Denmark

My husband and I have been on a delightful two-week tour of Sri Lanka with “WALK WITH JITH”. The main purpose of the tour was bird watching! - and here I must add, that I am not a birder myself!

We have had the pleasure of being guided by Susantha – the number one birder of Sri Lanka – although he didn’t mention this to us till we had known each other for a week!

The journey had been eventful in many ways! Approx 240 difficult birds, lots of mammals, reptiles and butterflies etc. And we have been introduced to Sri Lankan way of life – culture, nature, history, religion, educational system, nature preservation, agriculture – and how the society works – and how a good curry is served!

All questions answered and explained with profound knowledge, patience and a good sense of humor!

We would delightful go “Walk With Jith” again and love to travel with Susantha as the companion anytime (soon)!

Sri Lanka is truly a paradise!

Ulla

Hotels nice and comfortable. Good standard. All situated nice.

Bus: Very nice with space for everyone.

Bus helper: Helps with all things like water, food etc.

Sightings: Birds here there and everywhere. So nice. The guide is excellent finding them, pointing every bird out of us. Has an excellent bird knowledge.  

Bus driver: Fantastic. Very nice. Always smiling – always very careful

In all: Everybody helpful and friendly

Love some more birding – even when we have seen them all.

DOF- Travel, Birdlife Denmark, has this year two trips to Sri Lanka. One in January and one in February. As tour leader for trip 1, 16 days in January 2019, I hereby give our agency in Sri Lanka Walk With Jith our greatest recommendations.

At arrival in the airport we were greeted by Jith and our local guide Saman. Bus driver and bus-helper were there as well, and we got quickly into the bus with our luggage. Jith gave every one of us a fine map of Sri- Lanka, a pocket guide to the mammals of Sri Lanka, a checklist of the birds with fine pictures and 1 pair of leech-socks, and all of this was for free.

In the next 16days we were led through Sri Lanka’s lovely bird sites. Everything went according to plan. Saman is a very experienced tour leader knowing his birds and where to find them, and it was not the first time, that he had led one of our tours. He is very easy to walk with, and he will secure us the right way, if you were on the wrong way.

Thank you you very much for a brilliant family holiday trip with a mixture of birding, nature and culture during three weeks. Great thanks for your flexibility and for giving us an excellent bird guide and driver, who was very pleasant company (upali).

The tour was working, except for a train ride that wasn't booked in enough time.
Our guide Susantha was excellent. He did our journey fantastic. Took care of everything, was very good at English, spotted birds and animals we never expected to see. He was the best.

The hotel “Lake View” was cold and noisy. (Kitulgala)

Good with bird list.

Good with planning.

Transport : Very convienient, very skilled driver, always a very clean car, (we felt safe inspite of the traffic). He always knew where to go.

Hotels/ Accommodation – Kithulgala rest house: Nice rooms, good food – Nice hotel.

Inn on the tree: Charmingly. Food rather basic.

Kandy Lake Lodge: Little charming lodge, very good food.

Leisure Village Hotel: Nice situated, but cold and a lot of people. We were the only guests.

Hibiscus Garden Hotel: Nice rooms, service is top. A very good accommodation.

Rock View Motel: far away from the location, a little empty; but good service.

Birding and the Guide:   Very clever guide, skillful, very enthusiastic and he made great efforts to satisfy our ornithological wishes. He made great efforts further on to show and tell me about the culture, the local people, the plants and many other things. He arranged a row of small extra arrangements and he has a good humor.

DOF Tour 2018

DOF Travel har aftluttet den første tur af to I januar 2018. Igen har det vceret med stor success of fuldtilfred shed i vores gruppe på 19 deltagere. Det er selvfelgelig vord at bemcerke, at vi mødte alle Sri Lankas 34 endemishe fuglearter of nosten alle under meget fine betingelser. Men det vigtisgte er, at arrangementet som helhed for løb scerdeles godt – med perfekt guiding af Supurna Hettiarachchi og veltilrettelagt af Walk With Jith. DOF vender meget gerne tilbage og har allerede planlagt de noste ture.

Google translation:

Foto Niels Henrik: Gruppen med guider - tidlig morgen parat til Sinharaja NP

Good Communication about the details of the tour, excellent service around including the hotels and on this tour (and as told from earlier) very good guiding. The chosen route is very good for a group like ours with many without experience about Sri Lanka and the birds. DOF travel will continue to use WWJ.

17 – 31.01 2016 

Soren Sorensen - DOF Tour 2016 with guide Tharanga (1)

My son and I participated in a 2 week long both birding and cultural excursion through Sri Lanka.

The planning process went on in a smooth and flexible way where the schedule was adjusted to our specific needs and we preferences.

As tour guide and chauffeur, UPALI did a magnificent gob ensuring that every detail was considered and taking care of – local guides were ready and at place when needed, and the hotels and restaurants for lunch were always first class situated in beautiful environments. Besides the perfect planning Upali showed up to be a very competent ornithologist able to identify find and distinguish between a lot of specific species. We were indeed very satisfied. 

Good Communication about the details of the tour, excellent service

Turen, der blev gennemført i samarbejde med fugle- og naturguider fra det lokale firma WalkWithJith, blev en ubetinget succes. Ejeren af firmaet Jith blev sekunderet af den ligeledes rutinerede guide Upali, så vi var godt dækket ind. De to guider, ofte hjulpet af andre lokale guider, gjorde et stort arbejde, og det lykkedes da også for dem at vise os samtlige 33 endemiske fuglearter, som findes på øen.

- from the trip report sent by John Speich, the tour leader of DOF (Dansk Ornitologisk Forening; in English, Danish Ornithological Society)

Google Translation: