Norman & Christine
England, June/July 2015
What did you like most about Sri Lanka?
Variety on a 'small' island.
Food, places, people.
What did you like least about Sri Lanka?
Nothing.
What is your opinion of your accommodation in Sri Lanka?
Our thoughts on the hotels.
Heritance Kandalama [Dambulla]. Simply brilliant in everything they do but we guess you already knew that.
Nilavali Beach Hotel [Nilaveli]. First impression was poorly run as we encountered some comic events with food and drink and lack of information, possibly due to lack of guests staying. For example absolutely no details in the room about the usual hotel information such as restaurant times, Internet access, beach towels, TV channels, activities, etc, etc. A lot we would not use but we found ourselves going to reception to keep asking for information. But we came to like this hotel due to location, good food, excellent friendly staff, good clean room. Would be happy to return here again.
Maalu Maalu Resort & Spa [Passekudah]. Excellent hotel with great location, efficient friendly staff, good food, good range of drinks, spacious room and simply well run.
Gal Oya Lodge [Gal Oya]. Brilliant hotel in the middle of almost nowhere and that did not detract from the effort they made in understanding guest's needs and providing exemplary service, varied food, good drinks, comfortable room and a choice of excursions.
Kottukal Beach House by Jetwing [Arugam Bay]. Described in the itinerary as "...rooms are luxuriously furnished and well equipped..." and on their web site as " ………. luxuriously furnished and equipped with every convenience you require,……..". This is the wrong description because: The room was plain and simply furnished with no luxurious items or décor of any sort. In fact as far as "every convenience you require" are concerned there was no fridge (39C outside), no TV, no phone, no coffee making facilities, just two hangers in a small wardrobe. We may not have used all these facilities but the description implies they should have been provided. The advertised wifi was utterly useless as it was so slow a snail with a Post It note would have been quicker. For the 11 people staying there there were 5 sun beds and just one sun umbrella so in effect what happened was that only 2 people at any one time could sit near the pool and not fry in the high temperature. The dinner menu did not change in the three days (not like Gal Oya), nor did the breakfast, there was not a drinks menu and they didn't do lunch. The water served at dinner was invariably warm and the Lion lager beer was more often than not also warm and we had to keep asking if they could put it in the fridge. This is in a secluded place nowhere near any shops, restaurants, bars etc. so there was little other option or to get a taxi. We did not get the garden chalet room as booked as it was already taken. The staff were pleasant and friendly but not very efficient but the hotel dog was great fun. It seems they are stuck in a rut where nothing changes and the hotel is there for their simple life not to understand guest's needs or what is considered best practice in all the other hotels we stayed in. Very disappointed.
98 Acres Resort [Ella]. Everything was superb. A professionally run hotel in a great location.
The Wallawwa [Airport]. Simply brilliant in everything they do but we guess you already knew that.
What is your opinion of your chauffeur guide in Sri Lanka?
Firstly Kapila was his usual helpful, enthusiastic self and was always there with a smile and nothing was too much trouble. He invited us to his house to meet his family. This was a little off the route but it was very nice to receive their hospitality, a nice lunch and the children dancing and singing for us. He is a very nice man.
What is your opinion of your flights to and from Sri Lanka?
Emirates air was very good particularly the London - Dubai - London flights in an Airbus A380.
Any other comments?
Please find some comments on our holiday. Those which are not positive please treat them as constructive rather than simple criticism.
The itinerary was difficult in places particularly with the timings.
Days 1 to 10 went well and for other people it could be adjusted for example for more time at Dambulla to go to Singaria [Sigiriya] and adjust time spent at the beach resorts to suit customer preferences.
The itinerary started to strain a little after this with the travel times shown on the itinerary a little optimistic and a completely impracticable when it came to the boat and jeep safaris.
On day 12 it would have been very difficult to do two boat trips in one day as door to door one boat trip took over 4.5 hours. The journey from the hotel to the boat dock took 1.5 hours, not 0.5 as shown and having spent 3+ hours on an uncomfortable, smelly boat with absolutely no shade in 35C + temperatures we don't see many people wanting to repeat such an experience. We were physically unable to do the boat trip twice and Kapila said his office would sort something as compensation - you may want to look into that. The Gal Oya hotel is excellent and they offer a range of trips from it using their own Land Rover and a new boat they are purchasing, due for delivery this month, (it has a roof to offer some shade in the blistering heat). We attach a photo of their excursions and would respectively suggest you offer future clients the option of using their expertise, own transport and naturalists. We found their staff to be enthusiastic about their environment and offered better arrangements than the National Park service, which was frankly poor.
Day 13 - the time to the Pottuvil hotel was 2.25 hours not 1.5 hours as shown on the itinerary. After lunch we went to Kamuna [Kumana] National Park which according to the itinerary was to take 1 hour, then a three hour safari and 1 hour return = 5 hours. Door to door it actually took over 6.5 hours, the majority of which was on very very bumpy roads. Bad dirt roads are not unexpected on a safari but there were over 30 km of dirt tracks just to get to and from the park, let alone the usual dirt tracks within the park. Again there is simply no way anyone could or would want to do such a journey twice in one day (13 hours) as per the itinerary. So again the two safaris turned out to be just one.
We were offered a short boat trip from Pottuvil as an alternative to the two longer safaris missed but this was cut short as the "boat" was two old canoes with a wooden board tied to them. By this time Chris's back was very painful and we think Kapila only paid the "boat" man 400Rps for what little we did.
Day 14 to the end were very good and a nice change to go the higher areas to cool down.
Even Kapila thought the safaris were not possible and he tried his best to help. So instead of looking forward to 2 boat and 2 jeep safaris we had only 1 boat and 1 jeep and a short fill-in boat safari. Perhaps you would contact your Sri Lanka office to see if any money was saved. [Tikalanka reimbursed customers for all safaris scheduled as a goodwill gesture.] Having travelled to Sri Lanka 3 times [with Tikalanka] and to many other countries with less than perfect transport infrastructure we appreciate internal travel can be difficult but we found the roads pretty good and Kapila was good at negotiating the traffic and we don't think we were unduly held up, just that the estimated travel times were over optimistic.
We did enjoy, again, our holiday and stayed in some superb hotels, had great food and had good experiences. Where to next time?
