About this experience
Colombo City Highlights by Bicycle is a guided morning ride through the Sri Lankan capital, linking its independence monuments, colonial-era landmarks, a working Buddhist temple and the seafront in a single loop. Travelling by bicycle lets you move between neighbourhoods that are awkward to string together on foot, while still stopping to look properly at each place with your guide.
The ride begins at Independence Square in Cinnamon Gardens, beside the Independence Memorial Hall, the national monument built to commemorate Sri Lanka's independence from British rule, with its stone lions guarding the steps. From there the route takes in the Independence Square Arcade, the Colombo Race Course, Town Hall and Victoria Park before heading towards Gangaramaya Temple, one of the best-known Buddhist temples in Colombo, close to Beira Lake.
The second half of the tour moves through Slave Island and into the old Fort district, passing the Grand Oriental Hotel, the Fort Lighthouse and the Dutch Hospital Shopping Precinct, which occupies what is considered the oldest building in the Fort area. The ride finishes along Galle Face Green, the oceanfront urban park that faces the Indian Ocean. Along the way your guide talks through how a city once ruled by foreign powers has grown into today's capital of high-rise towers, shopping malls and hotels, and how Sri Lankans have carried their history and culture into modern city life.
You meet your guide at Independence Square at 7.30 in the morning, which leaves time to get to know each other and settle in with the bikes and safety gear, and the ride sets off at 8.00. The tour is sold as a three-hour experience and operates only in the morning. A tour escort or host leads the ride, and every guest is given a helmet, safety glasses and a reflective jacket.
Hotel pickup and drop-off are not included, so you make your own way to Independence Square. Entrance tickets, food and drinks, and gratuities are also not included. Comfortable shoes and clothes are recommended, and if you have any dietary requirements it helps to let us know before the tour.
