A Holiday Wrapped in Love: Honouring My Parents Through Our Sri Lankan Journey

Arrival in Sri Lanka

As the wheels touched down on the runway into Sri Lanka, I’d finally landed in the country that has always been on my bucket list. After a long flight with Air Sri Lanka, which was excellent, I started to walk down the steps when the warm air circulated around us. But how did I manage to find myself on this trip? How did it come about?

A Gift of a Lifetime

My Mom and Dad (before Dad passed away) very kindly gave us some of their inheritance to have a holiday of a lifetime. I could not thank them enough for this amazing opportunity. My parents knew me only too well to know this would be the best present in the world for me, as travel is and will always be my passion. My husband and I decided to share this with our girls and make it a family holiday to treasure.

Planning the Dream

How exciting! This was music to my ears — where shall we go, what do we book? The world is our oyster! Now how are we going to decide which country or countries to visit, for how long, and what we would like to discover and do with our stay? Wow, where do we start?

My husband and I are very privileged to have travelled a lot of the world with our jobs and holidays, and our girls are too. From very young ages, we always took them with us. This was the best education we could teach them — from different cultures, food, religions, and ways of life around the globe.

Choosing Sri Lanka

After a lot of thinking about where we wanted to go, we made our decision. Ever since I met my husband many years ago, we have always wanted to go and explore Sri Lanka — but for one reason or another, something always had got in the way. This country is so diverse with so much to do and discover — this was our time to make it happen.

Dreams and Details

I knew what type of trips I wanted to do, what animals I would like to see, and beaches I would love to discover — with maybe a train journey along the way. But I did not know how to put all of it together without some help from someone who had visited and travelled around Sri Lanka.

I had booked an appointment with a manager of a travel agent I had known for a long time. She had so much knowledge within the travel industry, and I needed to pick her brains to establish our dream holiday. My husband and our eldest daughter do not like booking holidays but love going on them. Our youngest daughter was travelling and living in Australia, so I headed to the travel agents on my own — this is where the fun starts for me with the planning stage!!

The Travel Agent Magic

I was buzzing with excitement as I sat with my friend inside the travel agent. I explained to her what ideas I had, but I needed some more inspiration. She brought up a map of Sri Lanka on her screen, throwing ideas at me that I had not even thought of. This country had so much to offer and see — I needed to break down which parts of it we could tour and discover in two weeks.

After an hour or more of her time, I was nearly jumping for joy — we were close to finalising our dream holiday. I threw a spanner in the works to try and add an idyllic end to our fabulous trip. Now could she pull this off with the budget I had given her and make this dream holiday come true?

So far, what we had put together using our ideas with amazing hotels and itinerary — this already was above and beyond what I had expected. She needed to make a few more phone calls to finalise the trip, then she would call me the next day to tell me if we could make it all happen. Tears welled up in my eyes as we were piecing this trip together — it was such a special holiday, and I just wanted to make it perfect.

The Phone Call

The next day I couldn’t stop grabbing my phone — my heart was racing with excitement and anticipation. Could she achieve my dream holiday? My phone started ringing — I jumped to answer the call as quickly as I could. I stood there with bated breath.

She told me the trip was possible — I could have cried. I could not believe that she’d achieved this dream holiday that was extremely special to me. I feel like I’ve made my dad proud. At least my mom could still see us enjoy this fabulous holiday, and I could share all the treasured photos with her.

Personal Touches

I’d incorporated into this trip seeing different aspects of this diverse country, along with nature and an elephant safari — which my dad would have loved, as these topics were very close to his heart. We had also managed to incorporate an old-fashioned train journey through the tea plantations, which is regarded as one of the most beautiful train journeys in the world. My family loves a train journey.

She’d done a fabulous job of putting my itinerary together. But here’s the best part — now I needed to go and tell the family. You should have seen the look on their faces when I told them what I had booked! It even included an extra special surprise to complete our trip. This would be the icing on the cake.

If you’re not already subscribed, make sure you do to find out how the family reacted — which will be coming out in my next post.