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Cruise port in Colombo, Sri Lanka


tring
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We will be embarking a ship in Colombo - does anyone know what the facilities are like? Is there a terminal building with a cafe, clean toilets, etc., or is it just a dockside with very little facilities?

 

I am asking, because we are thinking of turning up after a 3 hour road journey, so wondering if we may be better staying overnight in Colombo, or at least stopping nearby for a leisurely lunch and allow ourselves to rest a bit. We are likely to be in Sri Lanka for a couple of weeks or more pre cruise. Colombo does not usually get used as an embarkation port as far as I can make out.

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Thanks, that is much appreciated. Good to know we will need to have a stop before we get there to refresh and refuel.

 

Hope you enjoyed your time in or near Colombo. We had a land holiday there a couple of years back. We had been due to finish a cruise there with Voyages of Discovery, but the owning company went bust about a month before we were due to fly out. We had a post cruise tour booked to the northern tourist sites, game park etc. so added to it with four nights in Colombo and a week on a beach.

 

As the upcoming cruise starts in Colombo, we are planning to do the south coast area and Yala National Park, returning to Colombo via Tea Country. We really enjoyed out stay there last time and are looking forward a lot to the next visit. A cruise visit is always difficult with such restrictions on time, but hope you got a flavour of the lovely coutry and it's people.

 

Thanks again for the reply,

 

Barbara

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It is a major working port with the main gate a long way from the berth.I imagine you would have to board a shuttle of sorts with security clearance,from outside the port.Just an educated guess,as we have stopped there twice in the last year.Only as a mid cruise port though.

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Thanks brian1, useful to know that.

 

I have heard from someone who disembarked there a number of years ago that local taxis are not usually allowed inside the port. I think they have to have a licence, which is presumably quite costly for them. Will have to look into that nearer to the time.

 

At least we will not be there until Feb 2020 and the same ship (Fred Olsen's Boudicca) does one or more change overs before that, so the company should be able to guide us. If we can get information from Fred passengers who have done change over there previously, I suspect they will be more reliable than any info passed (or not) to the admin staff though :)

 

We were just looking for guidance to help with pre cruise itinerary as we were toying with the idea of travelling about 3 hours by road to the port - the ship is in the next day as well so thought we could risk it if there was a decent terminal on arrival that we could be delivered to by our car/driver who we will have with us for a private tour. There were reports of a cruise terminal being planned a couple of years ago, but that idea may have been scrapped or just not got off the ground yet.

Edited by tring
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Hi tring, it sure sounds like your best plan is to spend a lovely and relaxing night in Colombo the night before. As long as you are there, you might plan for dinner in one of the restaurants in the former Dutch Hospital -- now converted to a lovely dining/shopping area. The much-lauded Ministry of Crab is located there, and with so much advance notice, you can surely get a reservation.

 

Enjoy your planning,

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Hi tring, it sure sounds like your best plan is to spend a lovely and relaxing night in Colombo the night before. As long as you are there, you might plan for dinner in one of the restaurants in the former Dutch Hospital -- now converted to a lovely dining/shopping area. The much-lauded Ministry of Crab is located there, and with so much advance notice, you can surely get a reservation.

 

Enjoy your planning,

 

Will look into it, staying a night pre cruise is begining to sound the best idea and we did love Colombo. Great place as long as you have looked into it and know what you are doing and are well travelled.

 

The other possibility is to eat out from the ship the first night as we will be in port the next day and the port is in that area. Our thoughts are to possibly stay in the Mount Lavinia Hotel (30 mins out of town) as we wanted to visit it on our previous four night stay, but found too much else to do. We stayed at the Cinnamon Red Hotel last time, an excellent tower block hotel in a good location. Would be cheaper and quieter than the Mount Lavinia, but not a different experience.

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I will always remember Colombo when we went to Kandy in April and arrived back 2 hrs after sailaway time due to storms and Sri Lanka new year.Our 2 buses got to the port gate and the security directed us into the oncoming lane of dual carriageway in the port as there was a 2 mile queue of container lorries.When we got to the ship the captain formed a guard of honour and champagne as an apology for the disrupted Cunard tour,lol.

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I will always remember Colombo when we went to Kandy in April and arrived back 2 hrs after sailaway time due to storms and Sri Lanka new year.Our 2 buses got to the port gate and the security directed us into the oncoming lane of dual carriageway in the port as there was a 2 mile queue of container lorries.When we got to the ship the captain formed a guard of honour and champagne as an apology for the disrupted Cunard tour,lol.

 

Sounds very memorable indeed. A lesson on not going any distance from the port independently if not on a ship's trip. We were thinking of just walking from the port once on the ship or taking a tuk tuk a short distance. Hope you enjoyed the tour, before getting stuck in traffic though. The port is not sounding particularly fit for the purpose of cruise port.

 

We were only thinking of travelling to the port on the day of embarkation as the ship does not sail until the next day and would have left early morning. We love independent travel, but are always very careful with cruise ships regards the distance we will travel.

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Sounds very memorable indeed. A lesson on not going any distance from the port independently if not on a ship's trip. We were thinking of just walking from the port once on the ship or taking a tuk tuk a short distance. Hope you enjoyed the tour, before getting stuck in traffic though. The port is not sounding particularly fit for the purpose of cruise port.

 

We were only thinking of travelling to the port on the day of embarkation as the ship does not sail until the next day and would have left early morning. We love independent travel, but are always very careful with cruise ships regards the distance we will travel.

Hi,personally I think Kandy is too far for too little.Nice scenery on the way,huge botanical gardens,also nice.Kandy itself, a bustling gridlocked town.Walked around complex in bare feet in deep puddles for 1 1/2 hrs to see a locked room containing a locked box containing Buda's tooth that nobody has seen,lol. Had a toe infection for weeks after.The tea plantations in hindsight were probably better,cheers,Brian.
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Hi,personally I think Kandy is too far for too little.Nice scenery on the way,huge botanical gardens,also nice.Kandy itself, a bustling gridlocked town.Walked around complex in bare feet in deep puddles for 1 1/2 hrs to see a locked room containing a locked box containing Buda's tooth that nobody has seen,lol. Had a toe infection for weeks after.The tea plantations in hindsight were probably better,cheers,Brian.

 

Must admit we do not do that sort of distance as a day trip from a ship or hotel at any time. Does not seem much point travelling a long way to see somewhere you have not seen, when there are usually lots of other places you have not seen much nearer, but some people like to do that. We had a couple of nights in Kandy during our tour of the northern sites with car/driver a couple of years ago. He was really skilled and positioned us spot on at the right time. We had a really heavy downpour when we were there, but no big problems. With a big tour group, would be much more difficult though. Kandy was not out most liked place, but as we did it, was worth seeing. We did the Tooth ceremony in the evening and it was virtually all local people there on a sort of pilgrimage.

 

We really loved Colombo and you can do some interesting place just by picking up a tuk tuk at about £1 a ride. I would walk a distance away from the port though as I suspect the locals will be well aware there is a ship in, though even hiring a tuk tuk for the day would be a worthwhile venture as long as you have done your homework and know what you want to see/do. We spent four nights in Colombo, took our time, but saw a lot of interest and had some relaxation as well. The Trip Advisor forums were very useful to us, but there is lots you can search on the net.

 

Cruises have there advantages, but sometimes a day in each place just does not cut it and we feel we are much better doing less countries but in more detail and in a relaxed fashion. We have now decided to couple land holiday with cruises, e.g. a cruise between two different places where we stay on a land holiday for a while. After your experiences, I think the captain would have needed to produce a bottle for each of us on return :)

 

Hope you enjoyed the cruise overall though - sounds like you do a lot of travelling,

 

Barbara

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Must admit we do not do that sort of distance as a day trip from a ship or hotel at any time. Does not seem much point travelling a long way to see somewhere you have not seen, when there are usually lots of other places you have not seen much nearer, but some people like to do that. We had a couple of nights in Kandy during our tour of the northern sites with car/driver a couple of years ago. He was really skilled and positioned us spot on at the right time. We had a really heavy downpour when we were there, but no big problems. With a big tour group, would be much more difficult though. Kandy was not out most liked place, but as we did it, was worth seeing. We did the Tooth ceremony in the evening and it was virtually all local people there on a sort of pilgrimage.

 

We really loved Colombo and you can do some interesting place just by picking up a tuk tuk at about £1 a ride. I would walk a distance away from the port though as I suspect the locals will be well aware there is a ship in, though even hiring a tuk tuk for the day would be a worthwhile venture as long as you have done your homework and know what you want to see/do. We spent four nights in Colombo, took our time, but saw a lot of interest and had some relaxation as well. The Trip Advisor forums were very useful to us, but there is lots you can search on the net.

 

Cruises have there advantages, but sometimes a day in each place just does not cut it and we feel we are much better doing less countries but in more detail and in a relaxed fashion. We have now decided to couple land holiday with cruises, e.g. a cruise between two different places where we stay on a land holiday for a while. After your experiences, I think the captain would have needed to produce a bottle for each of us on return :)

 

Hope you enjoyed the cruise overall though - sounds like you do a lot of travelling,

 

Barbara

The only tooth ceremony I go to is my dentist,I don't like that either,lol.Yes,Cunard,Singapore to Capetown,with a landtour to Victoria falls.1st Cunard cruise,we only sail for itineraries and that ticked off the Africa bucketlist.We had a great time,cheers,Brian.
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  • 4 months later...

We visited Sri Lanka off the Sapphire Princess last spring and became engaged on the ship. Our first stop was to look for an engagement ring and were taken to a high end store, “Gems of Sri Lanka” on 33 Flower Road, Columbo.  The staff was very nice, as was the selection. We purchased a sapphire and diamond ring with matching earrings- nearly $4500 – they were beautiful pieces.

A week after we got home, one of the small sapphires from the earrings was missing- and the nightmare began.  I don’t want to belabor the gory details, but I’ve made 3 calls to the store and spoken with the manager, sent six emails.  All we wanted was a small replacement stone and were willing to pay for the repair ourselves at a local shop. It has been over two months, the promised stone has not arrived.

I don’t know if this is typical of buying expensive items at all ports, but this is an experience we will not repeat and I urge travelers to be careful-  once you are gone from the store, promises mean nothing.  At least at this store which is to be avoided.

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The National Gem Board appear to do valuations and is advise if thinking of buying any jewelry in Sri Lanka.  That advice is often quoted in the Sri Lankan boards of CC's sister site trip advisor.  This is a thread regards Rubies, but advice always the same and Erikandsandaya are regular posters and destination experts for Sri Lanka and have given us good advice many times regards a previous holiday we had there as well as our more recent enquiries.:_

 

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g293961-i8983-k10856279-Cotton_Shirt_shopping_Ruby_jeweller_stores-Sri_Lanka.html

 

Doubt it is any different in any other country, unless you have searched out a well reputed outlet.  I have bought some lower priced jewelry abroad, but would not be likely to buy anything of that price range, without being very careful regards and outlet.  Forum posters are often connected to various sales outlets, taxi drivers etc., so I would probably look a bit further than a forum for advice, though as I said I am pretty sure Erik is a reliable source of information.

 

Maybe a good idea to have your jewelry checked by a local expert to make sure the other stones are firmly in place.

 

 

Edited by tring
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