“If you've seen both "Kithulgala" and "Kitulgala" in your searches, you're not looking at two different towns — here's why the spelling varies.”
"Kithulgala" and "Kitulgala" refer to the exact same village on the Kelani River in Sabaragamuwa Province — the difference is just a romanization quirk of transliterating the Sinhala name (කිතුල්ගල) into English. Sri Lankan place names get romanized inconsistently across maps, guidebooks and tour operator sites, and this is one of the more common examples: government road signs, Google Maps, and most tourism sites use "Kithulgala", while some older guidebooks and a portion of search traffic still use "Kitulgala".
If you're planning your trip and see both spellings across different sites, don't worry — you're looking at the same rafting base, the same stretch of the Kelani River, and the same Makandawa Forest Reserve. We use "Kithulgala" throughout our site to match current official signage, but search for either and you'll find us.
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