Tel. +44 (0)1273 600030 (UK)
This tour aims at popularizing some of world’s less known places for wildlife. Wasgamuwa National Park is not promoted in many Sri Lanka holiday packages due to its remote location and limited accommodation options. One of the highlights of this tour is your safari at Minneriya National Park, where “The Gathering” of elephants takes place. The local safari jeep operators benefit with this promotion as they find it hard to keep attracting travelers due to so much little being done to promote this wildlife spectacle. They’re also masters of the latest information on wildlife sightings inside the park!
We are keen to actively promote places such as Udawalawe and Yala National Park so that it helps small; locally run places such as Centauria Inn and Elephant Reach Hotel survive. Elephant Reach Hotel employs local persons to run all operations in the hotel. Elephant Reach buys products such as soaps, mugs and bags from local manufacturers. We only employ English-speaking Sri Lankan Naturalist chauffeur guides who are all licensed by the Sri Lanka Tourist Board. These guides work exclusively for us. They have been leading special interest tours for the past 15 years. They carry the primary responsibility of implementing many of our responsible travel policies during a tour. They brief you on arrival of key environmental practices for the tour such as waste management, re-cycling of water, noise pollution, re-cycle paper etc.
We find the time with your permission during the tour to take you to visit “Yala Fund” which is a UK charity set up in the aftermath of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. It raises money to alleviate financial hardship and suffering with a particular focus on Sri Lanka.The name "Yala" comes from Yala National Park in southeastern Sri Lanka. The charity helps tsunami communities as well as impoverished rural schools and other deserving causes.
We have produced a wildlife book called the, “Wildlife of the dry lowlands” with financial assistance from USAID; it is one of the most comprehensive field guides on the wildlife of the dry lowlands of Sri Lanka. Free copies of these books are distributed by USAID to local guides at National Parks and members of nature societies with the motive of enhancing their knowledge and as a method to spread the message for conservation. A copy of this book will be provided to you on tour.
Approximately 8% of the total employment in Sri Lanka is created through tourism. Your visit on this trip will certainly help many families who solely depend on tours such as these to sustain their revenue streams.
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!
