Lori & Tami
Canada, January/February 2015
First and foremost, it has to be said that Sri Lanka did not disappoint us in any way! We were always greeted with warmth, waves and smiles! It has to be one of the friendliest countries I've visited and it was for the most part very clean.
As I mentioned prior to booking this tour, I had already been on a culture trip thru SL, so this tour was more nature related.
Both Tami and I were very pleased with our 9 days of fun, laughs and adventure.
Also see below a recap of the trip that may be helpful and beneficial in your future planning and recommendations to fellow travellers.
Thank-you Responsible Travel for your tour operator suggestions. All your recommendations were prompt at sharing their ideas and suggestions, but in the end we ended up using Tikalanka Tours as the itinerary suggestions were the closest to what we were looking for. It took a fair bit of back and forth emails, but we finally managed to fit in all our "to-do" items.
Driver: The original driver had to be changed because the driver we were first booked with was ill, (recovering from the Dengue Fever we were told.) Anura was the brother of our scheduled driver. He was friendly and knowledgeable, and a safe driver. (or as safe as any driver can be on the seamlessly lawless and ruleless roads) We gave him the fun name Big Daddy as he was forever pulling out his wallet to give us smaller change for tips and washroom money. We liked him very much and had some good laughs with him. He must of thought these two girls were crazy as most of our luggage consisted of 8 bottles of wine dragged along from the Duty Free;-)
He did a very nice job of managing our needs and the time we needed to be alone to explore.
Itinerary: On the exception of the trip from Sigiriya to the Rainforest Eco Lodge (12 hours), the drives between hotels were well spaced. Our itinerary did not show that it would take this long. I knew that we were in for a long day from Sigiriya but it was the only way we could fit in the rock fortress visit and not miss out on anything else. I think the itinerary accounted for it taking 5 plus hours when it actually took double this.
Hotel Choices:
Heritance Kandalama, Dambulla. Nicely designed hotel. The drive in on their long dirt road was almost like a safari as we seen so much wildlife.
The Rainforest Ecolodge, Sinharaja. Our first night and breakfast at this hotel was perfect. Even though we arrived late, they had dinner waiting for us. However, because we chose this unique place so we could truly be in nature... it was terribly disappointing when a group of 31 young men arrived with all their voice, cell phones and drums... yes... there was a drum!
They had over 4 men to a room and they played drums and made loads of noise up to 11 pm at night. When we called the office at 10 pm to voice our concern... no-one answered the phone.
The food went from being served to our table (prior to the large group arriving) to mass food buffet style that was not nearly so good.
I asked to speak to the manager before leaving but I was told he wasn't in this day.
My hotel comments are these:
This hotel has not established its criteria for choosing its customers. I spoke with other guests, the guides and even the waiters who all felt the same as Tami and I. The 31 men were clearly not interested in nature or why this hotel was supposed to be special. Having them at the hotel was clearly a financial decision that in the end will not benefit the overall long term goals of the establishment. Our 'special stay" came to an abrupt end and I cannot recommend this hotel until it makes a choice on what it truly wants to represent.
The guide we had at this hotel was excellent. We hiked for hours around the hills and jungle and loved our time with nature. I had a visit to the local school and village and was impressed with what this place is trying to accomplish.
What the hotel clearly lacked was on-site good management. Example: We were not given an orientation or briefing on what we could expect to see or do. Tami and I fumbled around till we found a poster advertising the morning tours. Another example of poor management was this: Tami and I were asked in the morning what sandwich we would like to have for our lunch. We then left to hike for the day. We returned at 3pm, and had our sandwich. The next day after check out….when we were down the mountain about 30 minutes, our driver received a call from the hotel telling us we did not pay for our sandwiches and buffet lunch. First of all, we did not have the buffet lunch as we were out hiking. Second of all, we paid our bill that they prepared before leaving, so It was not our fault that they forgot to add the sandwiches. They asked us to return to pay for the 2 sandwiches. Even though we felt bad for not paying, we also felt this was there problem and we politely refused to return as we were 30 minutes away.
This hotel needs to be taken to the next level if it wants to continue to draw in a higher end, nature loving clientele. I plan on contacting this hotel directly about these concerns.
I would only recommend this hotel if serious changes were made with regards to management and its commitment to serious nature loving cliental.
Saraii Village, Tissa. Lovely large clean and well-appointed treehouse. Many locals also used this place on their holidays and we enjoyed our stay even though it was a bit far (45 minutes) from Yala.
The manager is new and working to bring this establishment to the next level. The staff were friendly and helpful. They even arranged for a large thermos of hot coffee for us to take out on our early morning safari start.
The food was good, but limited to only Sri Lanken options.
Our breakfast packed lunch was a horrid bread/chicken?? sandwich... this could use some improvements as its the only food option till after the safari.
Safari: As mentioned, it was a little far to the park. This wasn't a problem, but we were scheduled for two safaris. (an early morning and an evening) If we had the choice again we would not have returned of the evening as we were taken back to the exact location, roads and area of the park that we had seen int he morning.
With that being said, the morning safari was great and we seen a large number of park highlights, including a great view of the leopard!
We left the hotel at 5am, returned at 11;30, was picked up again at 2;30 and returned at 7. (45 minutes to the and from the park each way). I wouldn't recommend this.
Last but certainly not least:
Buckingham Place [Tangalle]: Loved, loved, loved this place. Every attention to detail and then more!!!! Nick the owner is one fantastic host and certainly knows his business! Our stay was nothing short of GREAT! The food was excellent, the beach was wild, majestic and empty!!!
I cannot say enough good about this place. We truly did not want to leave!!
We jogged each morning around the countryside, we beach combed, enjoyed fine dining experiences, relaxed around the pool and had great evening conversations with other guests! Amazing hotel!!
So, that's it!
Thank You John for your help it putting our trip together!
I'm not going to leave next years "girl" trip to the last minute as I did this one, so I'll be back in touch with Responsible Travel again soon to start on next year's planning!! Any suggestions for a two week trekking trip in decent weather??
