Jeremy, Olivia, Philip, Margaret & Imogen
England, May 2024
What did you like most about Sri Lanka?
Wildlife, food, hotels, chauffeur guide.
What did you like least about Sri Lanka?
Humidity.
What is your opinion of your accommodation in Sri Lanka?
Excellent quality & great locations. (It helped that the chauffeur driving us there). [Lake Lodge Boutique Hotel, Dambulla; Trinco Blu by Cinnamon, Uppuveli; 41 Lighthouse Street, Galle]
Jetwing [Jetwing Kandy Gallery, Kandy; Jetwing Yala, Yala] in particular provided a less “international” and more Sri Lankan experience.
98 Acres [Resort & Spa, Ella] with its resort bar and golf carts seemed the most “international” but the staff and being located in a working tea plantation more than compensated for that.
What is your opinion of your chauffeur guide in Sri Lanka?
Excellent. Chathura made our introduction to Sri Lanka so enjoyable. His friendliness, knowledge, excellent driving and flexibility was highly appreciated by us.
We learned a lot about Sri Lanka and had a completely relaxing and thoroughly enjoyable time.
Chathura helped us get the most out of our visit.
What is your opinion of your flights to and from Sri Lanka?
Very good although, as is often the case these days across all airlines, the lack of a functioning screen on the return trip and the lack of our special diet menu on the return was slightly irksome. [SriLankan Airlines - London Heathrow - Economy Class]
Any other comments?
Thank you for making the booking process easy, and for putting together a great itinerary with lovely hotels and an excellent chauffeur [guide].
One observation. You kindly provided a link to the official website of Sri Lanka eVisa. We used this but we discovered that it was not an official Sri Lanka immigration service.
We paid $100 each and received an approval plus confirmation and a print out of the confirmed request number. However, upon arrival the visa was not on the system at the airport. About 20 passengers were, like us, caught out by this. We complained to the Chief Immigration officer but he was unable to help despite having printed evidence of our eVisa. Your link is to a third party provider, not the official Immigration service. He could therefore only suggest we contact the eVisa service’s local Help Line.
There was no one attending that service’s Help Line. We therefore had to pay another £50 each to enter the country using the airport’s official Immigration visa service.
Incidentally, it was cheaper and didn’t take long to apply for the visa at the port of entry.
So please advise your future clients to ensure that all of their details are 100% correct if they opt to use the eVisa link because the approval & confirmation is meaningless and they should perhaps consider queuing up at the airport if they are not travelling in high season.
[I am really sorry to hear of the issues with your eVisas and I can’t believe the local authorities didn’t accept your printout as proof of approval on arrival. I have checked the information we sent and the website address included for Sri Lanka eVisa is correct. It is the only official portal for applying for the Sri Lanka eVisa and it is a link from the Sri Lanka Department of Immigration and Emigration. It turns out that other customers are having issues applying for their eVisas, too, which seems to suggest a glitch in the system. If many other visitors around you were also having similar issues then it points to a problem with the online eVisa system. We are currently trying to find out what is going on; however, I realise it is of little consolation to you. At the present time, I am advising customers in the off season to get the visa on arrival, as you suggest.]
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