Every night for 2 weeks. We rent a big house where all the volunteers and staff live together with a friendly local family.

It’s in a quiet safe neighbourhood with lots of space for everyone to relax. You can walk to shops and the market and take a tuk tuk to the beach.

We stay in hotel accommodation when we visit Kandy and the turtle conservation project, for 1 night in each place.

3 meals a day.

Food is provided at our accommodation and in local restaurants. 

We make sure you get to try a variety of tasty local dishes. We know all the places you will eat so we know the food is safe and good quality. 

Tell us if you have any dietary requirements. 

Our friendly VoluntEars staff will be waiting to collect you on arrival at Colombo international airport. Just look out for their bright blue t-shirts and big smiles!

We’ll drive you to the accommodation in a private taxi or minibus and we’ll return you to the airport for your flight home at the end of the trip.

We rent a private air-conditioned mini-bus for the whole trip.

It collects us every morning and stays with us all day so we can visit everywhere comfortably and safely.

Note: flights are not included in our price.

Learn some Sri Lankan sign language from a local Sri Lankan teacher. 

It’s fun and it helps communication with the local deaf students during your trip. 

Enjoy cooking? Learn how it’s done in Sri Lanka! 

Popular dishes include pineapple curry, dhal curry, roti, coconut sambol, beetroot curry. 

You will learn from a Sri Lankan expert in our cooking class. Just don’t touch your eyes after chopping chillies!

Most afternoons we visit different places so you can discover the real Sri Lanka.

You will get to walk along beautiful sandy beaches, explore bustling markets where local people sell all kinds of tropical fruit like mangoes, coconuts and papaya.

We’ll take you to some of the oldest Buddhist and Hindu temples on the island so you can soak up Sri Lanka’s diverse culture. Learn all about it or find a quiet corner to sit down and soak up the atmosphere.

One of Sri Lanka’s most important fishing harbours – you’ll see all the brightly painted fishing boats, browse the many tourist shops for leather bags, silver jewelry & local gem stones, or just choose a beach cafe and relax with a drink and a sunset view.

What a perfect end to the day!

You will spend a day working with sea turtles on the beach. This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that most people only dream of.

You’ll get hands-on with these amazing and endangered creatures and contribute to their survival. You will be able to help release baby hatchlings into the sea if they hatch when you’re there. Fingers crossed!

Stay overnight near the beach and hopefully see the sun set over the Indian ocean.

Visit an elephant sanctuary for elephants which were injured or orphaned during the civil war many years ago.

You’ll be able to watch them bathing in a river and hanging out in their family groups.

The ancient city of Kandy is located in the “hill country” in the centre of Sri Lanka.

It’s surrounded by small mountains covered in tea plantations and forest. It’s slightly cooler than the coast and you’ll see some beautiful views of the hills.

You’ll visit the Temple of the Tooth next to the famous lake in the centre of Kandy.

Sri Lanka is famous for tea!

Much of the hill country is covered in tea plants which are tended by brightly dressed “tea pluckers”; ladies who pick tea leaves and carry them back to tea factories for processing.

You will visit a tea factory and see how fresh tea leaves are dried, rolled, fermented, separated and eventually bagged up for us to drink all around the world.

Colourful and flamboyant – Kandyan dancing tells stories about life in Sri Lanka. See if you can keep up with the back-flips and spinning plates!

Meet other volunteers and our staff before your trip.

These are run on zoom so if you can’t attend the meeting we will email you a recording and can arrange a video call to explain everything and answer your questions.