Sri Lanka tailor made tour, wildlife and culture

Planet

Whilst this tour does feature many of Sri Lanka's highlights, we also visit some areas away from the well beaten tourist trail. Our guides will brief travellers on appropriate behaviour, both cultural and environmental. We work with our local suppliers to highlight best practice in terms of environmental issues, and introduce them to ‘green thinking’.

Increasingly some popular parks such as Yala in Sri Lanka are under pressure from burgeoning visitor numbers. Accordingly, we visit the little visited Wilpattu National Park which is home to some unique wildlife, and the entrance fees that we pay here contribute to their ongoing conservation.

We work with local guides in the parks who know the areas well – they are from the communities that surround the parks and this therefore ensures that these vital areas are seen not just as the preserve of wealthy western tourists but as a valuable source of employment and income for local people, thus further contributing to conservation and acting as a discouragement to unsustainable use of the parks’ resources.

We issue guidelines to our travellers about the importance of leaving these parks as they were, and taking all litter out when we leave. Instead of leaving single use plastic water bottles, we will give refillable bottles to each client at the start of the tour which can be used to refill at hotels/restaurants throughout the tour. We will also give clients a reusable bamboo straw to avoid any use of plastic straws.

People

Our philosophy is to only use small and locally owned suppliers, meaning that the income remains within the country and creates a real economic contribution.

All our guides are local, which not only ensures our guests see Sri Lanka through a community perspective but helps ensure that money generated from tourism goes into local pockets. Further more on some of the tour experiences we actually use local villagers to allow clients to appreciate the local culture from an even more local perspective. This is the case for the tea plantation experience where the guide is a retired plantation worker and for the cycle ride at Polonnaruwa, the tour is led by a local villager. We support people in local villages by allowing clients in very small groups or on private tours to enter their home and enjoy a drink and/or snacks.

A donation is made during our village excursion near Kandy to ensure the necessary maintenance of the local temple which is very important to villagers.

In most cases we use small scale and interesting accommodation which also places a heavy emphasis on local employment such as at the Elephant Watch Hut which is a community tourism venture where the property is owned and run by local villagers themselves.

We also feel that the passion inherent within such suppliers means that your experience will be enhanced. We also try to engage with our suppliers on an equal basis – getting the lowest possible price usually isn’t the best outcome for local communities and is ultimately unsustainable. We aim to always treat our suppliers fairly and with respect; they are after all part of the key to our success and to us working together which is much more than just a business arrangement - it's an ongoing relationship that we aim to ensure truly benefits everyone involved.