Reviews

Sri Lanka - An Experience

A wonderful country and friendly people who love their home. We got to see a variety of habitats in the south during this trip which makes for an interesting trip with great variety. Our tour manager went out of his way to give us the best “Sri Lankan Experience”. We were able to see a wide range of wildlife. For birders the variety seen was good. Mammal life is restricted in what Sri Lanka has but we managed to see many of what there is, exceptions the Sloth Bear and Leopard. The scenery was fantastic in places, loved the tea plantations and trees. Hotels were average, clean and comfortable, what you might expect on a tour to some remote areas, this is not a 5* hotel tour. The weather was good, tropical downpour in the rain forest and hot, dry, dusty days in the parks.

Most Inspirational Moment

Hard to choose one. The scenery and tea plantations, national parks and the animals within including monkey, jackals, wild boar and elephant. The Elephant transit home at feeding time.

Thoughts on Group Leader

Thushan was full of enthusiasm. Determined to provide us with real Sri Lankan experiences, which he succeeded in. A little more assertiveness in decisions required maybe as he tried to please everyone and found it impossible to please all. We had some issues with a couple of members of the group and he was tested, but handled the issue professionally as far as he was allowed. He gave everyone in the group equal attention and made sure we kept hydrated and safe.

Advice for Potential Travellers

Expect early starts and some long days, only way to see the best on offer over a wide area. Do not be disappointed if you do not see everything, the wildlife is wild, not captive. Take care with the leeches, they can be picked up even in the rainforest lodge grounds, socks are available at the lodge so you need not take your own. Do not forget sun protection.

Reply from Exodus

We would like to thank both Robert and John (review below) for their reviews, although we remain sorry that their trips were impacted on by this unfortunate incident.  It is incredibly unusual that there are any altercations or disagreements between group members, and we appreciate that group members can have different perspectives when an incident like this occurs.  As a tour operator, Exodus has to have a zero tolerance towards any violence on our trips and we have been in touch with both clients about the very different concerns that they raise.

 

Lucy Crabb – Customer Services Manager

The tour was good, Exodus UK repsonse to critical incident was poor

i returned from Wild Sri Lanka, the tour was good. If your a birder you will love the trip but you will need to take binoculars. I did not take mine as prior the trip did another trip to the Ancient cities and Jaffna.
The accommodation is ok , although the last hotel was really hot and is the one that is not air conditioned. The heat made it quite uncomfortable.
The tour guide, driver and assistant were excellent. The naturalist seemed more interested in talking to people with big cameras, chatting to the two young women and at times taking pics for Instagram
On the trip you will see a great variety of birds and some mammals. On this trip we saw Blue Whale, Pilot Whale, Spinner Dolphin, Bottle nose Dolphin. Elephant, Mongoose, Purple faced Leaf Monkey, Macaque Giant Squirrel , another type of squirrel, water buffalo, Hare, Wild Pig. Alas no Leopard or Sloth Bear. I think it was the wrong time of year to see Leopard.

Unfortunately i was assaulted by another member of the tour group and it took Exodus UK more than 24 hours to remove the person. The guide and country rep have no power to take action. Exodus UK dealt with the issue during UK business hours. It was a very scary 24 hours having to be around the perpetrator for 3 meal and 2 activities. I chose not to do the extra safari and the perpetrator was going on it. After the removal of the person , no contact from Exodus UK about how i was.
IT is only on my return to Australia and after complaining in writing and then to my travel agent that a company representative did contact me. I found there response to my concerns not satisfactory, they were really defensive.
So if you do go on this tour , i really hope nothing bad happens and you wont get a prompt response.

Most Inspirational Moment

Perhaps seeing Blue whale

Thoughts on Group Leader

Thushan was excellent and we had many "Sri lanka" experiences. I really liked his style

Advice for Potential Travellers

Beware if a critical incident occurs, make sure you have a sri lankan sim and email. So you can contact Exodus UK directly and your own travel agent

Reply from Exodus

We would like to thank both John and Robert (review above) for their reviews, although we remain sorry that their trips were impacted on by this unfortunate incident.  It is incredibly unusual that there are any altercations or disagreements between group members, and we appreciate that group members can have different perspectives when an incident like this occurs.  As a tour operator, Exodus has to have a zero tolerance towards any violence on our trips and we have been in touch with both clients about the very different concerns that they raise.

 

Lucy Crabb – Customer Services Manager

Wacky Races in the National Parks!

Our trip specifically aimed at maximum attention on wildlife was somewhat disappointing. The reason for the disappointment was especially the complete lack of control of the amount of safari vehicles allowed in the national parks and the drivers disregard for speed control (25K per hr) we must have been doing at least 35 – 40 mph and overtaking masses of other vehicles all racing to see either the sighting of a sloth bear or latterly the sighting of the leopard in a tree about 300 meters away in a tree. I wouldn’t be surprised if all the animals scattered during visiting times of tourist knowing what mayhem was in store! Once in view of the leopard (only seen with binoculars at that distance) passengers then suffered from carbon monoxide fumes whilst drivers went past the area not once, not twice but three times!. It is difficult to know how you can change the culture of such behaviour of the guides/drivers as it seems to be inherent. Walks in the Udawala were along the road track leading to the eco lodge were ok but not astoundingly memorable. The birders in the group were enthused.

Wild Sri Lanka

Wild Sri Lanka – this trip was really disappointing as a location for wildlife. We certainly didn’t see elephant herds in Uawalawe and I was horrified that on one occasion we were part of a group of 6 jeeps surrounding ONE elephant. This is not acceptable wildlife viewing. As a result of such a disappointing day I didn’t go on the morning game drive in Yale NP on Day 8.
The transfers between places were far too long. For example: On Day 8 the safari trip started at 4.30am – a one hour drive to NP – 4 hours in a Jeep – one hour drive to return to the accommodation then after lunch a 3 1/2 hour drive to Talalla !! This was a day of nearly 10 hours in a jeep and coach.
This is absolutely unacceptable.
Finally, I was totally fed up with buffet food. We had just one hotel that offered us a choice in 15 days. The best food was provided by our visit to a local village. Superb!

Amazing holiday

I wasn’t sure what to expect but wanted a holiday especially for the wildlife. I was not to be disappointed. We travelled between hotels in a large air conditioned coach. The food was excellent in most of the hotels especially the Hotel Insight and Kithala resort. I loved staying at the Eco Lodge but there was very little selection for vegetarians pasta with cheese or tomato sauce. The standard of hotels were very good although the service level at the Nil Days Mankada was poor. I would have preferred to stay a couple of nights at the Kithala resort instead of going to the Talalla retreat but that is just a personal preference. The whale watching was good and we did see blue whales dolphins a turtle and a ray but felt a bit sorry for the whales being converged on by so many boats. We had our on boat which was a lot nicer. The game drives were fantastic and we saw lots of birds and animals (even a leopard) and great to share the adventure with a lovely group of people.

Wonderful wildlife, great food, friendly people and a lovely group

We wanted a holiday where there was plenty of opportunity to see wildlife, and this lived up to our expectation. Whale watching (saw blue whales and pilot whales), lots of colourful birds, mammals and reptiles too – the bio-diversity, especially of birds, was staggering. We had a naturalist with us who was really good at spotting and identifying birds – that really made a difference.
The hotels we stayed in were all different with their own character, and with one exception, were of a high standard. Loved staying in the rainforest and doing yoga at the beach. Enjoyed Sri Lankan food and especially having tropical fruit every day and fresh fruit juices. The group of people we were with were all great.

Wildlife Sri Lanka

Thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Sri Lanka, the hotels are all unique, really enjoyed the container accommodation in the rainforest. The people all seemed very friendly. The Whale watching was a little disappointing as we only saw the one Blue Whale and it felt a little as if we were chasing after it when it breached, on the plus side we had the boat to ourselves.
The driving is pretty interesting but we had total confidence in our coach driver.
The food was very good, but you probably need to like curries!
The game parks are good, initially i thought they were going to be really busy with all the jeeps queuing to get their permits, but it was surprising where they all disappeared to within the parks. Downside was when we found a leopard all the drivers communicate this to each other and everybody descends on the spot.

Well organised trip

We booked this trip to make viewing wildlife easy for ourselves. We joined after 16 days of doing our own thing and looked forward to the group tour. The arrangements went according to plan except for the starting hotel which had been changed without our knowledge. On arrival at the correct place, we found it to be a pseudo-Egyptian monstrosity. The rest of the accommodation was much more as expected. The whale watching was tedious and involved 7 hours on a boat with a distant view of the tail of a whale. The boat race which ensued when it appeared that there was a chance to get closer to a whale was not productive and did not feel very considerate. There was a distinct lack of birds in Sinharaja and the attempt to see leopards in Yala was beyond belief with tens of trucks vying for position to see the tail of a leopard which was hidden in a tree. Not all of the hotels had much Sri Lankan food and there was limited vegetarian food at times. The packed lunches were poor.

Great way to see the nature of south Sri Lanka

This was a fantastic trip which gave great opportunities to see the diverse wildlife and landscapes of Sri Lanka. It was hot / humid when we went so the air con on the bus and the majority of the hotels was welcome. It was nice to have a couple of nights in most hotels. The stay in the rainforest lodge was incredible, and the rooms in the Talalla hotel were unusual and enjoyable. The bus journeys between accommodations were not too long, and the scenery was very enjoyable. There is so much birdlife and wildlife to see here.

Lovely country, lovely group but disappointing wildlife experience

Sri Lanka as a country is gorgeous and the people are delightful. My disappointment with the trip relates to how the tour was delivered by the local company and the fact that this should be advertised as a bird watching trip with the odd mammal sighting possible. We did see elephants and the blue whale but 90% of wildlife sightings are birds.

Most Inspirational Moment

Seeing an adult male elephant with a prostetic limb play in the watering hole at the Udawalawe Transit Home followed closely by spending a couple of hours watching a blue whale.

Thoughts on Group Leader

He was a delightful young man who was extremely enthusiastic and good fun to be around but he failed to adequately deal with concerns/ complaints raised by the group. The game drives were poorly organised. There was 16 in our group. We were put in 3 trucks which they named AB &C and we were we told we had to stay in the same groups so that we all had access to the nature guide. This didnt happen. As a member of jeep C, for all 4 game drives were we the third jeep in the line with limited sightings and always late to the wildlife party. Concerns were raised but not acted upon by the tour guide even when these become complaints. My wildlife game drive experience was eating my fellow travellers dust, hearing out what they were looking at and often seeing things behind shrubs or flying away when disturbed. I’ve never beed on a trip where the game drives were organised this way. If you were in jeeps A or B which alternated being at the front you had a much better experience than the 6 of us in jeep C

Advice for Potential Travellers

This is a bird watching trip. That was the emphasis of our naturalist guide and birds were in ambundance. Mammal sightings were limited. I didnt appreciate this and so was disappointed by the safari experience for this reason as well as how the jeeps were managed. I enjoyed staying in the rain forest and the ecolodge. The converted shipping containers were really cute and one of my hilights. They were hot during the day and cold at night but blankets are provided. We didnt walk along trails but walked up and down the tarmac road to the ecolodge. This limited the opportunity for wildlife sightings or should i more accurately say bird sightings as we were passed quite frequently by motorbikes. You need leech socks. These are provided so no need to bring your own. You need long trousers for this part of the trip.

Reply from Exodus

We would like to thank Claire for her feedback, although we were very sorry that her experience was so disappointing. We have responded to Claire directly and in response to this feedback, Exodus has reminded our local partner in Sri Lanka to try to ensure that the naturalist guide in Yala National Park rotates between the vehicles, and that the vehicle order should also be rotated where possible to ensure that everyone has a fair chance of wildlife sightings.

Jennifer Cox – Product Manager