IndiGo to Colombo

IndiGo Airlines recently announced the launch of  flight operations to Colombo, making it the eighth international and 49th overall destination on the airline’s network. Non-stop flight connections between Colombo to Chennai and Bengaluru, will come into effect from January 20, 2018.

I was amongst the lucky few chosen to fly in Indigo’s maiden flight from Delhi to Colombo via Chennai. We boarded the 6:05PM flight from Delhi to Chennai and stayed overnight at a hotel there. Next day early morning we boarded the 6:55AM flight from Chennai to Colombo which was followed by a cut cutting session at the Bandaranaike International Airport.

View from our hotel

Post breakfast, we headed straight to Galle fort, which was a 2:30 mins drive from our Hotel in Colombo.

We stopped at the Kosgoda Sea Turtle Conservation on our way for some photo op with the turtles.

In the 18th century Galle Fort used to be the Dutch head quarters. Nowadays, the old beautiful buildings are transformed into trendy shops, cafes, and restaurants. Unesco named Galle Fort World Heritage, so the beauty of the building is being preserved. From shopping, exploring the history or the sunset at the fort’s wall. You could spend an entire day exploring Galle Fort.

You can only enter Galle Fort from the main gate side. From there, explore the shopping streets, churches, and the fort’s history. It takes about two hours to walk around the whole fort. To avoid busy streets, make sure to visit Galle Fort in the morning. Still, we like to recommend an afternoon walk so you aren’t going to miss the sunset.

Beautiful Shops at Galle Fort

Fall in love with all those incredible handicraft shops. If you would like to bring back a little souvenir for your parents then wait until you arrive in Galle Fort. It owns some of the most beautiful shops in Sri Lanka filled with design attributes and handicraft that you won’t find anywhere else.

After Galle Fort, we headed straight back to Colombo to enjoy the nightlife in Colombo. With a population of 5,6 million people, Colombo is a big cosmopolitan city that has changed a lot in the last couple of years. It is experiencing quite a building boom of high skyscrapers, new roads, several posh hotels, a gigantic TV tower that will also house a hotel and a big shopping mall, as well as a new harbor port.

Colombo is a busy and vibrant city divided into 13 districts, with Colombo 1 or Fort Area being the center of the city. It is also the most ethnically mixed place in Sri Lanka with both Muslims, Hindus, Christians, and Buddhists.

It is a city with a great mixture of modern life and architecture, and old colonial buildings and ruins from the time when it was the capital of the British Ceylon (from 1815 until Sri Lanka got its independence in 1948). Colombo actually served as a seaport town as far back as the 5th century, as it has the perfect location for trade between Asia and Europe. It has since had Arab, Portuguese, and Dutch settlers so it has been quite international for many decades.

Watch this short video I made from my trip to Colombo.

Sri Lanka as a travel destination, has a lot to offer;  from central hilly and mountainous zone to the seaside southbound to mouth-watering seafood and a lot of unexplored places. And now thanks to IndiGo, you have every reason to make Sri Lanka your next travel destination in 2018.