Asia Bicycle Trips

This was a wonderful tour. My sixth trip with Explore and my best. Our excellent tour leader, Cham, was both knowledgeable and went out of his way to be helpful and the Sri Lankan people were invariably friendly, welcoming and polite. Sri Lanka is so diverse it has attractions for everyone from tropical surf beaches to hiking in the mountains, rainforest and tea plantation hill country, visiting the temples and stupas of ancient cities to safari trips in the national parks, plus a high standard of hotels and some wonderful cuisine. My one gripe was although we stayed in some luxury hotels with swimming pools and great views, the itinerary was so full on that we often had very little time to enjoy the hotel. But I realise, you can't have it both ways!

From the night train from Ulaanbaator onwards, this was a trip packed full of memorable moments. Cycling across the steppes, up and down the "killer passes", navigating the river crossings, camping in the wilds and the savouring the culinary delights rustled up to satiate our appetites will all live long in the memory.

There was great variety on this tour. The Sri Lanka days were packed and were a little tiring but we saw so many places and such diversity of wildlife and culture, it was definitely worth it. The pace in the Maldives was more leisurely, though, so this created a great balance.

Awesome trip, a unique experience. Every aspect felt special from start to finish. Bata and his support team did everything possible to give us the best Mongolian experience. A great blend of cycling, culture and freshly cooked traditional food along the way.

Travelling as a family with two teenagers (16 and 14), we all had the most fantastic time in both Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Highlights for the adults included the variety of activities included in the itinerary, the elephant transition home and learning about the culture, history and geography of both Sri Lanka and the Maldives. The highlights for the teenagers were the train ride, the snorkelling and the elephant safari. We all loved the food and our guide, Ashan, in Sri Lanka was truly outstanding.

Looking back at our photos now we've returned to the UK we can't believe the amount we saw and the amazing experiences we had on this tour. Sri Lanka is an amazing beautiful country with some much going on - we only scratched the surface. Our tour leader Cham worked so hard to make sure that we had everything we needed, resolving our problems and sorting out food for our fussy son! His knowledge about Sri Lankan history and wildlife was immense. He even found the best place to buy genuine Sri Lanka cricket shirts for the sporty members of our group. The only thing we'd change was the pace of the second half of the Sri Lanka leg of the trip. The first half gave us time to chill and bond as a group, as well as hang out in the pool at Giritale and play cricket. The second half we moved every night and covered a massive distance, though interesting, this was quite tiring (especially for the kids), so we'd suggest that a two night stop in the middle of this element would resolve this issue easily. This was clear in the notes, however, as was the high chance of not getting the train. The pace did slow considerably for the Maldives element, with a lot of time on our boats travelling between reefs. The snorkelling was quite frankly mind-blowing, and even the more nervous swimmers loved it. The crew were fantastic, and the food was delicious. The guide knew his stuff, and made sure we had great snorkelling experiences. Our only criticism of this part of the trip was that splitting the group when we'd got to know each other and were getting on really well was disappointing. There were larger boats, and we'd have preferred to be on a single boat given how long we spent travelling separately. The crew did what they could to mitigate this by tying the boats together when we moored for snorkels, meals and overnight and that was great. All in all a thoroughly enjoyable trip, and with a few very small tweaks it'd be perfect!