The check-up week

Two days of tests, then five days in the hills

Length: 8 days, 7 nights
Pace: Gentle
Bases: 2
Best months: Dec to Apr
From: $1,180 · $148/day

per person, twin share, excluding international flights.

IndicativeThese prices are modelled from market rates and have not been costed yet. We will quote a real figure when you enquire.

When this trip works

The tests run all year and the clinic does not have a season. The second half is hill country, which is clearest in February and March, cloudy on the western slopes from May as the southwest monsoon sets in, and genuinely wet through October and November. In those two months you are choosing the appointment over the view, which for most people booking this is the right way round.

October — mixed, worth a conversation

It is October now, and this route reads mixed this month.

Prime
Good
Mixed
Out of season

The shape of it

Colombo and the westHill country

2 bases, 1 change of hotel. The longest stay is 4 nights in Kandy.

Colombo
3 nights, days 1 to 3
Kandy
4 nights, days 4 to 7
Fly home

Two nights minimum everywhere except a stop that exists to break a long transfer.

Day by day

Breakfast, lunch and dinner, where they are included that day.

Stop 1 · Colombo and the west

Colombo

Days 1–3 · 3 nights

Day1
Bandaranaike Airport to Colombo · 45 min–1.5 hours(unconfirmed)
Day 1: Land, and start fasting
An hour from the terminal to a hotel near the hospital, an early dinner because the bloods tomorrow want twelve hours of fasting, and an early night to go with it.
- Airport fast-track and private transfer
- An early dinner, timed to the fast
Meals
Dinner
Pace
Barely moves
Day2
Day 2: The long morning
In at seven for the bulk of it: bloods, imaging, cardiac and whatever else your package covers. Most people are done by early afternoon and asleep by four.
- The main screening morning
- Breakfast waiting at the hospital for afterwards
Meals
Breakfast, Dinner
Pace
Gentle
Transfer
No intercity drive planned
Day3
Day 3: The rest of it, and the consultation
Any remaining tests in the morning, then the consultation where a physician goes through the results with you rather than emailing a folder of numbers.
- Remaining tests
- A results consultation with a physician, in person
Meals
Breakfast
Pace
Gentle
Transfer
No intercity drive planned

Stop 2 · Hill country

Kandy

Days 4–8 · 4 nights

Day4
Colombo to Kandy · 3–4 hours(unconfirmed)
Day 4: Up to Kandy
Three to four hours inland and uphill, out of the heat and into a town at fifteen hundred feet, with the results in your bag and the week now yours.
- The climb inland
- A hotel above Kandy lake
Meals
Breakfast, Dinner
Pace
Gentle
Day5
Day 5: Kandy, gently
Peradeniya botanical gardens in the morning, which are the best gardens in the country and almost entirely flat, and the Temple of the Tooth at evening puja.
- Peradeniya botanical gardens
- Evening puja at the Temple of the Tooth
Meals
Breakfast
Pace
Gentle
Transfer
No intercity drive planned
Day6
Day 6: Tea, and a walk you can measure
A working tea estate above the town, a factory that is not a demonstration, and an hour on foot that is genuinely an hour rather than a euphemism.
- A working tea factory and tasting
- An hour on foot, flat to gently rising
If you want moreThe Udawattakele forest above the town
Meals
Breakfast, Dinner
Pace
Gentle
Transfer
No intercity drive planned
Day7
Day 7: Nothing scheduled
The day people are surprised to want. Whatever the consultation gave you to think about, this is the day to think about it somewhere pleasant.
- An unscheduled day
If you want moreA second look at the gardens · A cooking session at the hotel
Meals
Breakfast
Pace
Barely moves
Transfer
No intercity drive planned
Day8
Kandy to Bandaranaike Airport · 3–3.8 hours(unconfirmed)
Day 8: Home
Three to four hours down to the airport with a full buffer, and your reports in a form your own doctor at home can actually read.
- Reports and imaging to take home
- Departure transfer with a real buffer
Meals
Breakfast
Pace
Gentle

What it costs

One route, three levels of hotel. The itinerary does not change.

Comfort

$1,180

$148 a day · single supplement $360

A well-run city hotel near the hospital for three nights, then a comfortable three-star above Kandy lake.

Private air-conditioned vehicle and driver for eight days
Seven nights accommodation
Daily breakfast
All hospital transfers, with the car waiting
24-hour local support line in English

Boutique

$1,920

$240 a day · single supplement $620

A quiet five-star in Colombo minutes from the hospital, then a colonial house above the lake with a garden and a view worth the drive.

Everything in Comfort
Breakfast and one further meal daily
Appointments sequenced so the fasting day is one day rather than three
Peradeniya, the Temple of the Tooth and the tea estate, privately guided
A named coordinator on WhatsApp for the whole trip

Luxury

$3,150

$394 a day · single supplement $1,080

A suite in Colombo and a tea-estate bungalow outside Kandy with its own cook, so the week after the tests is cooked to whatever you have just been told.

Everything in Boutique
All meals, cooked to any dietary advice you come out with
Airport fast-track both ways
A second vehicle for anyone travelling with you
Reports and imaging couriered to your own doctor at home

per person, twin share, excluding international flights.

Entrance fees, itemised

Site fees in Sri Lanka are high and rising: Sigiriya alone is thirty-five dollars. Most operators bury them in the exclusions. Here is the whole list, with what we cover and what we do not.

Peradeniya botanical gardens
$10
In the price
Yes, we cover it
Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic
$12
In the price
Yes, we cover it
Tea factory tour and tasting
$8
In the price
Yes, we cover it
Udawattakele forest reserveOptional. An hour on foot above the town.
$8
In the price
No, paid on the day

Entrance fees for The check-up week
Site	Fee	Included
Peradeniya botanical gardens	$10	Yes, we cover it
Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic	$12	Yes, we cover it
Tea factory tour and tasting	$8	Yes, we cover it
Udawattakele forest reserveOptional. An hour on foot above the town.	$8	No, paid on the day

Covered by us: $30
If you do the optional ones: $8

Who this is for

Anyone who has been meaning to have a full screening for three years and would rather do it somewhere with a holiday attached
Couples who want to be screened on the same morning and then stop thinking about it for five days
Travellers who want a physician to explain the results in person rather than send a folder of numbers

And who it is not

Anyone with a symptom that needs seeing now: a screening package is not an appointment, and this is a trip booked weeks ahead
Travellers who want the screening followed by a fortnight of touring; that is a longer trip and we will happily build it
Anyone expecting us to interpret a result or say what to do about it, which is a conversation for the physician and for your own doctor at home

Included

Private vehicle and driver for eight days
Seven nights accommodation
Daily breakfast and four dinners
All hospital transfers, with waiting time
All entrance fees marked included above

Not included

The screening package itself, its tests and any consultation
Travel and medical insurance
International flights
Visa or ETA

Make it yours

This is a starting shape, not a fixed departure. The changes people ask for most:

Screen two people on the same morning, which the hospitals prefer and which halves the fasting misery
Swap the hills for the south coast between December and April
Add a dental assessment on the second morning, which at most of the private hospitals is the same building
Extend the second half to ten days and add the Cultural Triangle

Ask about this trip Talk to a trip designer