Holiday Reviews
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 trip can have different views!
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Sri Lanka birding & cultural tour, independent reviews
 Reviewed 19 Aug 2007 by Sally Smart |  |
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
It is difficult to pick an individual part of these amazing 2 weeks - Jith made sure that the holiday was packed with memories. The Elephant Transit Camp in Udawalawe was a fantastic example of the care Sri Lankans take of their wildlife, allowing close up views of baby elephants both in the camp and later in the National Park where the elephants are eventually re-released. Climbing the steps of the Sigiriya Rock Fortress was highly memorable and gave a sense of achievement when you reached the top! The history of the area is impressive and the scale of the building work unbelievable.
Equally memorable were the sights and sounds of Sri Lanka's only rainforest, Sinharaja, where birds, cicadas and monkeys created an exotic soundtrack while we looked at the huge range of wildlife and plants that are found there, particularly the large number of endemics.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Take a range of clothing to fit the range of climates. The dry zone is hot but you need to cover your shoulders when you visit the temples. The mountains are cool and we used our jumpers and water-proof coats while walking in Horton Plains. In the rainforest walking boots and light coloured trousers are good for keeping off the leeches! Don't worry too much about them - Jith gives you leech stockings while you are there and we didn't get bitten at all. If you are interested in birding an alarm clock would also be useful for those early morning starts!
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
This operator runs a small local business so paying the money directly to him ensures it goes straight to Sri Lanka. During the holiday he made sure that we hired local guides at each attraction and many of the hotels we stayed in were small family businesses. At every stage it was very clear where our money was being spent and that it was benefiting the local tourist industry, which has struggled since the tsunami. Most of the hotels had clear information about how they are minimising their impact on the environment, from water conservation to the use of renewable energy.
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
This was an amazing experience. To travel as a couple with our own guide and driver for 2 weeks was a real luxury and Jith was keen to discuss anything and answer all our questions about Sri Lanka. I feel we experienced the 'real' Sri Lanka and learnt a huge amount about its culture. From a bird watching point of view, we went during the 'off' season and still saw 154 species, including 18 endemics. Perhaps the best thing about this holiday was the flexibility. We were able to discuss our itinerary before we booked and adapt it to fit our interests. Even while we were out there Jith was happy to stay longer when we were really interested and move on if we weren't. I can't think of a better way to see Sri Lanka.
| Reviewed 4 Mar 2007 by Lynn Reynolds | |
Ten people, all very different, all with an interest of flora, fauna and life! We all had expectations and conceptions of what and where we were going to visit, what some of the group wanted to participate in and what the others did not! Usual mix!
What none of expected was the tremendous impact Sri Lanka has left on us, all because of the skill and professionalism of our guide!
You know, that one visit over 2 weeks and none of us really need to go back - it would have taken 10 or more trips to Sri Lanka to have found the quality of accommodation (absolutely delightful, picturesque, even the "colonialism" was unique) and most importantly the combination of wildlife and Sri Lanka's cultural history. We are not born again, just simply "stunned" by the beauty of the Island and everything we were shown by our guide!
I am writing this 2 weeks after our return and I am still remembering experiences, flavours, incidents - all of which, when first witnessed did not seem to be able to be surpassed at the time, yet, each new discovery, activity, drive was able to do just that - there is just so much variety, vibrancy and goodwill on the Island that any world traveller has to experience Sri Lanka at least once!
Ten people in the guided group, ten different best memories and places of most stunning impact - yet we would all probably agree the following are memories that will last to senility, Alzheimer's or the grave!
Wild leopard in Yala national Park from 3 metres away (a heart stopper for naturalists), the stunning view from Sigiriya rock fortress after a 1,000 foot vertical climb up a narrow bolted on walkway on the side of the vertical rock (quite safe in reality, but not for the faint hearted), becoming embroiled in a wild herd of 60 Asian Elephants in Wasgomuwa National Park with babies from 2 weeks of age to the Matriarch and being moved on by a very pregnant and touchy cow, the fascination of the surviving culture.
Also, artefacts and history remaining in sacred religious sites such as the Dambulla caves or the Temple of the Tooth, watching a tropical thunderstorm flash lightning over a lake that the hotel rooms opened onto at night while some of the group were pushing a land rover out of the mud in Uda Walawe National Park (you had to be there, participate and enjoy the warm rain and the mud as it oozed up through your toes), walking over Horton Plains in mountain rain forest at 7,000ft, tracking leopard and looking at endemic fauna then experiencing the precipice of "World End" (a vertical drop in excess of 1,500 feet - with no safety barrier), the noise of 10,000 plus fruit bats stumbled upon in the royal Botanic Gardens in Kandy, the experience of the mountain town "Nuwara Eliya" - a little Britain with night times cold enough to sit around a log fire at night, with a race-course.
And Friesian cows by the road, strawberries and cream for sale and guest houses complete with the odd plastic deer and gnomes in the front garden (absolutely bizarre on a tropical island), watching turtles haul onto the beach at Bentota, lay their eggs and return to sea by torchlight and participate in the release of hatchling turtles at dusk with the conservation turtle hatcheries (then having a 4 star meal and accommodation only 50 metres away), watching the parade of Pinwala's elephant orphan herd too and from the river and scrubbing an elephant with it's mahout in the river at the Millennium Elephant Foundation, staying in an "eco-lodge" virtually in Sinharaja rain forest and waking up to a flock of endemic Sri Lankan magpies raiding the overnight insects from turned off night lights, and so on - you must have got the gist of this by now!
We would thoroughly recommend this destination and especially our guide who so professionally organised and designed our tailored tour around the Island. All our requirements, desires and problems were managed and catered for, which in retrospect was a significant part of the enjoyment and appreciation of the whole experience!
As for our tourist footprint, we genuinely believe that with the exception of the necessary evil of diesel consumption for travel in the air-conditioned coach, that the fees for local guides, the way the government has entrusted and trained local villagers to escort visitors as Park rangers, the ways in which the hotels accommodate "eco-tourism" and explain themselves to their guests, the endeavours of the "Celanese" to promote their understanding and their will to save their natural environment (over 1/5th of the land surface is protected as National Parks) that any visitor can feel that their revenue is perhaps more positively utilised here, than anywhere else in the world! Now that is something!!
Well done Prasanjith Caldera (from the operator) and a big, big thank you for the introduction from yourselves to this local company. Oh, the cost an airflight return with Sri Lankan airlines plus about GB £850 (EU €1,275) per person - the best value for money holiday we have ever had and that is from all ten of us in the touring group! We will return - but not straight away! It has got to be 5 stars, still talking about it now!!!! Not just the holiday but our guide, the people, the culture, just everything.....
Ps. "Tamil Tigers" are in the north - just do not go there, it is not a problem for the tourist, very similar to the recent problems in Ireland but without so much violence!
PPs. Keep a diary, so much to take in, so much variety, you will need it on your return!
Thanks very much for recommending them to us.
What none of expected was the tremendous impact Sri Lanka has left on us, all because of the skill and professionalism of our guide! You know, that one visit over 2 weeks and none of us really need to go back - it would have taken 10 or more trips to Sri Lanka to have found the quality of accommodation (absolutely delightful, picturesque, even the "colonialism" was unique) and most importantly the combination of wildlife and Sri Lanka's cultural history. We are not born again, just simply "stunned" by the beauty of the Island and everything we were shown by our guide!
I am writing this 2 weeks after our return and I am still remembering experiences, flavours, incidents - all of which, when first witnessed did not seem to be able to be surpassed at the time, yet, each new discovery, activity, drive was able to do just that - there is just so much variety, vibrancy and goodwill on the Island that any world traveller has to experience Sri Lanka at least once!
Ten people in the guided group, ten different best memories and places of most stunning impact - yet we would all probably agree the following are memories that will last to senility, Alzheimer's or the grave!
Wild leopard in Yala national Park from 3 metres away (a heart stopper for naturalists), the stunning view from Sigiriya rock fortress after a 1,000 foot vertical climb up a narrow bolted on walkway on the side of the vertical rock (quite safe in reality, but not for the faint hearted), becoming embroiled in a wild herd of 60 Asian Elephants in Wasgomuwa National Park with babies from 2 weeks of age to the Matriarch and being moved on by a very pregnant and touchy cow, the fascination of the surviving culture.
Also, artefacts and history remaining in sacred religious sites such as the Dambulla caves or the Temple of the Tooth, watching a tropical thunderstorm flash lightning over a lake that the hotel rooms opened onto at night while some of the group were pushing a land rover out of the mud in Uda Walawe National Park (you had to be there, participate and enjoy the warm rain and the mud as it oozed up through your toes), walking over Horton Plains in mountain rain forest at 7,000ft, tracking leopard and looking at endemic fauna then experiencing the precipice of "World End" (a vertical drop in excess of 1,500 feet - with no safety barrier), the noise of 10,000 plus fruit bats stumbled upon in the royal Botanic Gardens in Kandy, the experience of the mountain town "Nuwara Eliya" - a little Britain with night times cold enough to sit around a log fire at night, with a race-course.
And Friesian cows by the road, strawberries and cream for sale and guest houses complete with the odd plastic deer and gnomes in the front garden (absolutely bizarre on a tropical island), watching turtles haul onto the beach at Bentota, lay their eggs and return to sea by torchlight and participate in the release of hatchling turtles at dusk with the conservation turtle hatcheries (then having a 4 star meal and accommodation only 50 metres away), watching the parade of Pinwala's elephant orphan herd too and from the river and scrubbing an elephant with it's mahout in the river at the Millennium Elephant Foundation, staying in an "eco-lodge" virtually in Sinharaja rain forest and waking up to a flock of endemic Sri Lankan magpies raiding the overnight insects from turned off night lights, and so on - you must have got the gist of this by now! We would thoroughly recommend this destination and especially our guide who so professionally organised and designed our tailored tour around the Island. All our requirements, desires and problems were managed and catered for, which in retrospect was a significant part of the enjoyment and appreciation of the whole experience!
As for our tourist footprint, we genuinely believe that with the exception of the necessary evil of diesel consumption for travel in the air-conditioned coach, that the fees for local guides, the way the government has entrusted and trained local villagers to escort visitors as Park rangers, the ways in which the hotels accommodate "eco-tourism" and explain themselves to their guests, the endeavours of the "Celanese" to promote their understanding and their will to save their natural environment (over 1/5th of the land surface is protected as National Parks) that any visitor can feel that their revenue is perhaps more positively utilised here, than anywhere else in the world! Now that is something!!
Well done Prasanjith Caldera (from the operator) and a big, big thank you for the introduction from yourselves to this local company. Oh, the cost an airflight return with Sri Lankan airlines plus about GB £850 (EU €1,275) per person - the best value for money holiday we have ever had and that is from all ten of us in the touring group! We will return - but not straight away! It has got to be 5 stars, still talking about it now!!!! Not just the holiday but our guide, the people, the culture, just everything.....
Ps. "Tamil Tigers" are in the north - just do not go there, it is not a problem for the tourist, very similar to the recent problems in Ireland but without so much violence!
PPs. Keep a diary, so much to take in, so much variety, you will need it on your return!
Thanks very much for recommending them to us.