Full-Day Colombo City Tour (Private Car)

Recommended by 92% of travelers

Badge of Excellence

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Great choice

5+ bookings last month.

8 to 10 hours (approx.)
Pickup offered
Mobile ticket
Offered in: English

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Overview

See the best of Colombo on this full-day private tour. Learn about religion, culture, and more as you drive in a private car from place to place. Places you stop at include Ape Gama, Parliament Drive, Dehiwala Zoo, and more. Feel free to customize this tour as you like, since it is a private tour.

Pickup and drop off are provided for ease
Ride in a private car between sites
Feel free to customize this excursion
Plan a full day for this tour

What's Included

Bottled water
Air-conditioned vehicle
Private transportation
Parking Fees

Meeting and Pickup

You can head directly to your preferred meeting point, or request pickup.

Pickup points

Select a pickup point

Pickup details

Please mention the Name of your Hotel or Any other Pick Up Address. Please note that there will be an Additional Charge if your Pickup/ Drop Location is more than 5kms away from Colombo City Limits. Specifically if the Pickup/ Drop Location is Colombo International Airport or a Transit Hotel close to the Colombo International Airport (With Additional Running Mileage of 60+ kms Up & Down); 30USD Additional Fee which should be Paid to the Driver in Cash.

Meeting points

Select a meeting point

End point

This activity ends back at the meeting point.

Itinerary

Ape Gama

1 hour • Admission Ticket Not Included

Parliament Drive (Pass By)

Diyatha Uyana

20 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Dehiwala Zoo - Sri Lanka

1 hour 30 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included

Gangaramaya Temple

1 hour • Admission Ticket Not Included

Independence Square

20 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Colombo National Museum

2 hours • Admission Ticket Not Included

Viharamahadevi Park (Pass By)

Town Hall (Pass By)

Premadasa & Co. (Jewellers) Ltd

30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Wall ART Street

15 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Nelum Pokuna Mahinda Rajapaksa Theatre (Pass By)

Laksala State Gift and Souvenir Boutique

30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Colombo Lotus Tower

30 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included

Pettah (Pass By)

Pettah Floating Market (Pass By)

Jami Ul-Alfar Mosque

15 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Sri Ponnambalavaneswarar Kovil

30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

St Anthony's Shrine

30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Dutch Hospital Shopping Precinct (Pass By)

Galle Face Green

30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

One Galle Face

1 hour • Admission Ticket Free

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Wheelchair accessible
Service animals allowed
Near public transportation

Infant seats available
Most travelers can participate
This is a private tour/activity. Only your group will participate

Supplied by

Cancellation Policy

You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.

Traveler Photos

Gallery picture 1 (from a traveler's review)

Gallery picture 2 (from a traveler's review)

Gallery picture 3 (from a traveler's review)

Gallery picture 4 (from a traveler's review)

Gallery picture 5 (from a traveler's review)

Reviews

4.7

based on 118 reviews

Total reviews and rating from Viator & Tripadvisor

We perform checks on reviews

We had a wonderful...

Abdullah, Feb 2026

We had a wonderful experience in Colombo. The city offers a perfect mix of culture, history, and modern life. We enjoyed visiting the main attractions, walking along Galle Face Green, and exploring the local markets.

Great exposure to Colombo

Ronald_M, Dec 2025

Our driver was great! Very friendly, professional and flexible. He listened to our desires and flexed our journey to accommodate and it made for a perfect day. Very prompt as well. The tour itself was quite nice covering all the spots on the itinerary that we wanted to see getting us as close as possible. Highly recommend this journey to visitors looking for an overview of the city.

Tour from the car

Madeleine_S, Aug 2025

This is a drive by tour only. Helpful to get your bearing of a new city but disappointing to see very little

M & B, Miami

Betty_R, Jun 2025

Excellent tour by the city! Interesting and pleasant stops. He gave us chances to take pictures of buildings!

Good value

Alex_T, May 2025

Colombo is a big city so this is a good way to get a Quick Look around. Also good being able to customise aspects based on preference.

This excursion was...

Marc_Y, Dec 2024

This excursion was outstanding! As you would expect with any private tour, the guide makes it or breaks it. In this case our guide, Rumi, was excellent. He asked us what we wanted to do, gave us a list of options and put together the perfect day of sightseeing. Rumi was pleasant, professional and spoke excellent English. I have no complaints.

Excellent

Paula_H, Dec 2024

Excellent, driver was very good and spoke English well. We had a great day, Thankyou He took us everywhere we wanted to see.

Stood us up!

Linda_J, May 2024

The guide driver never showed up and we waisted an hour and a half waiting and looking for him. On a more positive note, Viator promptly refunded our money when it learned of this problem, and we then simply rented a taxi for half the price to show us all the same sites during the rest of the day.

Response from Host, Dec 2024

Thank you for sharing your experience. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused by the guide not showing up. While rare, logistical issues can sometimes arise, and we deeply regret that this happened during your tour. We are pleased to hear that Viator promptly resolved the issue and refunded you, ensuring your day was not completely disrupted. It’s great to know that you were still able to visit the sites you planned to see. We take situations like this very seriously and are actively investigating what went wrong to ensure it doesn’t happen again. Your feedback is invaluable in helping us improve, and we hope to have the opportunity to provide you with a seamless and enjoyable experience in the future. Thank you for your understanding.

Private Colombo, Sri Lanka tour

Leslie_G, Feb 2024

Our Private day tour was amazing. Our driver was on time and took us to all of the great sites in the city. He recommended a good place to eat local food, and it was so good and very inexpensive! We had a great day. Thank you. Tom and Leslie.

Jeerlrry in columbo

williamscew, Feb 2024

Our driver and guide did a great job showing us the whole vith it was a full day and well worth the money. Much better than giving a cruise mote money

Fantastic introduction to Colombo

Kevin_C, Jan 2024

It’s unusual for me to take a tour alone and I felt very safe and cared for the whole time. It’s lovely to see the city through the eyes of a local. We visited all the sites I’d read about. The Buddhist temple was a highlight as was the new Parliament and my first ever drink straight from a coconut. I’d strongly recommend it as a fun way to see a lot in just a day.

Driver yes guide no

Christophe_L, Dec 2023

7am appointement not respected driver arrived at 8, young handsome and friendly driver but not a guide, probably last minute replacement fella. We cut short this 8-10 hours tour after one morning only, provider not recommended.

Response from Host, Dec 2024

Thank you for sharing your feedback. We sincerely apologize for the delay in your driver’s arrival, which understandably impacted your experience. While we’re glad you found the driver friendly, we regret that this caused your tour to feel less fulfilling. It seems there may have been an unexpected scheduling adjustment, and we appreciate your understanding under the circumstances. We value your feedback and will ensure our operations team improves coordination to prevent such delays in the future. Your satisfaction is important to us, and we would love the opportunity to provide you with a seamless and enjoyable experience should you choose to tour with us again. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

A one day your from a Cruise

IAN_C, Dec 2023

A one day tour in a private car from a Cruise. We saw alot and the Guide was great. Was not disappointed.

Excellent trip with the help of guide " Nipuna "

sudha_s, Dec 2023

My guide Nipuna has been very helpful and made the trip informational and fun , the in-depth knowledge about local culture and customs helped me understand better about Sri Lanka

Not good

Lambert_H, Nov 2023

Colombo city tour was not a good tour we wounded book this tour again Orr je have to like the museum the only part we liked was the market area ( only on day time) the driver uses toooo much hiss telefoon

Response from Host, Dec 2024

Thank you for your feedback, and we sincerely apologize for your disappointing experience during the Colombo city tour. We are committed to providing safe, enjoyable, and professional tours, and it is clear we fell short in this instance. We take your concerns very seriously, particularly regarding the driver's use of his phone. Please rest assured that we have taken immediate disciplinary action and removed this driver from our team to ensure the safety and satisfaction of our future guests. We value your input and will use it to improve our services. Thank you for bringing this to our attention, and we hope to have the opportunity to provide you with a better experience in the future.

Sri Lanka's top tour guide!!!

Ana_R, Sep 2023

My friends and I ventured into Sri Lanka on a whim without a plan nor direction. To our joy, we were greeted with warmth and people such as Rumi, who not only offered their expert advice but their unwavering care. On our arrival we agreed to get to know the city of Colombo better and found a full day tour of the city through (tripadvisor?) As our luck will have it we were assigned Rumi as our guide, he seemed very patient, informative and friendly from the get go. I can say that Rumi gained our trust from the beginning, so well organized, knowledgeable, and attentive, and these are just a few words to describe how good a person of character he is. He will give you advice as to where to go and what is worth your time. His driving was super smooth and comfortable with ac and snacks amenities. He always puts the client's needs first. He will be waiting patiently until you finish immersing in the beautiful culture that Sri Lanka has to offer. If you have anything specific that you would like to see, he will accommodate the time to make sure that you visit whatever you want to visit. As the day went on and he shared more of the amazing places to visit in Sri Lanka, we decided to explore one of his suggestions the following day. Furthermore, we contacted the tour company and requested to have Rumi again as our guide, and were fortunate to have our request fulfilled. He went above and beyond to share his culture and make us feel at home especially when I felt under the weather during the second day tour we've chosen starting at the lion's rock hike and he made sure I was comfortable all along the ride and got me anything I needed to help my situation. If I have the pleasure of visiting the little gem of a country that is Sri Lanka again, I will without a doubt request to have Rumi as my guide.

Our review

Ivette_F, Mar 2023

Mohamed, our driver was very nice, helpful, and accommodating. Highly recommend him. The tour may be improved with an English-speaking guide to provide details on the various monuments and sites we visited.

Was OK, but not great

JP_G, Oct 2022

We have booked a Colombo City and requested a pickup from a hotel in Kalutara which is an hour away from Colombo. Booked via Viator, confirmed and payment ongoing, no answer has been given to the request to be picked up in Kalutara. One day before I needed to contact them by myself to get this confirmed and which price it would cost for that extra service. The driver was waiting for us on time in front of the hotel, arriving in CMB we picked up our guide Althaaf and started our tour. Unfortunately the guide was on the phone 90% of the time he spent with us. Few explanations to the different visited places have only been given briefly in very low voice so we could barely understand. Some of the points of interests were under mainenance or renovation, so not visitable and no alternatives were chosen by them, so we just went to those places just to find out they are closed: very disapointing. The whole tour was a bit like “following the leader”. For a taxi company they did a great job but for a guided city tour they need to improve a lot.

Super nice day

Manon_v, Feb 2026

Super nice day the tour answered what I wanted to see for a first visit to the sri lanka attentive guide and listening

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The best way to get to know Colombo

Yusseff_N, Oct 2025

Excellent service, from the moment you book they contact you. Very good Service. The guide took the time to take us to all the most important sites in the City and give us a comprehensive explanation of the entire history of the country. We hire this wonderful experience in Mexico through LoomTravel.

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Journée de découverte

Goran_B, Apr 2025

Nous avons passé une très belle journée à la découverte de Colombo. C’est une ville pleine de contrastes, vivante et pleine de charme. Grâce à cette visite, nous avons pu découvrir les lieux incontournables mais aussi des endroits plus authentiques, loin des circuits touristiques classiques. Un immense merci à notre chauffeur Uditha, qui a été tout simplement parfait ! Très professionnel, ponctuel, souriant et toujours attentionné. Il a su rendre cette journée agréable et confortable du début à la fin. Nous nous sommes sentis en totale confiance à ses côtés. Merci encore pour sa gentillesse et son excellente conduite. Nous recommandons cette expérience les yeux fermés !