Polonnaruwa is 216 km or 134 miles from Colombo.
To travel there, you've got several options. They are, in order of preference, car, train and bus.
Car is the easiest. Any taxi service (+94 11 2556 556 or +94 11 2818 818 are two numbers of cab companies you can call) will charge you around LKR 30 per km (approx LKR 13,000 roundtrip) (as of mid 2007). Make sure you ask for a Nissan Sunny or Toyota Corolla or you might be sent a crappy car. Advantage is that you will sit in air conditioned luxury all the way to Polonnaruwa and the road is quite nice with plenty of greenery along the way. The old, massive trees tend to shade into the road once you leave the urban areas, creating a canopy effect. Trip is five to six hours inclusive of breaks for food, fruit and shopping (although shopping along the way is just overpriced and not recommended).
Train is next, though frankly, bus is kind of tied with it. It's quite cheap: you'll that find the three wheeler ride to the train station costs about as much. You get on the train to Trincomalee at Colombo Fort station (), connect in Gal Oya and you're in Polonnaruwa. The trip'll take you a good part of a day and the train leaves the station at 6.15am so plan accordingly. It is not however an air conditioned experience but it is a train with all the scenery and Theroux-like (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Railway_Bazaar) hijinks that implies.
Bus is always my third option. Buses also leave from Colombo Fort but from a slightly different location. Take the intercity to Polonnaruwa. With luck and blessings from whatever deity you subscribe to (god help us atheists!) you should arrive in Polonnaruwa in six to eight hours.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Polonnaruwa
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Polonnaruwa - updated May 2024
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Polonnaruwa Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
