Customer feedback - Sri Lanka and the Maldives

As we are always striving to improve the quality of our service and delivery of our holidays we appreciate any comments received from our customers. Immediate and appropriate action is taken when holidays drop below our very high standards. Please read what previous customers have to say about us - warts and all! Please be aware that the comments included in Customer Feedback are the personal views and opinions of individual customers and not those of Tikalanka Tours. Explanatory notes and our responses to customer comments are contained in square parentheses.

"Just really wanted to say thanks for the holiday. We had a fantastic time. I must admit when we told friends and family we were going to Sri Lanka there were a few raised eyebrows. The truth is I have never been so relaxed in my entire life. The kids loved it, every stop over on the tour, every - occasionally - bone rattling mile of the tour. Without your [John] and Pathi's [chauffeur guide] experience and suggestions we would have missed out on some of the most memorable experiences of our lives. Anuradhapura, the night time puja, the moon illuminating the huge white Stupa, the pilgrims wandering among the thousands of coconut oil lamps - the impromptu elephant safari at Minneriya National Park. The kids had been talking about wild elephants when Pathi said, 'would you like to go now, I know a place'. Within half an hour we were driving around, just the five of us in the back of an open-topped jeep, and with the sun beginning to go down we saw thirty wild elephants all within an hour. Thanks John, and thanks Pathi for the time of our lives. At breakfast, about a week after getting back, Adam, our 10-year-old said, 'Dad, I miss Pathi'. We'll be back." Kevin, Susan, Nathan & Adam, Scotland, December 2006/January 2007 In a travel feature, "The island of dreams", in Home Plus Scotland Kevin Low describes his family holiday in Sri Lanka with Tikalanka Tours and the magical attractions that await you!

"A very enjoyable trip, lovely countryside and people. An excellent driver/guide [Yapa] who did his utmost to ensure we were well looked after and enjoyed our holiday." Maggie & Russ, England, December 2006/January 2007

"Just to say how wonderful the tour was - I had a fantastic time and Sena was a great guide and driver - he tried his best to make things easy and enjoyable for me; he was also very knowledgeable about all the wildlife and obviously his religion Buddhism and its history / philosophy etc and we got on well. Highlights - the road up to Kandy and the waterfalls but most of all Sigiriya and Sigiriya Village - nicest hotel. The day to relax on the beach at Tangalle was brilliant although I wasn't impressed with the Manahara [Beach Cottage and Cabanas]. The other hotels were all pretty good especially being up in the tower [suite] at Yala [Village, Yala] - just a shame I had no one to enjoy that with. Anyway thank you very much for arranging just the right things for me to do and see - I will have very special memories of the island and my trip." Karen, England, December 2006/January 2007

"Most of the accommodation was fine or excellent, some was not. The monuments and the country speak for themselves. The driver guide [Upul] was very good. The car was not what we had been promised and was on the cheap. Based on our overall experience we would recommend Tikalanka Tours to anyone, particularly at your end [John, in England] where the itinerary and organisational arrangements were very professional and personal." Sonia & James, England, December 2006/January 2007

"This was a fantastic trip of a lifetime for us and we were very grateful for the support we were given in devising our holiday schedule and for the professional and seamless way that the holiday was pulled together. The flexibility that the holiday offered meant that we were able to spend most time at the places we really wanted to see and still have time in between visits to relax. The choice of hotels we stayed at was excellent and we loved the personal touch of having our own driver/guide [Pathi] who introduced us to his family and shared with us his knowledge of his beautiful country. Our holiday more than lived up to our expectations and I would definitely recommend Tikalanka Tours to my friends and family." Siobhan & Marc, England, November 2006 Also, see the ResponsibleTravel.com holiday review.

"We set out for a holiday to remember and came back from the trip of a lifetime. Tikalanka made this holiday extremely special and Pathi [chauffeur guide] was a highlight with his warmth, generosity, good humour and expertise. We'll be back!" Peter & Sheila, England, October 2006 Also, see the ResponsibleTravel.com holiday review.

"Our honeymoon trip was organised by Tikalanka Tours and was due to be 2 weeks of culture, nature and beaches. John at Tikalanka was fantastic throughout, nothing seemed too much trouble and he was also full of advice about the island. As part of the package you get your own personal driver/guide for the whole trip. Our driver was called Pathi. A native Sri Lankan, about 5 feet tall with a cheeky grin. He was very professional and highly informative whilst working, but also great company and very funny. I don't think we would have seen half of what we did without him and certainly kept us entertained throughout. The organised tours were designed to give us a taster of Sri Lankan history, culture and way of life. The trips were all different and included such diverse locations as temples, ruins, spice gardens and massage centres. The highlight for me was the jeep safari through Minneriya National Park. There were two hundred or so elephants visible from our jeep some of them as close as 10 metres! Suffice it to say the accommodation and hospitality were all first class, particularly so at Tangalle [Palm Paradise Cabanas]. I'd definitely recommend Sri Lanka, especially post-tsunami as the tourist dollar/pound is more important than ever. A visit really can contribute to saving lives. The director of Tikalanka [John] is heavily involved in the reconstruction of the island so I am confident that a proportion of the cost of our trip is being put back into the island. Also, don't let the civil strife put you off. Most of the fighting is taking place in the north and east of the island a long way from the tourist areas and we didn't see any hint of the troubles." Jaime & Alexis, England, August/September 2006 Also, see the ResponsibleTravel.com holiday review. "Stunning Sri Lanka" is how Alexis and Jaime described their honeymoon on the island with Tikalanka Tours in Perfect Wedding magazine.

"I am writing to sincerely thank you for your help recently when booking a holiday to Sri Lanka through your organisation, Tikalanka. Immediately it became obvious that we would book with Tikalanka. The main reason for this was the incredible knowledge of Sri Lanka that you [John] possessed and the courtesy you showed me. It was a pleasure to talk with you. After explaining to you our requirements you then prepared two excellent itineraries for us which we could access through your equally excellent website. The detail you provided in terms of where we would be travelling, the hotels we would be staying in and the safari you had arranged was exceptional. We also greatly appreciated the honesty you showed with regard to places to stay, etc to ensure that the holiday we selected would suit our needs. It was very refreshing to speak with someone selling me a service that actually told me the truth even if it meant that they may not secure business from it. In short, your professionalism, expertise and website are of the highest quality and considerably superior to those of your competitors. Coupled with the politeness, ethics, honesty and kindness you demonstrated I can genuinely say that it was an absolute pleasure dealing with you. As you can see I cannot speak highly enough about your company and you as an individual. We would still love to travel to Sri Lanka at some stage (as soon as we can afford it) and I would not think about speaking to any other operator about arranging this trip for us. I would recommend you very highly to anyone intending to visit Sri Lanka and have already done so to a work colleague who is thinking of going next year." Miguel, Teresa & Javier, England, August 2006

"Just a short note to thank you for arranging the trip. Everything went well and we really enjoyed it. We will certainly be returning. The Kandy House [Kandy] and The Sun House [Galle] were real highlights in terms of accommodation. Shirley, our driver, was excellent and it was much appreciated that Pathi dropped in on us to check everything was okay." Dominic & Lisa, England, August 2006

"I just wanted to drop you a quick line to thank you for changing our accommodation towards the end of our trip last week. Although the cabanas [Palm Paradise Cabanas, Tangalle] were in a lovely location and looked really nice, we were disappointed by the bathroom facilities, in particular because we only had a tepid trickle of water coming out of the shower after a day at the beach when we really wanted to get ourselves clean. I would say, however, that they were very well equipped with the games facilities etc, and the restaurant was also very good there. Please also pass on my thanks to Mr Pathirana for arranging the change at such short notice. We had a really lovely holiday in Sri Lanka." Victoria & Giorgio, England, August 2006

"Our guide, Mr Pathi, really made this holiday very special. His care, attention, flexibility and humour were wonderful. We can't praise him enough. Well done Tikalanka!" Marcus & Sadhbh, Wales, August 2006

"My ideas and Tikalanka knowledge produced an excellent holiday. Pathi drove excellently but a little more attention to detail both with regards to the state of the vehicle and in giving warning of what to expect in terms of potential rip offs would have been helpful. In general he did very well." John & Janet, England, May 2006

"What did you like most about Sri Lanka? The tour itself - the format of it and the friendly guide [Sena]. Experiencing things NOT done for tourists (real life). What did you like least about Sri Lanka? The hassle you get (when not with your guide) just walking down the street, looking at sites, sounds. Any other comments? Relaxing after the tour was very useful. Club Villa [Bentota] was gorgeous and ideal for honeymooners (like us). On your website you indicate tipping amounts at temples and for porters but we were a bit unsure tipping our guide at the end. We MAY have tipped him a week's wages (we don't know)." Matt & Katy, England, April 2006

"We had a fantastic holiday and Pathi was an excellent guide." Grayson & Nicola, England, April 2006

"Tikalanka were a great company to book with! We thoroughly enjoyed our holiday - it was an amazing experience and one that we will never forget. Pathi was the most incredible host, driver, and friend. We really hit it off and formed a great bond with him, and ended up spending many of our evenings with him chatting and drinking! We really did have the holiday of a lifetime, adored all the accommodation we stayed in, and are planning to stay with Pathi and his family in the near future. Sri Lanka will now always be in our hearts and we miss our great friend Pathi very much. Please give him our love and best wishes and say Ayubowan from us!" Steve & Lucy, England, April 2006

"What did you like most about Sri Lanka? The people, history, colour, scenery. What did you like least about Sri Lanka? Traffic in Kandy. Tipping. Any other comments? Some guidance regarding the amount of tip to 'driver' would have been very helpful. Other than the tipping issue, our driver [Sisira] was very good." Phil & Sheila, England, March/April 2006

"I wanted to thank you for the wonderful service you provided in planning and booking our holiday. Overall, we really enjoyed ourselves - we brought back wonderful memories, some lovely photos and some mementos (masks, spices, jewellery etc!). The highlights for us were: Accommodation at The Kandy House [Kandy], Deer Park Hotel [Polonnaruwa] and The Colony [Tangalle] - fabulous hotels, delightful experience staying there. Pathi - he lived up to his reputation! He's helpful, has loads of information about the places we visited, the country in general, and was obviously keen to make our holiday the best it could be. He even came up Adam's Peak with us as he was worried about Mark's stitches! The safari [Yala] was a great experience - lots of animals, knowledgeable driver. The camping afterwards was disappointing - we arrived in the dark and had a poor night's sleep! The curry lunch we had at the Spice Garden [Matale] - one of the best curries of the holiday - loads of it and cheap! The tea area and The Tea Factory [Kandapola] was beautiful. The disappointments for us were: The Kandyan Dancers [Kandy] - they looked bored and disinterested in their performance - it was too touristy (and loud!) for us. The Galle Face Hotel [Colombo] - too run down and past its prime. The waiters were rude, the food was ordinary (tinned veg!). The room/suite was HUGE but dark, dated and dirty. A disappointing last night in a lovely country. Thank you - the Tikalanka experience has been great - I have been recommending you and Sri Lanka to lots of friends. I was really impressed with your no-fuss rearrangement of our accommodation to the Deer Park - thank you. We loved the Deer Park - it was a really lovely start to the holiday. " Jennie & Mark, England, March 2006

"Just to let you know that we had a fantastic time in Sri Lanka. Pathi was excellent at knowing the best time to see and do things so that we got the most out of the experience. We learnt a lot about the country, its people and their religion and felt very honoured when Pathi took us to Anuradhapura for the full moon festival. We were very impressed with the accommodation - I think Yala Village [Yala] came out as the favourite for all of us. The staff in all the hotels was friendly and helpful. It was a very busy but enjoyable 10 days. Thank you for a well-organised, exciting trip." Kath, Adrian & Sally, England, February 2006 Also, see the ResponsibleTravel.com holiday review.

"Full marks throughout to your drivers/guides/managers. How they manage to keep going for hours over those difficult roads, stay calm and polite and helpful at all times we don't know - without the comfort which we had. Sinharaja Rest [guesthouse] very good, lovely people. And the trek in the forest was a quite superb introduction to the wildlife - one or two of which almost seemed deliberately posed for us. Yala West [National Park] was excellent and the drive there very interesting for the tsunami damage and repair. The bird trip was very good but again I made a mistake with the tip - how to estimate? The drive up to The Tea Factory [Kandapola] was exciting. By now the matter of the seat belt is forgotten and we take our risks without a thought. Tea Factory itself. Wonderfully authentic. Food - as one might expect, great. Taken for a walk around part of the tea plantation, where we bought some 'treacle': very good. Nuwara Eliya was a disappointment. [Heritance] Kandalama [Dambulla]. Well, what to say? Extraordinary and splendid despite some problematic leaks and a rebuild going on at sixth and seventh floors levels. We'd have liked a little time to enjoy the pool, but other tours - we have to say rightly - took up the time. Food incredibly varied and imaginative to match, and the bedrooms - out of this world. Thanks again." Pat & Margaret, England, January 2006

"The guide - Sisira - was excellent. Extremely knowledgeable, friendly and helpful." Ceri & Sue, England, January 2006

"Just wanted to write and tell you what a great time we had and to give you a little feedback on the not so good bits. Sigiriya and Polonnaruwa were wonderful but oh the driving and the roads! Very tiring indeed. The drive from Apa Villas [Unawatuna] to the airport was 5 hours so the journey home was exhausting. The Apa Villa was gorgeous, faultless, beautiful. We had wonderful service and a very nice time and went to some other good restaurants. The Illuketia Plantation [Galle], owned by the same man, is stunning. The Lighthouse Hotel [Galle] really is very smart and is everything that the [Heritance] Kandalama [Dambulla] should be. [Heritance Kandalama was completing refurbishment at the time] Anyway, thank you again for organising it all so well at what was pretty much the last minute. We loved Sri Lanka." Annabel & Octavian, England, January 2006 Also, see the ResponsibleTravel.com holiday review.

For more customer comments from previous years, please click on the link below:

• 2005