Complete Guide to Renting a Tuktuk in Sri Lanka

Who to rent from?

We have only rented from one company in Sri Lanka, they're the biggest and its hard to imagine anyone is better. Full disclosure, the second time we rented from Tuktuk Rental we were gifted our tuktuk for our month of exploring.

We only went to Tuktuk Rental to talk about a collaboration because our first experience with them in 2022 (which we paid for) was so positive.

If you book with them by clicking our links then you'll get a small discount on your tuktuk and we get a small commission from them. Everyone wins!
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You will see more and more companies popping up offering to rent tuktuks but we see no reason to use anyone else when Tuktuk Rental are so good, so reliable, so well set up, and so helpful.

Cost of Renting a Tuktuk

Tuktuk rental have a few different options for you, including a convertible tuktuk, but your standard tuktuk starts at $20 per day for rental. There are add ons like surf board rack, car seat, bluetooth speakers, seatbelts, that come at varying extra costs but $20 per day is your standard.

There are then the running costs of petrol and maintenance. You need to get your tuktuk greased every 1000km you drive, takes around 20 mins and costs $5 or so. Your tuktuk can do around 150km on a tank of petrol which costs around $7. You'll also need to occasionally top up the oil, we only had to do this once in our 3000km trip and it cost $1.

Our costs for our trip in July 2025 doing 3000km:

$0.43 per 100km on fuel
$0.06 per 100km on maintenance

Those maintenance costs include fixing a punctured tyre and replacing a wheelnut that we broke.

Overall we spent less than $150 in a month covering 3000km in our tuktuk, pretty amazing value.

If we had paid the $20 rental fee we're still at $750 for a month of tuktuk rental. Which is great value for the freedom it gives you to explore.

Rules for driving a tuktuk

You need to have a Sri Lankan driving license to be able to drive a tuktuk. You need your own home license, with the correct endorsements, and the 1949 convention International Driving Permit (IDP) to get your license.

Tuktuk rental can do this for you, simply submit the documents to them. It costs $40 and honestly is worth every penny so you don't have to deal with Sri Lankan bureaucracy directly.

They drive on the left in Sri Lanka, which is great for us Brits but maybe annoying for much of the rest of the world. Tuktuks are also limited to 40kph on all roads, slower in cities and towns. This means you aren't getting anywhere quickly. Be aware when planning your route.

Is it hard to drive a tuktuk?

Tuktuks are basically motorcycle engines put inside an apple car like the one Lowly Worm drives. They're closer to a motorcycle to drive than a car in a number of ways.

Your left handle bar has the clutch and a twist gear selection of 4 gears and neutral. Your right handle bar has the twist accelerator on it. You break with a peddle by your right foot.

Tuktuks can only be started in neutral and you can only change gear when the tuktuk is moving, other than from neutral to 1st. This presents the biggest challenge, when you stall in gear, you will struggle to get it to neutral to start the engine again. You need to rock the tuktuk back and forth like a baby and twist it in. Not much fun in a traffic jam.

Tuktuk rental will take you on a driving lesson that lasts anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours to make sure you're comfortable driving in your new wheels. If you've driven a manual car or motorbike then you won't find it too hard to get used to.

What is it like driving on Sri Lankan roads?

There are two very distinct driving experiences in Sri Lanka. Driving in Colombo and Kandy, and driving everywhere else.

The traffic in Colombo and Kandy make driving your tuktuk around quite stressful unless you are already used to the kind of chaos that rules on the roads of South and Southeast Asia. Going slowly and being very aware of your surroundings are the only way to navigate these cities. We'd highly recommend not driving through either until you've had at least a few days to get used to tuktuk driving.

The rest of Sri Lanka is fairly easy to drive around. You aren't allowed on the highways so its mostly wide roads with one lane in each direction. Buses, lorries, cars, bikes, will all overtake you in places that seem deeply unsafe. Best practice is to tuk yourself into the far left of the road and let everyone else run around you.

The mountains around Ella, Nuwara Eliya, and Kandy can also be a little tricky due to steep inclines and declines. Use your gears to help break on downhill sections and take it slow to keep safe.

How much space is there in a tuktuk?

If you watch the locals then you'll think tuktuks are like clown cars with seemingly infinite space for people and bags to fit. Sadly, that's not quite true.

There is a shelf behind the back seat where you can keep your bags. We fit 1 75l, 1 40l, and one 28l backpack across the back shelf and that was it full. You could definitely fit 2 75l and one 28l though, if that's your set up.

If there are just two of you then there's loads of space in the back seat for an extra bag as well as the passenger. You could fit 3 adults across the back seat but it'd be a tight squeeze.

There isn't a lot of headroom in a tuktuk. I am 1.88m (6'2") and my knees bumped on the dashboard as I drove. Anyone taller than me will find their eyeline while sat up is obstructed by the roof too so you'll spend your time hunched forwards or trying to slouch back to see.

There is also the question of weight. They only have little engines and we had probably 160kg (350lbs) of human and bag in the tuktuk. There were a couple of hills, only two small ones, where Katie had to get out so I could get the tuktuk up the hill. Just be aware if you're bigger people or more than two people that weight can become an issue on steep inclines.

Parking

For those of us used to very strict parking rules, places like Sri Lanka can be a bit stressful.

Generally, outside of cities, as long as you aren't block the road or someone's house/business then you can park your tuktuk basically wherever you want.

In cities you will need to make sure that there aren't signs prohibiting parking, that you're not blocking someone's business or home, and you aren't blocking the street.

We found central Kandy to be the most difficult with tuktuks sometimes 3 deep in parking areas. Usually there will be a parking attendant who will ask how long you plan to park and charge you a nominal fee for doing so.
Most hotels outside of city centres will have parking facilities but it is always best to ask or make sure you filter by "free parking available" on booking.com when searching for hotels.

Driving at Night

Tuktuk Rental do not recommend driving any distance further than say from a restaurant to your hotel at night in your tuktuk. There are a few reasons for this:

1. The headlights on your tuktuk aren't very good and streetlighting is limited

2. Buses/Trucks often drive around with their highbeams on permanently at night

3. Animals are more active, you may end up very close to an elephant on a road which sounds amazing, but is very dangerous.

4. Drink driving by locals is a common issue. You may drive safely but others may not.

Keeping your Belongings Safe

There are lots of hikes and waterfalls accessible from the roadside that will be en route as you explore Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is generally a very safe country, but leaving your belongings in a tuktuk that doesn't lock unprotected isn't a great idea.
If there is someone selling fruit and veg or something nearby then you can buy something and ask them to watch your tuktuk for you.
If you're well away from most people then using bicycle locks to lock your bags to the tuktuk and putting down the rain flaps will be enough to ensure no one goes into your tuktuk.

If you're parking at a carpark in or at the edge of a national park, there will probably be a parking attendant who you can ask to make sure your bags are ok.

We'd always lock the bags, lock them to the tuktuk and put down the rain flaps in all these scenarios. There's no point advertising what is in your tukuk.

The other problem is monkeys. They will steal anything that isn't nailed down, and try and tear off anything that is nailed down.
If you're parked somewhere with lots of monkeys around then make sure there is nothing that they can grab or open and rummage through. Because they will if they can.

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