Taxi in Anuradhapura: private transfers at fixed prices

For the sacred city itself, a car is the wrong tool. The monuments are spread over several kilometres of lanes, some closed to motor traffic, and the two classic ways round are a bicycle, rented from most guesthouses, or a tuk-tuk hired for half a day with the driver waiting at each site. PickMe works in Anuradhapura, mostly with tuk-tuks; Uber has very few drivers this far north. Neither app is reliable for leaving town: long-distance requests are often cancelled once the driver sees the destination, and before dawn there may be nobody online at all. A pre-booked transfer is the opposite product: one price agreed in advance, and a car at the door at 05:00 for Wilpattu or a flight.

Anuradhapura is on the northern railway line from Colombo Fort to Jaffna, and the intercity trains are a comfortable way to arrive from Colombo with light luggage. The line does not serve the airport, trains are few and track works have closed it at times, so check the timetable. For Sigiriya, the Wilpattu gate or Kalpitiya there is no convenient public link, which is why those legs are usually done by road with a driver.

We collect from any hotel or guesthouse in the New Town, from the properties along Nuwara Wewa and Tissa Wewa, and from the countryside hotels along the Mihintale and Puttalam roads. Anuradhapura railway station is a common pickup for travellers arriving on the northern line and continuing to Sigiriya or Trincomalee: give us the train and the driver meets the real arrival, not the timetable. Fifteen minutes of waiting are included at every pickup, an hour at the airport. For Wilpattu, we drop you at the park entrance at Hunuwilagama, where the safari jeeps leave; the jeep and the park ticket are arranged separately and the return is a transfer of its own.

Anuradhapura is two places side by side: the New Town, with most hotels, the bus stands and the market, towards Nuwara Wewa, and the ancient city stretching west towards Tissa Wewa and Basawakkulama. The airport is 175 km and about 3 h 45, either by the coast road through Puttalam, Chilaw and Negombo or inland through Kurunegala; the driver picks the faster one on the day. East on the A12, Mihintale is 15 km and 25 min, and the same road runs on to Trincomalee and Nilaveli (120 km, 2 h 40). South-east, Habarana is 60 km and 1 h 25, Dambulla 70 km, Minneriya 80 km. West, the A12 passes the Thimbiriwewa turn-off for Wilpattu, whose gate is 45 km and about 1 h 15 away, then reaches Puttalam and the Kalpitiya peninsula (105 km, 2 h 25). North, Jaffna is 200 km and about 4 h 20 through Vavuniya.

Visit from about 06:30, rest through the midday heat and go back out after 15:30 for the evening light. Temple dress all day: shoulders and knees covered, and white clothing is never wrong. Shoes and hats come off at the Bodhi tree and on every dagoba terrace, and the stone burns by mid-morning, so carry socks. This is the dry zone: March to May is fiercely hot, June to September dry and windy, and the north-east monsoon brings rain from October or November into January or February. Poson Poya, the June full moon, marks the arrival of Buddhism: Mihintale and Anuradhapura receive huge crowds, dansal stalls hand out free food, and every road is slow. A 15% night surcharge applies to pickups between 22:00 and 05:00 and is shown before you pay. To keep one driver for the ruins, Mihintale and onward days, see our private driver by the day at /private-driver.

Start with the Sri Maha Bodhi, the sacred fig grown from a branch of the tree under which the Buddha attained enlightenment, brought to the island by the nun Sanghamitta in the third century BC; pilgrims in white bring flowers and oil lamps from dawn to late evening. North of it rises Ruwanwelisaya, the great white dome raised by King Dutugamunu, its terrace ringed by a wall of stone elephants. Thuparamaya nearby is held to be the first dagoba built after Buddhism arrived. Jetavanaramaya, built by King Mahasena in the third century AD, was among the tallest structures of the ancient world and is still one of the largest brick monuments ever made. Further north, the Abhayagiri monastery spreads through the forest with its dagoba, the Samadhi Buddha, the Kuttam Pokuna twin ponds and one of the finest carved moonstones in the country.