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Why a tuk-tuk?

We spent 4 weeks driving around Sri Lanka in our own rented tuk-tuk and came to the conclusion that this is absolutely the best way to discover the country.

Why? There are no windows and you drive at a moderate pace, so all your senses are switched on: you see, hear, smell and feel everything that is happening around you. You can stop anywhere, end up in the most unique places and have the nicest interactions with the locals. People peek inside, start laughing when they see two Westerners behind the wheel, and sometimes just press fruit into your hands.

What you need

The least exciting part, but without it you won’t get further than the car park. With only your Dutch driving licence you are not allowed on the road. You need three documents:

Document	Where to arrange it	When
Valid Dutch driving licence	You already have it	Bring the physical card
International driving permit (IDP), physical booklet under the Geneva Convention (1949) or Vienna Convention (1968)	ANWB, before departure	A few weeks in advance
Sri Lankan permit (Recognition/Covering Permit) from the Automobile Association of Ceylon	Via the rental company	After booking: you fill in their form and hand in your IDP

Note: your international driving permit must be a physical booklet. A digital version is not accepted for the local permit (TukTukRental). Always take the booklet and the permit with you in the tuk-tuk.

The local permit costs around €40 if the rental company arranges it for you. That saves you a morning at an office in Colombo, and you are better off spending that morning on the beach. We had it arranged via TukTukRental. Back then we only had to send a passport photo; nowadays you fill in their form after booking and hand in your IDP. Still very well organised.

Rules for foreign drivers change from time to time. This is the situation as of October 2026, so check the current requirements with your rental company shortly before departure.

Where to rent and what it costs

We rented through TukTukRental.com, the largest rental company on the island. You can pick up your tuk-tuk right after landing near the airport, including a driving lesson. Handy, although we recommend sleeping for a night first. More on that in a moment. And a nice bonus for you: if you book via this link, you get 5% off your booking!

Cost item	Indication (2025-2026)
Standard tuk-tuk	€14 to €28 per day, the longer you rent the cheaper
Sri Lankan permit	About €40, one-off
Extras (Bluetooth speaker, roof rack, surfboard rack)	Small surcharge per item
Fuel	About €7 for a full tank, good for about 150 km

Sources: TukTukRental. Prices change, so check the current rates when booking. In 2024 we paid €520 for four weeks, about €18.50 per day.

Our best investment: a big Bluetooth speaker on top. Totally unnecessary, but it turned every stop at a traffic light into a little party with the locals who came to peek inside. 🎶

Driving lesson and the driving itself

Before you are allowed to tour in the tuk-tuk, you have to take a driving lesson. We can drive a car just fine, so on three hours of sleep that should work too. Or so we thought.

This is how a tuk-tuk works:

• You operate the clutch by hand, on the handlebar.
• Shifting too: at the same time as the clutch, you twist the handle.
• You brake with your foot.
• Neutral sits between first and second gear.
• And you drive on the left.

Well, do you still follow? Florine needed a moment. Julian was a bit quicker after that. After ending up in neutral a few times when shifting up (read: lots of noise, little speed) and mixing up ‘u-turn’ and ‘neutral’ a few times, our instructor was satisfied. We were allowed on the road!

After an hour it already feels a lot more normal. On unpaved tracks a tuk-tuk bumps merrily along, and in the mountains steep sections are fine in second gear. With a lot more noise, though.

Traffic rules that are written nowhere

You get the official rules in five minutes (in our opinion there are quite few), but you learn the real rules on day one, usually near a big fast bus.

The biggest goes first. We noticed that in the very first hour through Negombo. Buses come speeding past at what feels like 100 km/h and honk everyone out of the way. In a tuk-tuk you are never the biggest. Just move aside for a moment, and carry on.

Honking is talking. Nobody is angry, everybody is just chatting. Roughly:

Honk	Meaning
1x short	Thank you
2x short	Hi!
1, 2 or 3x long	Not good

Stopping is allowed anywhere. Stopping briefly for fresh fruit, a cold drink or a photo is perfectly normal. That is simply how traffic works here.

People take you into account. It feels chaotic, but it is a chaos that everyone takes part in. Most people mainly have to laugh when they see us sitting there, and nobody approaches you pushily. A really lovely way to travel.

Start slowly. The traffic around Negombo and Colombo is the busiest. After an hour it gets quieter and increasingly beautiful: fewer buildings, more nature. Kandy is busy too; rather don’t plan that city in your first days.

Don’t drive in the dark. Poor visibility, unlit cyclists and on the B35 elephants. More on that below.

Breakdowns, elephants and other surprises

Breakdowns. There is a good chance that something on your tuk-tuk will break during your trip. Check the simple things first: there is a main switch in a little compartment, don’t stuff anything in there. We did; you can read how that ended in our route. A real breakdown? There is always a workshop nearby. Via TukTukRental you get an app with the locations of all suitable workshops, so you can easily find one. This app also lists all kinds of accommodation, activities and sights. Ideal, then.

The WhatsApp community. Through the rental company you join a group chat with other tuk-tuk drivers. It has tips on routes, guides and accommodation, and warnings about roads you had better watch out for. We got a lot out of it, and later recommended our own guide in it.

Elephants on the B35. This road to the south came up remarkably often in the group chat. There are elephants here running a scam: they stand in the middle of the road and only move aside when they get food. Drive this stretch in daylight, keep your distance, don’t feed them, and preferably wait for a larger vehicle that can guide you past safely. You can read how it went for us in our route.

Kandy to Ella: train, tuk-tuk or both?

Can you still take the famous train between Kandy and Ella if you are driving around in your own tuk-tuk? Yes, in two ways.

You can arrange a transfer via TukTukRental: someone then drives your tuk-tuk from Kandy to Ella (or the other way around), so you can take the train. This service costs about €50.
The other option is to drive the whole route by tuk-tuk and then take a short stretch by train from Kandy or Ella and the bus back.

We chose option two: the whole route by tuk-tuk, straight through the tea plantations, and a stretch by train from Ella. You can read how that went in our route.

Tip: take the train from Ella. Most people go to Ella, so in the other direction you can often still buy a ticket on the spot.

The landscape you see from the train is the same as from the tuk-tuk. Only the experience is different.

Is it for you (or not)?

Do it if you	Better not if you
Like to drive yourself and set your own pace	Want to cover lots of kilometres quickly
Value contact with locals	Get stressed by busy traffic
Like unexpected stops	Prefer to plan everything in advance
Find a bit of chaos funny	Can no longer arrange an international driving permit

For us it was one of the best ways of travelling we know. Slow, noisy, and every day someone who waved, gave us fruit or called their whole family over to look at us. We would do it again in a heartbeat. In fact: we are going to try it again in Cambodia!

Curious about the route itself? Read Sri Lanka in 4 weeks by tuk-tuk: our route. Going yourself? Book via TukTukRental.com and you get 5% off.