Maldives Solo Trip

Good combination of two very different weeks. Good food and interesting and varied sights in Sri Lanka. Well organised and led, in very difficult circumstances during severe flooding and landslides! The boat tour of the Maldives was excellent, by far the best way of seeing this country. The boat was comfortable with great food and attentive crew. The main activity is snorkelling so if this is your thing you will love it!

Fantastic trip to Sri Lanka, we saw and learnt so much from our wonderful tour leader Mimi. A full on tour with so much packed in, plus extras suggested by our guide. Hotels all very good, clean with excellent food choices. We visited so many Buddhist and Hindu temples, for our daily blessings, each one, quite different from the other in size and material used to form them. We saw beautiful caves filled with statues and wall paintings. We climbed Sigiriya or Lion rock before breakfast, and were so pleased that the whole group made it to the top. We went on three safaris seeing elephants, deer, buffalo, many species of birds and even saw the elusive leopard. We visited many different workshops displaying local crafts, and the production of them, and even had a blissful Ayurvedic massage one afternoon. All in all a great tour, with like minded people, and we would thoroughly recommend it The cruise around the beautiful islands and the turquoise atolls of the Maldives was much needed to unwind from the fast pace of Sri Lanka. No Wi-Fi meant time to fully relax, read and rewind. The cabins were small but had sufficient places to unpack and put things away, and the en-suite compact but adequate. Visited different reefs twice a day to snorkel around and the crew and tour leader Suja were always there to point out the different flora and fauna. They even dived down with our cameras to make sure we got some amazing photos, and also not being a strong swimmer myself, they made sure I was always safe and supported. The food was excellent with the chef producing three delicious meals a day plus snacks and drinks. We moored up at night near sandbars and deserted islands where we watched the sunset with a nice gin and tonic. We visited a couple of inhabited islands, and were invited to a drumming performance and ended up dancing quite enthusiastically. We snorkelled with sharks before breakfast and with turtles before lunch, not many people can say that. We booked this holiday to celebrate our Golden Wedding, and both tours surprised us with very special celebrations, which we shall hold in our memories forever and to share it with the lovely people we met, now friends, made it even more special.

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.

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!

Sri Lanka - excellent trip but a few too many temples Adams peak - sunrise good but not worth the effort if not good at walking up or steps Maldives - mainly a snorkelling trip. Didn't like the locations where other tourist were feeding the sharks and Rays. Un and forces a change in behaviour of wildlife