Claire & Jason
England, March 2016
Ayubowan!
We have returned from our holiday in Sri Lanka and just wanted to send you a quick email to tell you how wonderful it was and how happy we are with the service you provided.
You were able to work out a fantastic itinerary that suited us as we had requested and we were so happy with what you had done.
We loved it all. Every place we stayed was beautiful and we saw so much!
Our guide Yapa was fantastic, he really made our holiday and we liked him so much. It was so nice to have him around to tell us the history of his country and he is really knowledgable about all of the wildlife too.
We didn't want to feel that we were being chaperoned around for the whole holiday and we weren't. The mix was perfect for us. We were able to and explore some places on our own but felt safe in the knowledge that Yapa would be waiting for us at the time and place we agreed and would get us to the next destination safely.
We also enjoyed having Yapa with us on the jeep safaris for instance and doing it together because he was fun to have around.
Yapa was a great driver and always made sure we were safe and gave us careful warnings about possible scams or what was an acceptable tip to give where necessary which was really helpful.
Every hotel we stayed at was beautiful and the staff were so lovely. The only hotel we were not keen on was Buckingham Place near Tangalle. The room was amazing, very luxurious, but the set up of the place was very strange. We didn't like the fact that the British host, Nick, was on site and felt that his constant presence and the fact that the story of his creation of the hotel was everywhere and "his journey" quite suffocating. He is obviously proud of what he has done and he has done a great job but it was a bit much.
We thought the beach was amazing but were a bit fed up when we found out we couldn't swim in the sea there. We had been looking forward to spending a couple of days at the beach but when we got there we found out that we couldn't swim because the sea was too rough which made the visit seem a bit pointless really. We had also hoped that we could continue to explore the local area in the south of the island and continue to enjoy eating out as we had in other locations but we soon found out that there was nothing around the hotel that we could walk to and that we would have to pay to for transport to go to a beach where we could swim or try the local food.
We stayed at Buckingham Place in a B&B basis but we felt that we had no choice but to eat at the hotel as there was no where else to go and which was a lot more expensive then it would have cost compared to the restaurants we had eaten in previously. In that sense we felt trapped there but it was only for a day and a half so we made the best if it.
One good thing is that the Rekawa turtle watch centre [Turtle Conservation Project] was right outside of the hotel and many other people had had to travel to get there so we felt that this was a plus but the owner of Buckingham Place doesn't endorse the centre at all and we can't understand why. It's like he has tried to create his own little home from home there which is great but there was nothing Sri Lankan about the place and it is as if he has shut the local community out.
Other people seemed to love it there and it is our fault as we should have researched the hotel more at the time of booking but we couldn't wait to get back to Sri Lankan life after our stay there - just wanted you to know.
We think our most favourite hotels were Galle Face [Hotel] in Colombo, 98 Acres [Resort] in Ella and The Fort Printers in Galle but they were all great!
Regardless, we had the most fantastic time and thank you for arranging it all for us! Yapa is an asset to your company and we won't hesitate to recommend you to our family and friends and anyone who will listen!
Thank you again.
