Indian Ocean Itineraries

I came away from this trip with a great understanding of Sri Lanka. It is a
beautiful country with stunning scenery, interesting buildings and lovely
people. Our fantastic guide Dileepa made the trip easy for us ( we were a
very small group), and he was extremely knowledgeable with the ability to
answer our many questions. The hotels were of good standard- especially Hotel
Sigiriya with its stunning location. Highlights for me were the elephant
safari, climbing Sigiriya Rock and the cycling morning and local lunch (
delicious). It was a busy trip but there was time for relaxing by the pool
too.
The whole trip was very well organised. I am grateful to our guide who helped
make this trip such a fantastic one. I will definitely use Exodus again!
Seeing elephants in the wild and the stunning scenery from Sigiriya Rock.


Dileepa was fantastic- enthusiastic and very knowledgeable. He answered
questions in depth and I have learnt alot about Sri lanka. He was kind,
patient and understood the needs of the group. He was sociable and had great
communication skills ( superb english). He was very well organised, and knew
exactly the best times to go to places.


Take trainers and or walking style shoes for some activities. A lightweight
day rucksack would be useful.

This was our first visit to Sri Lanka and the itinery for this tour enabled
us to travel to many area of the island and to experience a diverse range of
cultures.
Our unexpected and unscheduled visit to Kandy to see the Perahera festival.


Our group leader, Dileepa, was friendly, approachable and extremely
knowledgeable with excellent spoken English.


Highly recommend Exodus


Exodus delivered a comprehensive tour at a very competitive cost.

The discover Sri Lanka trip offers a great mix of learning, seeing and
experiencing what Sri Lanka has to offer, mixed ample opportunities to simply
relax by the pool trying to decide what mixer to have with your large glass
of Arrack
I really enjoyed visiting Lions Rock, which after getting your breath back
after climbing all the stairs offers wonderful views of the surrounding area,
as well as an insight to Sri Lanka history.

I also enjoy the unscheduled visit to Little Adams peak, after rain meant
that Hortons plain was not viable, this was a great alternative and offered
beautiful views of Sri Lanka


Roshan, was great, he gave a very good in depth introductory talk on the
first day and provided us with an excellent history lesson of Sri Lanka, as
well as being very knowledgeable in terms of the fauna and flora of the
various regions.


There is very little street food or dining out culture in Sri Lanka with the
exception of Kandy and less so Nuwara Eliya, therefore you will be eating the
vast majority of your meals in hotels, with buffets being the easiest choice
but it does make it more expensive. A la Carter is an option at most places
but service tends to be slow and therefore often requires pre-ordering.


Due to the fact that so many meals are eaten at the hotels, to make things
easier I would have included these the trip price.

I think that during the introduction clients and guide should set up a
WhatsApp’s group, one for the sharing of info, but also to help with the
running of the trip, I.e. start times after free days extra or arrange
numbers for optional extras

An excellent holiday with so much to see and do.
There were many inspitational moments but if I had to select one it would be
seeing the procession in Kandy. Excellently arranged by our guide even to
sorting our evening meaL. The fire dancers and highly decorated elephants
were a sight to behold. The drommers and dancers added to the occasion.I will
never forget it.


Roshan was superb. He was highly skilled in getting the group to see as much
as possible of his country. He was also quite relaxed letting us have enough
time to see the sights e.g. around the temples and the statues of the Buddha.
His instructions were always clear and explanatory. But most of all he was
fun! An absolute brilliant guide.


Take clothes to cover up but only needed for temples. But dress respectfully
at other times.

A very broad tour of the principal cultural and wildlife sights. Fantastic
sights ranging from Buddhist sculptures, tea plantations to leopards and
elephants in their natural habitat. Great food, landscapes and experiences.
The best moments include visiting the Buddha’s tooth relic in Kandy,
spotting leopards in Yalla National Park and travelling on a packed train
from the Hill country to the valley while viewing stunning scenery through
the (open) train carriage door.


Neelaka was consistently upbeat, exceptionally informative about the country
and always on hand to smooth out any issues and enable the tour to get on
with enjoying the country.


Be prepared for the rain and cold In Nuwara Eliya, to eating a lot of
delicious food and to open your eyes to an extremely wide range of scenery,
climate and wildlife.


We did travel in a large coach, unlike the usual minibuses used on other
Exodus holidays and occasionally this gave the impression that we were on a
coach tour rather than an adventure holiday.
Most hotels were very good and the food in some - especially Sirigaya,
Manders Rosen and Bandarawela was excellent. Some welcome rest time was
built in and we loved lazing around for one whole day at the coast.

In 2 weeks we managed to see most of the main sights in Sri Lanka. It was
going full tilt mostly staying one or two nights in each place. We really
enjoyed all the places that we visited and found them very interesting (apart
from the gem museum which was very dull and boring and high pressure sales).
The accommodation was more luxurious than we expected, having been on tours
with other companies. The nice thing about this was that almost all hotels
had pools and very pleasant surroundings. The downside of this was that they
were often outside the population centres so that you forced to eat there and
had less scope for exploring local towns and villages and using their shops
and restaurants. It also therefore added to the expense of the trip. The
transport was comfortable (coach) and the driver did a really good job in
such adverse and hectic driving conditions.
Our favourite moment was watching the elephants splashing and playing at the
waterhole at Kaudulla national park. This trip was optional but we all did
it. It was actually a better trip than Yala which is included in the
itinerary. We saw crocodiles there which don't move (no leopard) and loads of
birds at both but there was more birdlife at Kaudulla.
The most enjoyable activity was walking on Horton Plains, looking at plants,
wildlife and the amazing view.


Our group leader was excellent. He went out of his way to explain about the
history and natural history of the island, using his own visual aids! Nothing
was too much trouble and he was constantly looking out for our welfare, from
health and safety to making sure that we were served the drinks we had
ordered.
He also helped us to organise our onward travel at the end of the Exodus
trip.


Sri Lanka is an amazing place full of friendly people but in most places
there are no pavements or streetlights so if you are out after dark, take a
torch and/or flag down a tuk tuk (very cheap).

Not all ATMs will give very much money - some restrict it to less than 40,000
rupees (£200). Hatton National Bank (HNB) will give you up to 200,000 rupees
and charge 200.


Sri Lanka is a fantastic and varied country and 2 weeks is a very short time
to spend there.