Holidays in Sri Lanka
Hello everyone who wants to relax in Sri Lanka. We will try to write as detailed a review as possible.
We took a ticket with my wife to the tour agency BTV-tour Odessa (from Join-Up) from 01.08. 2016 to 10.08. 2016 including three days of excursions. Our flight was from Kyiv, Zhuliany airport flydubai at 15:10, with a transfer in Dubai. We got to Kyiv by Autolux VIP (ticket 415gr for one, 6.30 min). Departed normally without delay in Dubai landed at 21:50 (flight time 5.40min), from Dubai to Colombo 4.40min. And finally, we are in Sri Lanka, everything was fine until we came to the visa registration desk, as soon as we gave our passports and $ 80 for two visas, their program on the computer hung and we stood at the counter for about 2 hours, to our questions about what took so long, we were told that the computer (from a broken one)). At the end of two hours, we were finally given our passports and we went to look for our luggage.
After receiving the luggage, we headed to the exit where a Join-Up representative should meet us, at the same exit we found a bank branch where we exchanged currency and bought a local phone. card. (keep the currency exchange receipt on departure, you can change the remaining ruppies back, but with a commission). To our surprise, at the exit after more than 2 hours of delay, a Join-Up employee was waiting for us, he introduced himself to us as Alex and he was our guide for all three days of the tour. As it turned out, we bought an individual tour, so we went together in a Toyota with a guide and a driver. The first day of the tour we visited Segiriya (we really liked it there, we advise you to look), we stayed at the Sorowwa 4 * hotel for the night.
On the second day, we visited the Shop with national clothes, the Temple of the Golden Buddha, the spice garden, the royal botanical garden, the gem shop and told us about the method of their extraction, we stayed overnight at the Regent 4 * hotel in Kandy (we really liked the hotel) . On the third day, we were taken to see the production of their wooden products and souvenirs, we also visited the Temple of the Tooth Relic (this is the most spiritual place in Sri Lanka, by the way, if you don’t know Buddhism is practiced here and this is not a religion but a philosophy), a tea factory and a plantation, we stopped by to the local bazaar, to the elephant nursery, in the evening we were taken to our hotel Cinnamon Bey Beruwala 5 *. Upon arrival, we were immediately seated in room 340, as we took the type of food AI, the room was given superior, it differs from the standard of the current bathroom on the balcony.
According to the AI system, we were provided with breakfast-lunch and dinner at the main Buffe restaurant (if you do not take AI, then you have to pay for all drinks except breakfast even at the main restaurant), at IceBar we were provided with a separate AI menu that included soft drinks, cocktails, alcohol, beer of local production as well as salads and snacks. You can also change your dinner from the main restaurant to dinner at any a la carte restaurant (special menu), in the a la carte restaurants themselves, the prices are quite high compared to local restaurants, about twice. The food is varied on average, everyone will find something to eat but nothing more, you will not see special delicacies (shrimps, lobsters, lobsters, etc. ). Despite the good food and AI for lunch, we went to restaurants Podsolnukh and Sasha's just in order to taste local fish delicacies.
We liked it more in Sunflower, although the prices there are slightly higher than Sasha's, but the service in Sunflower is much better (you can see the menu with prices in the photo). The hotel itself is generally not bad, but it doesn’t pull 5 *, the service is lame, the food does not correspond to five stars, the rooms are standard, nothing special, the beach near the hotel is not big, the bay near the hotel is closed by reefs, creating a quiet lagoon in which mostly locals swim, since they are afraid of the open sea and basically do not know how to swim, there are still a lot of beach-fights on the beaches that are very annoying and offer you everything you can, but if you walk 300 meters to the left of the hotel you will find a wonderful beach and there are also restaurants Podsolnukh and Sasha. You can also rent surfboards here (for those who are learning, I’ll tell you on the board, take care of your knees and be in a T-shirt, the board is very rubbing) We rated the hotel for a solid 4 * (this is our opinion).
in general, I really liked the rest, especially Sigiriya, the elephant farm, the beach and the ocean)
Freshes are not included in AI.
We used the services of the beach-boy Nicholas, an honest and conscientious guy (he knows Russian).
If we manage to add a photo, everything is there from beginning to end), there will be questions, write. We will be glad to help you.
