Taxi from Habarana to Colombo Airport, fixed price private transfer

West on the A11 to Dambulla, then the A6 south-west through Kurunegala, then the E03 to the terminal. One hundred and seventy-five kilometres, about three and three quarter hours. For a 01:30 flight the pickup falls around 18:15; for a midday departure at 12:00, around 04:30. An afternoon safari at Minneriya or Kaudulla runs roughly from three until six, which works with a night flight and not with anything earlier.

The Habarana to Dambulla stretch crosses genuine elephant country, and it is one of the few roads in Sri Lanka where the crossing signs mean what they say. Animals move between Minneriya, Kaudulla and the surrounding scrub, and after about five in the afternoon they are on and beside the carriageway often enough that drivers slow as a matter of course. That is worth knowing when you plan an evening departure: it is not a reason to avoid one, but it is a reason not to be in a hurry. At the junction itself you will be approached by people selling safari jeeps; your hotel arranges them more cheaply, and our drivers take no commission for introducing you to anyone.

Flat roads and nearly four hours, so pick for heat and space. Air conditioning is not a luxury in the dry zone. The economy sedan suits two people and the comfort sedan four with luggage; the comfort van suits five or six and is what most larger touring parties already have. The specific point here is continuity: if you have kept the same vehicle and driver for the triangle, extend the booking to the airport rather than start a new one. It costs less, and the last morning of a trip is not the moment to transfer six bags between two cars in a hotel driveway.

Habarana has a station on the northern line, which is more than most of the triangle can say, but the service is slow and infrequent and runs to Colombo rather than the airport. Buses to Dambulla and then on to the capital are cheap, slow and leave the same thirty-five kilometres unsolved. Neither is realistic against a flight. Where the railway is worth using is earlier in a trip, going north or east; for the departure itself the road is the only arrangement that ends where you need it to.

Daylight departures are simplest, mostly for the Dambulla stretch. Night runs are quicker except through Dambulla junction, where the overnight vegetable market slows things between midnight and six; a surcharge applies between 22:00 and 05:00. May to September is the dry season and the best time to be here, and it coincides with the Gathering at Minneriya between roughly July and September, when several hundred elephants congregate on the tank bed. If that is why you came, keep the last afternoon free for it and take a night flight rather than a morning one.