Renting a tuk tuk in Sri Lanka is a fun and pretty unique way to explore the island. You can go at your own pace and stop wherever and whenever you want, which ultimately lets you see more than if you pass through small towns on a bus, train, or taxi. But it’s not quite as simple as renting a car, so you’ll want to consider a few things before you lock in your tuk tuk rental Sri Lanka.
This post may contain affiliate links. Bookings or purchases through these links generate a small commission for me at no extra cost to you. Thanks for your support!
Tuk tuk rental in Sri Lanka
I wanted to rent a tuk tuk in Sri Lanka but didn’t really do a lot of research or preparation. So if you’re reading this right now, you’re already steps ahead of where I was before I booked. Good for you.
The key to the perfect tuk tuk rental in Sri Lanka is having all your ducks (documents) in a row and renting it for enough days to actually enjoy it. We only rented for 3 days and it was not enough!
For the most part, the roads will be much quieter than this (Pettah Markets in Colombo).
My experience renting a tuk tuk in Sri Lanka
We opted to rent a tuk tuk in Sri Lanka to get from Sigiriya to Kandy. And we got an electric one just for fun.
Tbh I just wanted to try it out — it was absolutely not more convenient or affordable than just taking public transport. Not even more affordable than getting a private car lol. But you do what you must for the plot!
How much we spent on our tuk tuk rental in Sri Lanka
I’m legit embarrassed to tell you how much we spent on this, but I will anyway.
(Sorry for the USD, that’s just how it was all priced on tuktukrental.com. But I made this handy currency converter for you. Tap or click the numbers highlighted in green to see different conversions.)
Our three-day tuk tuk rental cost a whopping $233 USD. Let me break down why:
- Chesney’s Sri Lankan driving permit 40 USD — more on this below.
- Delivery to Sigiriya 50 USD
- Drop off in Kandy 59 USD
- Per-day rate 28 USD x 3 = 84 USD
- Total: 233 USD
If you get the tuk tuk from the airport or their Negombo office, it’s free. But they had to deliver it to us in Sigiriya and pick it up from us again in Kandy, which ended up being more expensive than any other part of the rental. So like, not super practical on our end. But once I decide I want to do something I realllllly want to do it.
There are currently no other locations that you can pick up/drop off the tuk tuk for free. Even downtown Colombo is 15 USD. And I have to say, picking it up in a major city where there’s more traffic would be so overwhelming. So while it was crazy expensive, we really don’t regret picking up our tuk tuk in quiet little Sigiriya.
Pros and cons of renting a tuk tuk in Sri Lanka
Before you drop a ton of money on a tuk tuk rental, here are the pros and cons of this quirky little transport option. This is about tuk tuks in general — I’ll cover more about what it’s like to rent the electric model later on.
Pros
- Freedom to go at your own pace. Rather than catching the bus or even taking a private car, you really can just stop wherever and whenever you want.
- Bucket list-worthy. How many people can say they’ve driven a tuk tuk in Sri Lanka?
- Perfect for 2 or 3 people. I loved being a backseat passenger princess even though it felt a bit weird at first.
- Convenient for parking. It’s smaller than a car but covered and has storage for your bags unlike a scooter. Best of both worlds.
- It’s just cool.
Cons
- Max speed limit is 40 for tuk tuks. It’s kind of hilarious, but you need to accept that driving anywhere will take you twice as long than Google Maps tells you.
- Traffic can be hectic. Even if you’re a confident driver, you have to lock in and stay alert the whole time. The “rules” of the road are often vibes-based.
- It’s expensive. No matter how you slice it, renting a tuk tuk is not the cheapest transport option. (But it is the coolest.)
- It’s open-air. That sounds delightful, and it mostly is. But it also means you can’t leave the fresh fruit you bought in the tuk tuk while you go for a coffee (because monkeys). And every time a bus passes, you’ll get a lung full of exhaust.
What you need for a tuk tuk rental in Sri Lanka
It’s not as simple as just flashing your home driver’s license to rent a tuk tuk in Sri Lanka. You need to be over 18 and have:
- your driver’s license
- International Driving Permit (IDP)
- Special Sri Lankan Driving Recognition Permit
So make sure you get your IDP before you leave home. But if you don’t have one or it’s expired, you can get them to deliver it to you. For example, Chesney’s IDP expired like a week before we were going to pick up the tuk tuk rental. So we had to go to the AA New Zealand website and order a new one, which cost a small fortune in shipping (80 NZD). Here’s more info on what an IDP is if you’re not familiar with it.
To make things even more complicated, the driver’s license you can pick up at the Ministry of Transport office at the airport only covers cars and scooters and it costs 15,000 LKR for one month. Conversely, for a license that covers tuk tuks, you need to get one from the Automobile Association of Ceylon (AAC).
Tuktukrental.com sorted that out for us for 40 USD, which was totally worth it in my opinion. It also covers cars and scooters and is good for a year! So I’d skip the Ministry of Transport option entirely.
You also need 50 USD to 150 USD for a deposit that’s refunded back to you when you return the tuk tuk.
Travel essentials for Sri Lanka
📶 eSIM
Stay connected with internet access everywhere you travel.
💸 TravelSpend
Track your budget easily (ft. a colourful doughnut chart with stats).
✈️ Seats.aero
Find and book flights with your points for Aeroplan, Qantas, Delta & more.
💳 Wise or Revolut
Compare the best multicurrency cards for spending when you're overseas.
Where to hire a tuk tuk in Sri Lanka
Based on our experience and everything I know about it, tuktukrental.com is the best company for tuk tuk hire in Sri Lanka. But it’s not your only option — there’s also Tuk Tuk Drive.
tuktukrental.com
This is the company we used. They have rave reviews and an easy-to-navigate website, which made booking easy. They were also super helpful when I sent them several WhatsApp messages with questions about the licensing and stuff.
We also met a couple in Hiriketiya driving one of the petrol tuk tuks from this company for a whole three weeks. They said they’d had a couple of little issues like something vague that resulted in a dent (lol) but that the team was always available and help when they needed any kind of support.
While the company is Australian-owned, they support the community by sourcing tuk tuks from locals.
"[W]e don’t own any tuktuks ourselves. Instead, we source all our tuktuks from local tuktuk drivers who have some of the lowest salaries in Asia."
Tuk Tuk Drive
Tuk Tuk Drive is lesser-known and has AI images all over the website, which I always find weird. (Like, just take pictures of the tuk tuks you rent out?)
The pricing is also a bit misleading: “From $7/day” but that only applies if you rent for 121+ days lol. I don’t know who’s doin’ that. You’re more likely to rent for a week ($15/day) or two ($12/day).
But even at its highest daily rate, it’s still significantly cheaper than tuktukrental.comm’s 24 USD per day. We considered both options but ultimately decided to go with the more well-known option.
Another huge pro here is that it’s locally owned.
Driving our electric tuk tuk from Sigiriya to Kandy
We wanted the electric tuk tuk. We figured it would be quieter, smoother, and I guess we were just curious. Charging it proved way more complicated than we anticipated, and it didn’t help that our route only had one charge point along the way.
And we discovered that charge point was only for cars! So not compatible with our little glorified golf cart, but the team at tuktukrental.com helped us out by letting us charge at someone’s house along the route.
We probably could have made it from Sigiriya to Kandy on one full charge. But it would have been tight and not be cute to run out of battery and be stranded.
And if we’d wanted to leave the same day we picked up the electric tuk tuk, we definitely wouldn’t have made it to Kandy. It was delivered to us on 20% battery after the drive from Negombo. Many things to consider.
If we could do it all again, we’d probably just get the manual/traditional petrol tuk tuk for simplicity. But I will say it was still super fun to drive the electric. If you were driving a route with more charge points available to you, it would be totally fine. We just happened to pick a sort of sparse area. The Tuk Tuk Rentals team does give you a full map, though it didn’t seem to know which charge points were car-only.
Renting an electric tuk tuk in Sri Lanka
We opted for an electric tuk tuk in Sri Lanka. And let me tell you, it’s kind of a different beast. Not necessarily a net negative, but there are some real challenges that differ from the typical Sri Lankan tuk tuk.
Primarily: Charging is not that simple
We had a great accommodation in Sigiriya and they were happy to let us charge our tuk tuk. But the extra power demands kept flipping the breaker and shutting down the electricity in our room. We eventually got it to work by using a different plug, but it isn’t as simple as having an accommodation say “yes” to letting you charge.
There aren't that many chargers
It depends on your route, and they gave us a really helpful map that shows the location of every charger in Sri Lanka. But that didn’t change the fact that there’s only one charging station between Sigiriya and Kandy. (What if someone is already using it? What if it’s broken?) But if you were driving from Colombo to Kandy you’d be just fine.
Make sure you get a SIM or eSIM so you can call businesses. Everyone uses WhatsApp so you can get away with a data-only eSIM.
You're not very inconspicuous
In fact, you’re very spicuous. The sleek, futuristic electric tuk tuk design is super fun and certainly draws a lot of attention when you’re on the road. It’s cute to wave at all the kids who are excited to see you drive by — but it also means you don’t really blend in in a parking lot. It screams “I’m a tourist with money.” Sri Lanka is generally very safe, but there’s no arguing the electric tuk tuks are more ostentatious.
But an electric is way easier to drive
While the team at tuktukrental.com give you an in-person lesson for the manual petrol models, they’re more finicky. Electric = simple stop and go. Like genuinely similar to a golf cart.
It's only marginally more expensive than renting a manual petrol tuk tuk
The per-day rate is only a few bucks more, so it’s not a huge difference if you’re on a budget. When it comes to charging vs filling the tank, a full charge costs about 1,000 LKR and gives you a range between 80 and 200 kms. Conversely, filling a tuk tuk with petrol costs around 1,500 LKR and lets you go 150-200 kms. Similar enough that it won’t skew your budget either way.
Naomi Lai
Naomi is a Canadian travel editor and writer with 13 years of international travel across Southeast Asia, Europe, South America, New Zealand, and beyond. She covers everything from budget backpacking to luxury travel — always from personal experience.
More about Naomi →