Ceylon Tour North Kuoni

I have recently returned from Sri Lanka and Kuoni%26#39;s Ceylon Tour North. I cannot recommend it enough, there was an excellent balance of trips/actvities and time to relax. Travelling time between the various locations was not too onerous. It is also a verg good time to travel there because the number of tourists is very low. There were seven people on our tour and our guide (Walter) was superb.

The highlights for me were our climb to the top of Sigiriya and the afternoon safari on the last day.

As far as the accommodation was concerned, the first three hotels (Mount Lavinia, Chaaya Citadel and Village) were all excellent. Unfornatley the last two hotels (St Andrews and Centuria) were very disappointing and well below the standards I have come to expect from Kuoni.

The perfect ending to my tour was 6 nights in the Maldives (having travelled there before I already know that these islands are paradise on earth!)

Ceylon Tour North Kuoni

You are so right about the Centuria, worst place I%26#39;ve stayed, the food was dire and the front of house staff are the most ignorant Sinhalese people have ever met. Let kuoni know.

Ceylon Tour North Kuoni

Hi Schumy1, we have also just returned from Sri Lanka but chose the Kuoni Tour South. We started at Mount Lavinia (lovely hotel with excellent service) and then on to Hunas Falls hotel at Kandy. (Another decent hotel with good service). We then travelled to St Andrews where the room was awful (moved to another room a little better but not much) although the food was pretty good. (We weren%26#39;t prepared for hot water bottles in the beds though lol). We then travelled down south and stayed in the Centuria which without doubt was the worst hotel on the tour. Apart from the food being awful a waiter also managed to empty a bottle of coca cola over my camera!!! We then carried on to Galle where we had 7 nights in The Lighthouse which was marvellous. Service, food and rooms were exceptional. All in all a brilliant holiday marred only slightly by 2 inferior hotels which I have already written to Kuoni about. The country and general hospitality of the Sri Lankans is fantastic but there is a definite lack of tourists at the moment.

Hi

We also went on this tour back in October, ebding in 8 days at Bentota and then onto the Malidives for 6 nights. It was our honeymoon and i dont think we could have picked a better holiday. Our tour guide (Ajit) spoke excellent English and was very funny and helpful, there was only 6 people on the tour and we had a minivan. All of the Hotels i thought were fantastic. Other than Centuria (I had thought previously that we were being a bit snotty because the standard of the other hotels were so fantastic, i dont think now that we were though), the swimming pool was dirty and full of locals who didnt seem to appreciate us being there, there was a plate of leftover food attracting flies and the food really was of no standard. Thank god for Lion beer..4 bottles of that meant that i slept the night through :-) Its a shame really as the setting was so stunning but they really dont make the most of it. I thought St Andrews was ok, not brilliant but of a different, not neccesarily a lesser, standard than the others

I would reccomend this tour to anyone, and i think that travelling in a group somehow makes it more fun than travelling by yourself

Sarah

We did the Kuoni Ceylon Tour North in August.We too thought the tour was an excellent mix of activities as we are a family I thought there would be something to please everyone.

I was very diaspointed when we were advised that we would not be able to go to Yala and was not looking forward to staying at the Centuria, but although it wasn%26#39;t up to the standard of the other hotels that we stayed in it was ok and better than I had expected.

We too had Ajit as our guide and thought he was excellent. He was so knowlegable and spoke good English. We liked the way that he was considerate of what we wanted to do as well.He even bought our son a present when it was his birthday whilst out there.So if you are thinking of doing this tour I%26#39;m sure that it would be possible to request him as your driver/guide.

We loved Sri Lanka particulary for its diversity and friendlyness of the people and would love to return again sometime.