Sri Lanka Tours in Winter

The Explore trip to Sri Lanka was a fantastic experience, with a great balance of culture, nature, and relaxation. Highlights included ancient temples, beautiful tea plantations, incredible wildlife, and stunning beaches. The tour leader and local guides were friendly and knowledgeable, adding real insight into the country and its traditions. Sri Lanka is a beautiful country, and the warmth of the people made the trip truly memorable. I would highly recommend this experience.

We went there in December, just after the country suffered severe cyclone and flooding. Very nice hotels, plenty of food (maybe too much), and well looked after by the team. Nice relaxing pace of cycling. Plenty of interesting places to see on the way. We made a Youtube video to share our experience: https://youtu.be/N06BHdyCL00?si=VRTgl8lFxGbMP4uA

This truly is an excellent trip, and way to see beautiful Sri Lanka at a good pace. You cover so much in 2 weeks, and every day is different with sightseeing, walking, cycling, wildlife - there really is something for everyone. Sri Lanka is a fantastic country with wonderfully welcoming people. This trip really makes you feel you are benefitting the local communities that you are interacting with - spending time with local families, playing traditional games and getting a deeper understanding day-to-day life and traditions. You get a better understanding for the tougher and sadder side of the history of the country, while gaining a deeper appreciation for the resilience of the joyful people who live there. It really is a wonderful trip, made better by a great group and leader!

We had two leaders - one in Sri Lanka and another in the Maldives. Both were excellent, but particularly Su in Sri Lanka because we encountered very difficult circumstances due to exceptionally heavy rainfall during our trip.

Itinerary was great and this was the main reason we chose this trip and Sri Lanka has fantastic sites and culture to experience - unfortunately we counted on having an appropriate guide and tour director who could assist with making the most of the experience - unfortunately our guide was not fluent in English, could not answer questions or explain the sites, culture and history in any meaningful way and we were forced to communicate critical aspects of the itinerary with him on whatsap, initiated by us not the tour director - the worst tour director I have had in nearly 45 years of travel and over 50 tours

This was my first trip to Asia and I wanted to get an overview, so the highlights of Sri Lanka really achieved that. The trip was well planned with varied activities, to appeal to most travellers. We did have to put up with Cyclone Ditwah, which made some activities more like an endurance, but nobody could plan for that or do anything to change it. Our Sri Lanka tour guide and his team went way beyond my expectations in order to keep up safe and as comfortable as possible, under difficult circumstances. They deserve their Christmas Bonus! Personally, I would have enjoyed more time at the spice garden and I wonder what the value was of the canoe trip to the curry cooking demonstration. Perhaps it would have been fun in sunshine? The Temple of the Tooth would have been interesting when there was no ceremony going on, to better appreciate the details of the buildings etc. I felt we were intruding on a religious occasion that was of huge importance to local people. Would it be better to spend longer at sites in a smaller geographical area and reduce the travelling between sites. Moving on to the Maldives, this week was great and really hit the spot. We needed sunshine and relaxation and the pace of the week was perfect. Again, the tour guide did an excellent job and supplied us with lovely videos and photos from snorkelling trips. The food on the Dhoni Cruise was excellent, considering the kitchen space and although a bit repetitive, there was a good range to suit all palates. The crew did a great job.