Tel. +44 (0)1273 600030 (UK)
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We actively encourage responsible and sustainable travel to Sri Lanka. By working closely with our associate company in Sri Lanka and other partner organisations, we are endeavouring to promote cultural exchange, social awareness, self-employment and self-development.
Guides: We only employ English-speaking Sri Lankan chauffeur guides who are all licensed by the Sri Lanka Tourist Board. Experienced guides for trekking, safaris and other specialist activities are hired locally and have extensive knowledge of their chosen area of expertise.
Transportation: Our small group sizes (up to 8 persons) allows us to use cars, small vans or jeeps when travelling around the island and when visiting rural areas and national parks, where use of larger vehicles in such areas often results in widening and ‘blacktopping’ of rural paths for coach access. The resulting effect on the environment can be devastating. We feel that our small group sizes also lead to less impact both on the environment and the people that we visit as well as allowing for more supervision, advice and explanations with the high ratio of guides to travellers.
Accommodation: We actively promote locally owned hotels that employ local workers. This policy contributes directly to the local economy and provides local employment while enhancing the visitor’s experience of Sri Lanka.
Restaurants: Embracing local cuisine is an essential part of any holiday if the visitor is to understand the country’s culture and savour its culinary delights. We encourage travellers to eat at traditional restaurants, roadside eateries, street vendors and market stalls in order for them to enjoy and experience authentic Sri Lankan food.
Community-led projects: The Asian Tsunami highlighted the plight of coastal communities in Sri Lanka and our initial projects were targeted at Sri Lankan individuals and communities devastated by the tsunami (please ask us for details). However, many other communities away from the coast also lack essential materials and services and our objective is to offer long-term support to such Sri Lankan individuals and communities. By channelling all donations received by Forgotten Village Sri Lanka (a charitable organisation currently applying for charitable status with the Charity Commission) into community-based projects on the island, we hope to provide sustained assistance to these communities in their endeavour to improve their lives. We make a contribution to Forgotten Village Sri Lanka for every holiday booked.
Conservation projects: The Elephant Transit Home (ETH) in Uda Walawe NP is an excellent way of seeing baby wild elephants at close quarters in their natural environment.
This conservation project (supported by the Born Free Foundation) takes in baby wild elephants that have been separated from their mothers and cares for them until they can be returned to the wild. They spend their days roaming freely in a section of the park, being observed at a distance by a few members of the ETH staff. They are fed at 3hr intervals in a specially constructed feeding yard where they can be seen by tourists from a viewing platform separated from the yard itself.
At no point can the tourists have physical contact with the animals. The sight of feeding time is very popular with local and foreign tourists alike as the elephants are enthusiastic, relaxed and full of character, unlike the elephants at Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage.
John spent most of the 90s travelling extensively around Asia. Whilst backpacking in Kandy, Sri Lanka, for the millennium New Year, he bumped into local lad, Pathi. They quickly became close and Pathi introduced John to his whole family. A decade later, the two friends still speak every day and share a successful company offering intimate tours of Sri Lanka that really get under the skin of this beautiful, diverse country. John operates from the UK, providing customers with a bespoke service, and Pathi, in Kandy, arranges a welcome team of fully trained chauffer guides who are proud to show off their home.
Listen to the podcast below:
We invite every traveller who books a holiday via us to send in a review. Because we don't run the holidays they're completely independent and unedited... remember to read between the lines though, as two people on the same holiday can have different views!
