The two-visit smile
Ten days around a course of dentistry, with the healing in the middle
- Length
- 10 days, 9 nights
- Pace
- Barely moves
- Bases
- 3
- Best months
- Dec to Apr
- From
- $1,450 · $145/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 clinic is indifferent to the weather; the middle of this trip is not. The gap between the two sets of appointments is spent on the southwest coast, which is dry and swimmable December to April and rough from May to September. October and November sit in between, and since the middle of this trip is a waiting week rather than a beach holiday, they are the cheapest sensible time to do it. In the monsoon months we move that middle to the east coast or up into the hills, and the appointment days do not change.
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 westWest and south coastColombo and the west
3 bases, 2 changes of hotel. The longest stay is 4 nights in Colombo.
Colombo
4 nights, days 1 to 4
Bentota
4 nights, days 5 to 8
Colombo
1 night, day 9
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 1–4 · 4 nights
Bandaranaike Airport to Colombo · 45 min–1.5 hours(unconfirmed)
Day 1: Land, and sleep
Met at the aircraft door, through on fast-track, and an hour into the city. Nothing today: dental work on the back of a long-haul flight is how people arrive at an appointment too tired to make decisions.
- Airport fast-track and private transfer
- A hotel ten minutes from the clinic
- Meals
- Dinner
- Pace
- Barely moves
Day 2: Assessment and imaging
The first appointment is the long one: examination, scans, and a written treatment plan with the clinic's own costing before anything is agreed to. Your driver waits rather than dropping you.
- Full assessment and imaging
- A written plan and a quote from the clinic, before any work starts
- Meals
- Breakfast
- Pace
- Barely moves
- Transfer
- No intercity drive planned
Day 3: The first sitting
Extractions, placements or preparation, whatever the plan says. A long appointment, a soft-food dinner arranged at the hotel, and an afternoon with nothing in it.
- First treatment sitting
- Soft-food dinner arranged in advance
- Meals
- Breakfast, Dinner
- Pace
- Barely moves
- Transfer
- No intercity drive planned
Day 4: One more day in reach
A review at the clinic if the plan calls for one, and a night still within ten minutes of the chair. Going back should be a short drive rather than a decision.
- Review appointment where the plan calls for one
- Ten minutes from the clinic
- Meals
- Breakfast
- Pace
- Barely moves
- Transfer
- No intercity drive planned
Stop 2 · West and south coast
Bentota
Days 5–8 · 4 nights
Colombo to Bentota · 1.3–1.8 hours(unconfirmed)
Day 5: Down to the coast
Two hours on the expressway to the southwest coast for the healing gap, which is not padding: the work in week two cannot be done until the mouth has settled.
- Expressway rather than the coast road
- The healing gap, spent somewhere worth being
- Meals
- Breakfast, Dinner
- Pace
- Barely moves
Day 6: Nothing, and a soft menu
The kitchen has been told what you can and cannot eat, so meals stop being a negotiation. Beyond that the day is yours and there is nothing in it.
- A kitchen briefed on soft food
- An empty day
- Meals
- Breakfast, Lunch
- Pace
- Barely moves
- Transfer
- No intercity drive planned
Day 7: The river, or not
An hour on the Madu Ganga, or the turtle hatchery down the road, or neither. Both are twenty minutes away and both are optional.
- Optional short outings, none of them compulsory
If you want moreMadu Ganga river boat · Sea turtle hatchery
- Meals
- Breakfast
- Pace
- Barely moves
- Transfer
- No intercity drive planned
Day 8: Galle, flat and walkable
An hour south to the fort if you want a day out, which is flat, shaded in parts and entirely at your own pace. Back before the heat.
- Galle Fort on foot
If you want moreAn afternoon at the hotel instead
- Meals
- Breakfast
- Pace
- Gentle
- Transfer
- No intercity drive planned
Stop 3 · Colombo and the west
Colombo
Days 9–10 · 1 night
Bentota to Colombo · 1.3–1.8 hours(unconfirmed)
Day 9: Back up, and the fitting
Two hours back to the city in the morning and into the chair in the afternoon for the fitting or the second sitting. The night afterwards is in Colombo on purpose.
- Second sitting or fitting
- A night in the city afterwards, not a dash for the airport
- Meals
- Breakfast, Dinner
- Pace
- Gentle
Colombo to Bandaranaike Airport · 45 min–1.5 hours(unconfirmed)
Day 10: Sign-off, and home
A short final check, your records and imaging handed over for your dentist at home, and an hour to the airport with a real buffer.
- Final check and sign-off
- Records and imaging to take home
- Departure transfer with a buffer
- Meals
- Breakfast
- Pace
- Gentle
What it costs
One route, three levels of hotel. The itinerary does not change.
Comfort
$1,450
$145 a day · single supplement $430
A well-run city hotel ten minutes from the clinic, then a three-star beach hotel at Bentota for the healing gap.
- Private air-conditioned vehicle and driver for ten days
- Nine nights accommodation, in two blocks either side of the coast
- Daily breakfast
- All clinic transfers, with the car waiting rather than dropping
- 24-hour local support line in English
Boutique
$2,280
$228 a day · single supplement $720
A quiet five-star in Colombo within ten minutes of the dental district, then a small boutique property on the Bentota river.
- Everything in Comfort
- Breakfast and one further meal daily
- Soft-food menus arranged at both hotels for the days it matters
- Appointments coordinated and rescheduled on your behalf
- A named coordinator on WhatsApp for the whole trip
Luxury
$3,620
$362 a day · single supplement $1,240
A suite in Colombo and a villa at Bentota with its own cook, so the soft-food week is cooked for you rather than ordered around.
- Everything in Boutique
- All meals, cooked to whatever the clinic has told you to eat
- Airport fast-track both ways
- A second vehicle for anyone travelling with you
- Records, imaging and a written summary couriered to your dentist 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.
Entrance fees for The two-visit smile
Galle FortNo ticket. The fort is a working town you walk into.
Free
- In the price
- Yes, we cover it
Sea turtle hatchery, Kosgoda
$3
- In the price
- Yes, we cover it
Madu Ganga river boat, two hoursOptional, on a calm morning.
$18
- In the price
- No, paid on the day
- Covered by us
- $3
- If you do the optional ones
- $18
Who this is for
- Travellers having implants, crowns or a full course of dentistry, where the work needs two sittings and a gap between them
- Anyone who would rather spend the healing week on a coast than in a city hotel
- People who want the appointments, transfers and soft-food logistics handled rather than improvised
And who it is not
- Anyone who has not yet had a written plan and a quote from the clinic: the length of this trip is set by the treatment, and there is nothing to book until that exists
- Travellers wanting a recommendation on which dentist to use, which is not a judgement a tour operator should be making for you
- Anyone hoping to tour the island in the gap; the mouth is healing and the second sitting is the point of being here
Included
- Private vehicle and driver for ten days
- Nine nights accommodation in two blocks
- Daily breakfast and four dinners
- All clinic transfers, with waiting time
- Airport meet and assist on arrival and departure
Not included
- All dental costs, consultations, imaging and materials
- 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:
- Lengthen or shorten the middle to whatever gap the clinic asks for, which is the part that usually changes
- Move the healing week to the east coast between May and September, or to the hills if heat is a problem
- Add a companion who is not being treated, with their own vehicle on appointment days
- Plan a second trip six months later for staged implant work, booked as one arrangement
If this one is close but not right
The recovery fortnight
Twelve days built backwards from a hospital date
- Length
- 12 days
- Pace
- Barely moves
- Bases
- 2 bases
From $1,720 · $143/day
Indicative, not yet costed
The Ayurveda fortnight
Fifteen days: Ayurveda at Beruwela, then a tour of the island
- Length
- 15 days
- Pace
- Barely moves
- Bases
- 7 bases
From $2,550 · $170/day
Indicative, not yet costed
The check-up week
Two days of tests, then five days in the hills
- Length
- 8 days
- Pace
- Gentle
- Bases
- 2 bases
From $1,180 · $148/day
Indicative, not yet costed