Sri Lanka is an island country..where the contours of the land itself forms a kind of sinewy poetry.
A very special island that travellers, from Sinbad to Marco Polo, dreamed about and with similar aspirations, me and my fiancée decided to visit SL for our honeymoon.
We explored different options and stumbled upon Travel Triangle, who seemed well versed with SL, were offering competitive prices. Had a Chat an online agent - Swati and within a day, we received 4 quotes from 4 Vendors.
We decided to go forward with 'Direct Link' as the Travel Co-ordinator Anto, was polite/courteous, knowledgable and honest, was able to understand our requirements and provide the best tour schedule i.e 5 days and 4 nights at Colombo/Kandy - Nuwara Eliya - Nuwara Eliya - Bentota - Bentota/Colombo. This ensured that we were able to enjoy various topographies urban/hill station/mountains/beach. Anto co-ordinated end to end right from time we had initial chat to the time we completed the tour.
We Had to pay 10% as Booking and the remaining amount was paid just before we boarded our flight to Colombo from Chennai. ( They do give option to pay the remaining amount on arrival in Colombo, however, with network issues, it might be tad difficult, esp in receiving OTPs et all)
Mr Hafis was our assigned tour guide as well as transporter. He was a through professional, brilliant knowledge and insights on the tourist places. He was so amazing with providing all the statistics, dates, dimensions, USPs of the places that made us admire and appreciate the places even more than we would have probably done. Also, special mention about his driving skills, we spent so much time on road but not once we experienced any jerk or lack of comfort.
All the Hotels were brilliant - Topaz (Kandy) , Galway Heights(Nuwara Eliya) and Pandanus Beach Resort & Spa (Bentota). Staff, Room/View from Room and Food.
Word of caution - If you are a VEG like me, it is rather important that you let reception know about it , as and when you check-in the hotel.
Direct Link are experts in chalking out the travel schedule in such a way that you enjoy the max number of tourist places in as little time as possible.
Of all the travel options provided, we enjoyed the below mentioned the most -
Ambevala Farm, Strawberry Farm
Batik Factory and Gems Museum
Bluefield Tea Estate ( Mohamed the Tea Guide was Brilliant)
Ramboda, Devon and St Clair's Falls
Gangaramaya Temple
Gregory Lake
Hanuman Temple and Sita Amman Kovil
Kandy Lake, Temple of Tooth Relic and Kandyan Cultural Show, Upper Lake Drive
Madu River Safari - CINNAMON ISLAND-BUDDHIST TEMPLE-HINDU TEMPLE - DELTA- FISH FARM
Marine Drive
Important National Monuments
Nuwara Eliya Post Office and Royal Botanical Gardens, Peradeniya
Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage ( Break Fast at Villa Pinnewala)
Addressing the elephant in the room, the security in SL post the 21st April attacks is pretty heavy and upto the mark. Just be prepared for random checks of the car by the Sri Lankan Army. However, it does not have much impact on your experience. No matter where you go, you are greeted by the happily smiling Sri Lankan, as afterall they do hold the World Record of most plesant and smiling people in the world record i.e ~ 86% of the poulation (Another gem shared by our tour guide - Hafis)
We had a great time in Lanka and take this opportunity to THANK Travel Triangle, Swati, Direct Link, Anto and Hafis for making this a beautiful trip that we will cherish forever.
Arvind Kumar booked a trip to Sri Lanka for 5 days in a group of 2 adults on TravelTriangle website from Direct Link Pvt Ltd and submitted a review on Jun 25, 2019