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Exclusive Tea Tour, Private Tour
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We booked the Classic Ceylon Sri Lanka Tour for our honeymoon. The tour agent was Aitken Spence Travels. Day 1: Arriving at Colombo airport, we were greeted by our guide/driver named Rane (guide and driver are the same person throughout the tour). Our first stop was the Ramada Hotel in Columbo, where we checked in. You can take advantage of the afternoon to explore the city or relax at the hotel. We have reviewed each hotel separately in this thread if you want to learn more about each hotel review in detail. Our guide agrees on a time for you to be picked up the next morni g, which was ours at 8am. to start on time. Colombo is a busy city so traffic can be very busy. Day 2: Drive from Colombo to Dambulla, which is approximately a 4-hour drive away. Your guide will make a rest stop for a drink if you wish. Once we reach Dambulla we visit the Temple of the Rock. This fascinating temple is built on the side of a rock with some historical monuments of Buddhas and paintings. Once we had visited the temple, we stopped for lunch at one of the various Sri Lankan tourist restaurants. The food is in keeping with the country and there are usually rice, potatoes, various meats and salads on the menu. We were never disappointed. Lunch is not included in the tour price so it is extra, but at approx 600 rupees it is very reasonable in terms of cost. Some days we didn't fancy lunch and you can skip this if you want. Your driver will be very accommodating. We were then taken to our hotel which would be home for the next 3 nights: Amaara Forest Hotel (review available separately). The following days consisted of: Day 3 - Drive from Sigiriya to Polonnaruwa to visit the 2nd Heritage of the Capital City. This is an amazing experience that offers a fantastic insight into Sri Lankan history. After this we reached Minneriya to the national park. The opportunity to see elephants in the wild is something not to be missed. There are also wild buffaloes, monkeys, birds, and many more animals to witness. We also visited a silk shop where silk was made, and we were dressed in traditional Sri Lankan clothing, where you can take photos of each other. The ladies at this store were wonderful and we bought a few items. The woodcarving factory is also a good stop, where you can watch how they make traditional Raksha masks and other items. We really wanted to buy a pair of these and the factory store on site had plenty to choose from at reasonable prices. Day 4 - Sigiriya Rock Fortress (Lion Rock). This spectacular rock of approximately 200 m high has impressive views. The only way to achieve this is through lots of steep steps so you will need to wear some good trainers as flip flops will wreck your feet. It can get quite busy on the stairs for the first part as there are historical paintings to see a third of the way which causes the delay, but it picks up soon after. Don't let this delay put you off, I almost decided not to bother you, but the wife talked me into it and I'm glad I did. When you get to about 2/3 of this way, this is where the Lions entrance is. At one point this one had a huge rock lion face on it which is sadly gone. From this point you can reach the top and the view of Sri Lanka can be seen for miles. Word of advice to all of you, there are people who offer to "show" you the rock, they will expect payment for their services, so you politely say no or agree to a cost up front. Also when on the stairs there will be men offering to help him up (at one point taking my wife's hand and escorting her down the stairs which I soon said no to) in all fairness once I say no they will leave you alone, so don't do it. Don't let this discourage you, but be prepared. This day you also have a tour of a rural town in a carriage and a boat ride. You may be offered lunch here which is a great experience and at 600 rupees well worth it. A local lady prepares dinner in her cabin in the woods, and there is a good choice to have. You won't get a chance to experience this again so totally recommend it. Day 5 - Kandy. The journey from the hotel above to here is around 2.5 hours, but it breaks down to an intermediate stop at Spice Garden, where you can see how various spices grow and are shown how to make curry mixes from scratch. The day also included a visit to a gem museum. Generally these places have a room or two showing the history of the gems etc but then a shop at the end. We found the gem shop too expensive for what we wanted to get out of our souvenir shopping, so we didn't buy anything. Again, you don't have to buy anything if you just want to look around. After you transfer to another hotel, we stopped at Earls Regent in Kandy. Day 6 - We visit the Botanical Garden which is a lovely relaxing day where you can walk slowly and take in the surroundings. After this, you can have lunch or return to the hotel to relax. Day 7: We visit a tea plantation on this day where you can see the process from tea leaf picking to the final product. We were allowed to pick tea leaves in the hills as well as visit the shop on site to pick up some reasonably priced local tea/souvenirs. From this point, you can return to the final hotel of the tour to rest in Nuwara Eliya. You can, if you wish, take a walk in the area near the hotel. Day 8 _ This is the route back to the airport, which takes around 7 hours in total, but is broken down by the different sights offering opportunities for waterfalls and a few breaks at local cafes and restaurants. As a guide, we leave at 8:30 am and arrive at the airport at 3:30 pm. Overall the tour was amazing but very tiring. It's not a relaxing vacation, so if you can get a second week in a row somewhere, you can relax. We went to the Maldives which is a 1 hour flight to Male airport. Some final points:
We were advised to tip the driver between $5-10 per person per day as an example, but you can tip what you feel was worth. Your guide will offer to take you to other places that are not listed on the tour and will be charged. If you don't want to do this, just say no thanks and they won't accept you. We almost fell for this and arrived at a spa which we were told would cost 5,000 rupees each for an hour which works out to a total of �40 so not a huge cost but we really didn't want a spa visit So we politely said we weren't interested. On the last day you will also be asked if you want to go rafting, which we didn't do as the last thing we wanted was to get wet en route to the airport. Overall, a worthwhile trip to an amazing country.
Art and architecture
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