Bonato/Donovan family
Ireland, June/July 2025
What did you like most about Sri Lanka?
Us:
Food.
Nature.
Architecture (Temple [of the Tooth] in Kandy and Geoffrey Bawa’s house in Colombo [No.11, 33rd Lane]).
The teenage daughters:
The beach.
The pools.
The food.
The fresh fruit juices (they did not have 1 fizzy drink for the whole holiday, first time ever!).
What did you like least about Sri Lanka?
The heat (the kids liked it though).
The leaches on the Knuckles Mountain.
The tipping arrangement. We found it quite stressful as we always needed to have small notes and there was a LOT of staff. One suggestion we have is to organise a tipping fund that the driver can distribute for us or maybe every hotel should have a common tipping fund to be shared amongst all staff. [Many thanks for your suggestion regarding tipping, which is always a contentious subject amongst our customers. For your information, many hotels do have a general tipping box at the front desk. Arranging a tipping fund through our chauffeur guides would put undue responsibility on their shoulders, and, culturally, I believe they would feel uncomfortable handling tipping on behalf of customers.]
What is your opinion of your accommodation in Sri Lanka?
From best to worst:
Villa Hindura [Hundira], Negombo (stunning, amazing food and super quiet. Huge suit [suite] room).
Amba Yaalu, Dumbulla (beautiful, quiet, very good food and very clean).
Galle Face Hotel [Colombo] (not as clean and comfortable as the others given that it’s so old and you can feel the dampness from the Ocean but it is such a beautiful building. Good buffet not as good as the ones above but lots of choices).
At pair with Galle Face Hotel – Amaya Hills, Kandy (beautiful location, building oldish with less charm of Galle Face but the food was very good, probably better than Galle Face).
Wild Glamping Knuckles – great place for tranquility, amazing tents super clean and comfortable, very nice staff. The food was ok. Great Sri Lankan breakfast but the dinner was less exciting, but we understand that it’s difficult to cook with limited electricity etc. We didn’t mind because we only stayed two nights. I would suggest to bring lots of snacks and their own food in case they feel hungry.
Maalu Maalu Resort [& Spa, Passikudah] – fantastic location. We are so glad you sent us there. Because of the reef the sea was not rough at all while we had friends who went on the South coast and could never get into the water. The food was not so good especially at dinner but we enjoyed going to local restaurants which were a short walk away. Some also took you home on tuk tuk free of charge (Captain something and Nature something). The food in these places was authentic and cheaper than the one in the hotel. We did enjoy cocktails on the beach at Maalu Maalu after dinner. The pool was great and the beach amazing but because of the food and the rooms not being as nice as the other hotels we put it last. But it was still a great stay.
In general we were very impressed by how few people were at all the hotels we went to. I wonder if it was just the right time of the year, before UK school holidays? Only Kandy and Colombo were busier but both hotels were very well managed so it did not affect us.
What is your opinion of your chauffeur guide in Sri Lanka?
Both Wasantha and Ravi were very good. We hope Wasantha gets better soon. Pathi was very helpful to re-organise things once we had to change the driver. He was very kind to pick us up at Knuckles Glamping and take us to Kandy.
What is your opinion of your flights to and from Sri Lanka?
The flights were fine. Emirates is very good. [Arranged own flights]
Any other comments?
We had a fantastic time. It was our first visit to Sri Lanka. We chose Sri Lanka as we heard great things about it from friends. We wanted to take the girls somewhere far and different but at the same time we wanted to avoid very touristy destinations like Thailand and at the same time we wanted to avoid monsoons as we live in Ireland and it rains a lot! We were also very interested in the food. We heard of Tikalanka through Responsible Travel.com.
I wouldn’t return too soon just because if we were to take another holiday of this caliber then we would like to experience something new, maybe Japan next time. We would certainly recommend Sri Lanka as a holiday destination and Tikalanka too.
Get an esim as soon as you arrive at the airport otherwise when you are not connected to wi-fi you cannot even receive phone calls. Useful when you are out to use googlemap and to phone restaurants.
Find a way of organising the small tipping.
Bring snacks to the Wild Glamping [Knuckles] and explain to potential clients that it only makes sense to stay there if they are willing to go on an organised walk otherwise there is not much to do at the camping [site] apart from relaxing.
At Maalu Maalu go for dinner at nearby restaurants. They can phone and book and they pick you up for free with a tuk tuk.
« All feedback
