Wild About Sri Lanka - 10 days

Akthar was absolutely wonderful from start to finish. He considered each guests requests and preferences personally and catered to them with no fuss. We found Akthar extremely polite, knowledgeable, interesting and also had our best interests at heart. We felt that we travelled as first class guests from start to finish. Akhtar kept us all amused during the coach journeys with his humour, knowledge of local people and surroundings. When we were in Akhtar's company we knew we didn't have a worry in the world. He went the extra mile every day from dawn to dust and was always around late into the evening just in case we needed anything but was never intrusive. We believe Akhtar made our trip extra special. Thank you 'On The Go Tours' and the biggest and most sincere thank you to Akhtar.

The tour was excellent. Akhthar was exceptional & I would highly recommend him.

I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed the tour of Sri Lanka. Everything provided on the tour was excellent - the bus, the hotels, the driver and assistant, and especially the guide. Akthar was so friendly, knowledgable and helpful the whole tour and we really missed him the last few days when we went in a different direction. I do have some comments which I didn't include on the feedback forms that I wanted to share with you, but overall I loved the trip - best holiday ever! My thoughts were: On arrival/start at the hotel it would be good to be advised of the arranged time to meet the guide for the introduction session. I was concerned that I wouldn’t get the message if I was out, and although it worked out fine, it would been reassuring. Sigiriya - climbing in the morning was great. The main part of the climb was in the shade at that time. Mirissa - the hotel was comfortable although there were some small issues with the room such as the kettle was broken. As we weren’t whale watching there was nothing to do in the town or hotel. I personally would have preferred to stay near Galle to explore more of the town and fort rather than stay in Mirissa. After sitting a lot with the train, driving and safaris for the few previous days i would have liked to be able to walk and explore somewhere rather than sitting around the hotel.

Aktar is a very good tour leader. He is very helpful and knowledgeable, as well as being a very nice person. If he does have a fault it is that sometimes he talks a bit too much. As a result, sometimes people 'turn off; and may miss a significant announcement. But overall he is one of the best tour leaders that I have encountered.

Amazing tour. Some great treasures that we got to see. Most of the hotels included were great (Hotel in Marissa could be missed if not doing the whale watching, which we didn't, as the hotel wasn't good). I can not stress that this tour was made by the guide Akthar. An amazing guide, had a considerable amount of knowledge and knew how to interact with us all. He really did make the trip and kept us all together. Respectful to us and the locals. Just a great guide.

The first couple of days were very full. It might be worth doing two nights in Dambulla and taking in the national park close by, and reducing the time in Kandy to one night rather than two. The hotel quality was generally excellent. The Mirissa hotel looked a bit worn but the location was perfect.

We arrived in Sri Lanka on the 20th April this year and headed out on the tour on 21st April missing the Easter Sunday hotel bombings in Colombo. Despite our obvious shock at the attacks, our group decided to continue with the tour. Manoj was able to give us updates on everything happening regularly and answered our questions as honestly and clearly as he could. He made us feel that our safety was the first priority both of himself and On The Go tours. We were always given options if there was any doubt about a destination and he was always willing to be guided by our thoughts. He was warm, caring and helpful. I understand that additional On The Go staff were also visiting our accommodations prior to our arrival and making sure that all was OK- a great service appreciated by us all. Unfortunately it was quite difficult to get the full picture of the real daily life of Sri Lankans but we certainly got a taste of the beautiful country and many of the things it had to offer. My daughter and I would especially like to thank On the Go tours for changing our Colombo accommodation from the Ozo Hotel to the Cinnamon Bay for the final stay at the end of the tour. My only suggestion- we continued with a small group to complete the Wild about Sri Lanka tour. Being a biologist and lover of nature I think it would have been great if our guide Deeptee had been able to provide a couple of pairs of binoculars for game and bird viewing, it would have made our experience richer. We were also very appreciative of his willingness to add in a couple of small tours that was of interest to the group. We loved the turtle hatchery and boat tour. The whole experience was really well run and professional. Thank you On The Go, and we send everyone in the Sri Lanka team our very best wishes.

The tour and tour guide were both very good, covering a good range of places, historical sites, wildlife etc. On the tour, we specifically enjoyed Sigriya, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Train ride from Kandy to N.E, Yala and Uda Walawe National Parks, Village tour with home cooked food and Galle Fort. The tour guide was knowledgeable, friendly, helpful and ran a good tour. He helped us to get the best from the experience and kept us on track.

The tour war arranged really good. Akthar is a perfect tour guide. The tour chauffeur guide from day 8-10 was not as helpfull as expected, but polite.

My tour was split effectively into the basic tour at the beginning and the "wild" more safari type at the end. I had 2 Guides, the first was quite dour, not unfriendly but not friendly. He was brusque and seemingly did not have time for social niceties. He had a lot of information but was not clear in terms of instructions for scheduling etc. He did provide water bottles and re-filling of these and also wi-fi, I am not sure if these are standard within the On the go tours package, but he emphasised that he had organised them. Our second guide was great, very informative, patient, friendly and spoke about the culture of the country and etc which made the toud feel much more personal. Obviously this was a group of only 5 people, so it was easier for him to be this connected through the size of the group and the time to dedicate to organising us. Sadly the main drawback to the tour was created by other members of the group! A very disagreable woman who liked to talk constantly over the guide, telling us all kinds of useless information about her home country and also being rude to other members of the group. I realise there is little to nothing which can be done about other members, the guide in the second group was very patient with her. The first guide lost his temper and brought the group together to tell us all off on our last night - not the best note to leave on!