Tour reviews from 2016

Rosen Family - Sweden. Birding Tour in Sri Lanka 2016-17

A well planned and executed trip for nature, birds & culture. Mr. Upali has done a very good job with logistics, atmosphere and not least sharing his deep knowledge on birds and culture. We really appreciate him sharing local customs, food and treats.

Last but not least, Mr. Upali is an extremely committed birdwatcher and managed to show 34 (all) endemics with good views. In addition we saw much more and had a good birding experience.

The choice of accommodation has been varied but always with “location” in focus. We like this concept, and with Mr. Upali reminding us to bring a few beers to Martins Lodge, we were all set.

Rosen Fanily, Sweden

23/12 16 – 6/1 17

Tour comment in Turkish Language

Damon Ramsey bird watching

hi Prasanjith

Yea, sorry for the delay in replying, I meant to email you a few days ago, but I am back at work already and busy again!

As you can see I have put in half a dozen pages on various Sri Lankan spots so feel free to link to whatever you want.

I tried to get as many reports and images done while at mirrisa, but now I have left the country, I probably won't add to much more at this stage, maybe just a little tinkering..

We had a wonderful trip. Upali was an excellent guide and so calm driving the exciting roads of Sri Lanka. He was not only very knowledgeable about birds but the flora and fauna too.

It was so good & very special for him to organize a surprise birthday cake at the hotel in Tissa. We saw all the endemic birds and also fitted in some “culture” too, The evening stroll at Kandy was memorable for the first outs and the temple, the hotel free for the monkeys taking our bananas at breakfast.

We will be back!

Thank you!

Colin & Clare Slator

14/11/16 – 28/11/16

Birdwatching - Hans and Sandy with Thilina from Walk With Jith

We went to <***> Walk With Jith for this wonderful tour through Sri Lanka. Thilina is a wonderful guide with an exceptional birding knowledge. He managed to find the most difficult species. Our trip was full of <***> in nature for the full day; This gave also good photography opportunities, the main goal of our trip.

Hans & Sandy
Belgium
31/10/16 – 18/11/16

At Botanical Gardens - Hans and Sandy with Thilina from Walk With Jith

Hanna Jackson - Debbie Jackson - John Ashworth - Upali - Walk With Jith tour in Sri Lanka

Many thanks for a wonderful holiday. We feel like we have really experienced Sri Lanka with its fantastic scenery, culture, animals, birds and friendly people.
With the holidays wildlife tours we had a super guide in Upali. He was polite, thoughtful and extremely knowledgeable – making sure that we saw as many birds and animals as possible–especially the endemics. 
Overall a will thought through and planned experience. We will definitely recommend you. Thank you.
John Ashworth – Thanks 
Debbie Jackson X
Hanna Jackson :)

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John Ashworth
27/8/16

Vittorio Pedrocchi
28-7-2016

We have made a 7 days tour in order to see the difficult birds of Wet Zone and highlands. We are a family of five, with 3 children, and we have seen 32 endemic birds with our guide Thilina.
Thilina is a very good bird watcher, he found many birds through its calling, and he take care of our family while looking for birds. He found the Serendib Scops Owl on a branch when it seemed impossible!
The places we stayed were very good and the organization was perfect. We recommend Walk With Jith for making birdwatching tours.

Peter Marsack and Janet Gardner with Saman

An excellent tour, and Saman was an excellent guide – very knowledgeable about the birds but also other wildlife and culture. Having two teenagers with little interest in birding could have made it difficult, but Saman did well to involve them sometimes and keep them interested.

With our particular interest in the birds, it was good to be guided to see all the endemics in 10 days – we would certainly not have found them all without help. We also got to see the pride Sri Lankans have in their wildlife and natural heritage, something other countries could aspire to.

Peter Boesman and Howard Laidlaw

Listen to prominant sound recorder Peter Boesman's Sri Lankan bird sound records 142 species from a tour with us in 2016.
SOUNDS

The organization of the trip was excellent. All of the arrangements were perfect and this produced a trouble free trip. The services and knowledge of our driver/bird guide Thilina were first class and he knows very well how to find Sri Lanka’s birds. Due to his knowledge and hard work we succeeded in seeing all of Sri Lanka’s endemic bird species and many other species. Our trip list is 229 species.

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Tony Crocker with Upali

Terrific 10 days in Sri Lanka. All arrangements worked perfectly. Faultless pre tour service and Jith met me on arrival and called before departure. And all for excellent value. A great way to experience Sri Lanka’s great birds.

Read Tony’s trip report here: http://srilankabirdingtripreports.com/Tony-Crocker-Trip-Report 

Chinese-Photograpy-tour-group-2016

Very impressive and pleased travel and journey. Thanks to all of your staff!

It’s my pleasure and my fortune to meet the company ‘Walk With Jith’, also is my luckiest think to have the companied by Saman, so is an wonderful trip! We will come here again in the future! Thanks for your accompany.

Maxine Sweet and Michael Welboon with Walk With Jith guide Thilina

Wonderful tour our guide Thillina supposed. He tire in his belly for Birding fulfilled all our needs and went out of his way to provide us. With all the birds we requested made sure that the food one of us had we all great as. Vegetarian and aid not like spice not easy in Sri Lanka. We were happy with our accommodation at times basic but always made to feel very welcome. If you were not happy will anything you only had to say and staff or our guide Thillina sorted it out we will to walking with jith again and soon all hope.

I will send a full report your email.

An amazing 8 days with a brilliant tour guide drivers Athula.

Andrew Schofield and others with Athula in Sigiriya

<no image>

9-25/ 2/ 2016

Our tour with “WalkWithJith” was the hassle – free way to enjoy all that Sri Lanka has to offer.

Saman our guide made it a very fulfilling trip – we saw all the birds we would possibly want (205) plans the main culture sight and he ski fully negotiated our way through winding mountain roads & city traffic – Thank u Saman. Small toilets and guesthouses were in mainly rural locations with friendly, attentive staff and great local food.

Everything was extremely well organized – tickets, extra guides, packed breakfast, stops along the road, etc. and Saman even rang ahead to ensure we had buffalo curd at dinner!!

The tour guide is a bird expert with very good eye-sight. It’s very important that the guide could point out birds from far/ long distance. He’s very passionate about bird / animals.

The itinerary   is good and well organized. However, the elephant safari could be removed from the itinerary and more time should be spent in Yala National Park. It’s because there are lots of animals. including elephants in Yala National Park.

Good local restaurants should be introduced to the tourists. so that we can taste the very local food and culture.

 Karen Lee Group 2016

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I have enjoyed my birding in Sri Lanka. The accommodation on the first two nights was quite good and very convergent for the birding. The Second Hotel is Fantastic. No doubt expensive but worth the experience.

My guide Saman has done a great job, and I am very pleased and satisfied. He has done everything possible to find the birds and has succeed 99% of the tine. I would recommending to anyone comity to Sri Lanka on a birding Trip he has great knowledge, Many Thanks.

Ken.

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

James and Brenda Woolfenden with Nandana-in Sri Lanka birding tour

Guide diver – Very competent and knowledgeable guide. Friendly and extremely helpful and good fun.

Accommodation – Overall accommodation clean and friendly staff. We particularly appreciated when accommodation room included a fridge, hot drink making facilities and a safe.

The standard of decoration, locks and fittings and quality and condition of showering arrangements varied significantly.

Itinerary - We set ourselves a busy itinerary with a rest period at the resort  at the end of tour. This proved to be a good arrangement. In future we might consider a mid-tour rest break as well as one at the end of a tour.

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)