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Sri Lanka Trip Cost from India: 7 Days, Flights and the Free ETA, Itemised

Sri Lanka is a 1 h 25 min flight from Chennai, and since May 2026 the visa costs nothing. The flight is the big line; the ground is cheap if you take buses and sleep in dorms. Here is a week, line by line, with every price dated, and the honest gaps where we could not find a price.

Photo: Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Text added by Trip Under.

The route is the classic first loop, adjusted for the railway that is still broken: Kandy for the old royal city, Sigiriya for the rock fortress, then the long bus into the hills to Ella for tea estates and walks, and back to Colombo for the flight home.

Every price below has a date. Sri Lankan rupees become Indian rupees at the 11 November 2026 rate from open.er-api.com: ₹1 = LKR 3.54, so LKR 1,000 is about ₹282. Dollar and euro prices use the same day's rates (₹1 = US$0.0106 = €0.0095). Where we could not find a dated price, we say so instead of guessing.

Seven days for one person, itemised

• The flight is most of the bill. We price it as two one-way tickets at HappyFares' "typical day" lowest fare (₹16,891 each). Catch the cheapest December dates (₹8,794) both ways and the same week costs about ₹33,000.
• Beds: the median "dorms from" price on Hostelworld's lists for each town on 11 November 2026, with no dates chosen: Kandy €6.66, Sigiriya €5.91, Ella €8.55, Colombo €9.03. These are the cheapest bed in each hostel, so a private room costs more.
• Food at LKR 2,700 a day (₹763) is three meals at Numbeo's Kandy average for an inexpensive restaurant, LKR 900 (updated 2 October 2026). Colombo is dearer: LKR 1,269 a meal (updated 10 November 2026).
• Sigiriya is the one big ticket. US$35 for a foreign adult (₹3,289), from the Central Cultural Fund's price list.
• Not included, because we could not find a dated price: the ride from Bandaranaike airport into Colombo, tuk-tuks in town, the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, a SIM card, travel insurance and your ride to Chennai airport.

Only 5 days? Drop Sigiriya and one Kandy night: fly in, bus to Kandy, bus to Ella, two nights there, bus back. That is simple arithmetic on the same prices, not a separately costed plan.

Sri Lanka visa for Indians: the rule now

• The tourist ETA is free for Indians. From 25 May 2026, nationals of 40 countries, India among them, get a tourist visa (ETA) free of charge for 30 days, with double entry inside those 30 days (Sri Lanka ETA portal, eta.gov.lk, notice "Alert 01", read 11 November 2026).
• Free does not mean optional. The same notice says all foreign nationals, including these 40 countries, must obtain an ETA before arriving in Sri Lanka. Apply on the official site, eta.gov.lk.
• Staying longer than 30 days means applying for an extension and paying the visa fee that applies.
• Ignore the old USD 20 figure. Many Indian travel sites still quote a paid ETA. The portal says fees paid before 25 May 2026 are not refunded, but nothing is charged now for the tourist ETA.
• Sri Lanka has changed this rule several times. The portal's pages still show an older notice for a 7-country free-visa scheme. Read the newest notice on eta.gov.lk the week you fly.

Flights from Chennai, Bengaluru, Kochi and Mumbai

All four cities have non-stop flights to Colombo (CMB). Chennai is the cheapest and has the most choice.

• Return fares are not listed the same way, so this guide adds two one-ways. A return booked together can cost less.
• The date you pick matters. On the Chennai page, every date from 30 November to 10 December was ₹16,000–16,842 one way, against ₹8,794 on the cheapest days (15 November, 17 December).
• Low-cost carriers charge extra for checked bags. Add that before you compare.

The railway problem, and the route we used

The famous Kandy to Ella train cannot be booked end to end right now. Cyclone Ditwah badly damaged the hill-country line (Sunday Times, Sri Lanka, 21 June 2026). The section from Nanu Oya to Badulla, which passes Ella, reopened on 20 June 2026. Between Kandy and Nanu Oya there were still no trains when we checked on 11 November 2026 (BYC.lk status page, last verified 9 November 2026; GeckoRoutes). BYC.lk also reports that trains between Colombo and Gampola were suspended again from 25 October 2026, and quotes Sri Lanka Railways giving 22 November 2026 as a target to resume, which it calls a target, not a timetable.

So this plan uses buses, which run regardless. If the line reopens before you go, swap the Kandy–Ella bus for the train; we have not priced the train because the fares quoted for after reopening are not confirmed.

Ella has its own Trip Under page with the walks and stays. If you would rather see the Tamil north than the hills, our Jaffna page covers the overnight buses and the reopened Yal Devi train.

What things cost on the ground

• The Central Cultural Fund also lists a half ticket for Sigiriya at US$20. Its price list does not say who qualifies, so we budget the full US$35.
• The CCF lists prices in dollars and converts to rupees at its own rate (LKR 319 per US$ on its 30 March 2026 list), so the rupee price at the counter moves.
• Couples: we could not find a dated private-room price for these towns, so this guide prices one person in dorms only. Flights, buses, tickets and food simply double for two.

Money: rupees, cards and UPI

• UPI works at some shops. UPI went live in Sri Lanka on 12 February 2024: NPCI International and LankaPay let merchants accept payments from Indian tourists through LankaQR codes (press release, Consulate General of India, Hambantota, 12 February 2024). Scan the LankaQR code with your UPI app where it is shown.
• Carry Sri Lankan rupees anyway for buses, small eateries and tuk-tuks; not every shop has LankaQR.
• Watch the conversion. At ₹1 = LKR 3.54, mentally divide LKR prices by 3.5 for rupees.

Frequently asked questions

Sources and how we priced this

• Visa: Sri Lanka Department of Immigration and Emigration ETA portal, eta.gov.lk, "Alert 01 (Effective from 25.05.2026)" and the Fees page (read 11 Nov 2026).
• Flights: HappyFares route fare pages for Chennai, Bengaluru, Kochi and Mumbai to Colombo (non-stop economy, read 11 Nov 2026; the pages' own data window runs to 4 Nov 2026 with daily fare updates). Booking sites are named, not linked. HappyFares' May 2026 guide still quotes a USD 20 ETA; we did not use it for the visa.
• Railway status: The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka), "Podi Menike hits the tracks from Nanu Oya to Badulla" (21 Jun 2026); BYC.lk, "Is the Colombo-Kandy-Ella train running in 2026?" (last verified 9 Nov 2026); GeckoRoutes Kandy to Ella (updated 22 Apr 2026). Seat61's Sri Lanka page (updated 10 Jun 2026) also says the route is still affected.
• Buses: GeckoRoutes Kandy to Sigiriya and Colombo to Ella (updated 8 May 2026), Kandy to Ella (updated 22 Apr 2026); BYC.lk for Colombo to Kandy (verified 9 Nov 2026).
• Sigiriya and other sites: Central Cultural Fund ticket price list (last updated 30 Mar 2026), read through the Internet Archive copy of 15 Apr 2026 because ccf.gov.lk did not load on 11 Nov 2026.
• Beds: Hostelworld city lists for Kandy, Sigiriya, Ella and Colombo (read 11 Nov 2026, no dates chosen; median of each hostel's cheapest dorm price). Food, water, local ticket: Numbeo Kandy (updated 2 Oct 2026) and Colombo (updated 10 Nov 2026).
• UPI: Consulate General of India, Hambantota, "UPI goes live in Sri Lanka" (12 Feb 2024).
• Exchange rates: open.er-api.com, 11 Nov 2026 (₹1 = LKR 3.540011 = US$0.010643 = €0.009516).

Keep reading

Prices in this guide were read on the dates given in the sources section. Fares, bus prices and dorm rates change every day; check them on the operator's own site or at the counter before you travel. Trip Under is not a travel agency and earns nothing from these trips.