. The turtle, in particular, looked like it was in a tank far too small.
Gangaramaya Temple
We spent the majority of our time in Sri Lanka in the south, which is comparatively light on temples and shrines, so I was itching for some ancient culture by the time we arrived in Colombo. I’d first heard about Gangaramaya Temple while watching YouTube travel videos and it was top of my list of things to do in Colombo. I’m happy to report that it didn’t disappoint.
Gangaramaya Temple is one of the most important Buddhist temples in Sri Lanka and one of the oldest in Colombo, housing artefacts from across the Buddhist world. This gives it a feel of being part temple, part Buddhist museum.
An abundance of Buddhist statues and artwork, trinkets and even an entire room full of cars donated by the royal family, make Gangaramaya Temple one of the best things to do in Colombo with kids.
Entrance will set you back 300 LRK per adult (kids, as always in Sri Lanka, go free), which I thought was very reasonable for the amount of time we ended up spending in the temple. Cash only, so make sure you have enough.
Jami Ul-Alfar Mosque (The Red Mosque)
The Red Mosque, located in the Pettah Market District in Colombo is definitely worth a visit and a great place to pick up some Sri Lankan food. Originally built in the 18th century to give the Arab traders of the Pettah Market a place to worship, the structure has grown through the centuries. The most recent work on the building took place in 2007 and increased the capacity of the mosque to 10,000 worshippers.
As a tourist, you will be able to enter the mosque but you won’t have full access to the building. Tourists have a separate entrance, where you’ll be greeted by an official who will give you the rules, give you some modest clothing to wear and let you enter the building.
The access to the mosque is quite restricted, so don’t expect to be allowed to explore the huge expanse, but I really enjoyed our stop here.
Top Tips
- When visiting the Gangaramaya Temple, be sure to keep your ticket when you leave. The ticket is good for entrance at the both the main temple as well as the Seema Malakaya just across the road. If you lose your ticket or throw it away without realising this (as we did) you will potentially spend a frustrating amount of time trying to negotiate your way past the surly doorman.
- Near the Gangaramaya Temple, a very sad looking elephant is chained to a block of cement in a disused car park. Many of the tuk tuk drivers will try to take you there for a viewing – avoid this if you don’t want to support beautiful elephants being kept in inhumane conditions.
- Entrance to the Gangaramaya Temple is cash only. The nearest ATM is a good 10 minute walk away, so be sure to bring cash with you.
