Data for Colombo, Sigiriya, Kandy, Ella and the south coast, installed before you fly. Sri Lanka is on the Asia plan with India, so a trip that starts in Chennai or Kerala stays on one eSIM. The hill-country train takes all day, and that is the point.
The Sri Lanka plan covers Sri Lanka only.
The same 10 GB in a package that keeps working past Sri Lanka.
20 other countries share the package with Sri Lanka. A few of them:
What's included, when it starts, and how to get connected.
The classic first trip is a loop: the ancient sites of the Cultural Triangle, Kandy, the hill-country railway and the beaches of the south coast. The line below is an illustration, not a map.
1From Bandaranaike International, head inland to the Cultural Triangle. Climb Sigiriya, the 180-metre Lion Rock, when the ticket counters open at 7 a.m., and walk up Pidurangala, a kilometre north, for sunset with Sigiriya in view. Dambulla’s cave temple holds 153 Buddha statues, and in the dry months elephants gather in their hundreds at Minneriya.
2The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, beside the lake, houses the relic of the tooth of the Buddha: cover shoulders and knees, and leave shoes at the entrance. Peradeniya’s orchids, 5.5 km west, fill a morning. Book the train east before you fly: reserved seats open 30 days ahead, and the railway advises booking the day they do.
3The train from Kandy takes most of a day through the tea country, cresting at Pattipola, 1,898 metres up. Everyone wants the doorway photo; keep your feet inside anyway, as visitors have died hanging out of open doors. In Ella, climb Ella Rock early and walk to the Nine Arch Bridge, finished in 1919, in time for a train.
4Galle Fort, begun by the Portuguese in 1588 and fortified by the Dutch from 1649, is a UNESCO-listed town inside its ramparts; walk them at sunset. Then pick a beach to the east, Unawatuna or Mirissa, one of the island’s whale-watching harbours, and take the Southern Expressway back towards Colombo and the airport.
How the plan fits this route
One package from the arrivals hall to the ramparts at Galle: Sri Lanka is on the Asia plan. Coverage is good in the towns and along the coast; on the hill-country line it drops in the tunnels, and in the parks it comes and goes, as it would on any SIM. India is on the same plan, so a first leg in Chennai or Kerala needs nothing new.
Since 25 May 2026, passports from 40 countries, among them the UK, the US, Germany, Italy, Türkiye and India, get the 30-day tourist ETA free of charge, with two entries allowed. Most others pay a fee, and everyone applies before flying, on eta.gov.lk. Kosovo passport holders apply through a sponsor at the Department of Immigration in Sri Lanka instead.
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) is set on the Thailand–Burma railway, but its bridge was built and blown up on the Kelani River at Kitulgala, where white-water rafting trips now start; the film won seven Oscars. In 1983 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom shot its Indian locations around Kandy, where an elephant ate part of the leading lady’s dress. The insurance claim said exactly that.
Halfway up the rock, the polished Mirror Wall carries more than 1,500 verses scratched by visitors, most in the 9th and 10th centuries and many addressed to the painted women on the rock face. One reads, roughly: ‘I am Budal. Came with hundreds of people to see Sigiriya. Since all the others wrote poems, I did not.’ Adding your own is now banned.
Disrespecting Buddhist images is a serious offence here: a visible Buddha tattoo can get a visitor refused entry or deported, and posing for a photo with your back to a statue is out. In temples, cover shoulders and legs and take off shoes and hats. Every full moon is Poya, a public holiday: alcohol sales stop and many shops close.
The island became Sri Lanka in 1972, but the tea kept the old name, and the Tea Board’s lion logo goes only on pure Ceylon tea packed on the island. Arabs and Persians called it Sarandib, which, by way of a Persian fairy tale, gave Horace Walpole the word serendipity in 1754. The best meal of your trip, found by accident, will prove his point.
Answers about data, coverage and setup for Sri Lanka.
No. The Maldives is not on the Asia plan, so the package does not connect there; plan those days around resort Wi-Fi or a local SIM. India is on the plan, so a first leg in Chennai, Kerala or Goa keeps the same allowance, and so does a layover in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok. Check the list on this page for every stop before you buy. The Asia plan
Not by the Asia package: the United Arab Emirates and Qatar are on the Middle East plan, so the connection runs on airport Wi-Fi unless you add a Middle East package to the same eSIM. Flying via Chennai, Mumbai, Singapore or Kuala Lumpur is different: those are on the Asia plan, and switching the line on there starts the package there. Leave it off until Colombo if every day should count in Sri Lanka.
Mostly. Colombo, Kandy, Ella and the towns along the south coast have good coverage, and the phone picks up the local network a few minutes after landing. On the hill-country line the signal drops in the tunnels and deep cuttings, and in Yala, Wilpattu or Minneriya it comes and goes, as it does for everyone. Download your train ticket, offline maps and the lodge’s directions before you set off.
