Travel Tips

Currency

The currency used is the Sri Lankan Rupee (LKR), which is made up of 100 cents. Notes come in denominations of Rs 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500 and 1,000, while coins frequently used are the one, two, five and ten rupee. 50, 25 and ten cent coins are in less regular usage.

Travellers Cheques such as American Express and Thomas Cook are widely accepted as exchange as are payments by major credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, Amex) when shopping or purchasing Sri Lankan rupees in the bank. 24-hour ATM machines can be found in towns throughout the island while official banking hours are 9am until 3pm Monday to Friday.

There is an ATM at the airport as well as branches of several banks who have exchange counters in arrivals and departures. Most of our larger hotels will also change money and travellers cheques.

Time

Sri Lankan Standard Time is 5 hours and 30 minutes ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT + 5.5), the same as Indian Standard Time. Sri Lanka does not operate Daylight Saving Time.