Tour reviews from 2017

Nadia and Adam Archer

Our tour in November 2017 was brilliant from start to finish. It passed our expectations by a mile. From the initial booking and enquiring process; which was smooth and easy, Jith was in regular communication and changed the itinerary to fit our needs.

Our guide, Upali, was the star of the show, a brilliant birdwatcher and naturalist, he made every effort to locate the endemic birds of Sri Lanka, and pointed out other interesting plants and creatures along the way. His local knowledge was invaluable, and impressive. We managed to see nearly 200 bird species; we had great views of all but one endemic – we gave up – not Upali. We also saw many monkey species, giant squirrels, lizards, butterflies, etc. And thanks to Upali’s spotting skills - WE SAW A LEOPARD!!

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Could not have had a better introduction to Sri Lanka! We are not expert nature walkers and instead wanted an itinerary that mixed nature with culture, scenery and a little sea-side down time…

… and Jith’s tour delivered all of these wonderfully!

Special mention must go to out driver guide, Saman, who could not have been more helpful. Was always ready with nature tips & cultural information, not to mention explanations of Sri Lankan food. The other guides roped in along the way were also great too!

We are now going back to England full of praise for Sri Lanka… and will be recommending Walk With Jith to al our friends.

Bill & Elaine

PS Forgot to mention the accommodation: all were excellent and great value for money.

Bill Worswick And Elaine Caicedo

18|11|17

England Leicester

Eric TAN, Thilina and Ingo WASCHKIES

I booked a very last minute trip to Sri Lanka and contacted Jith because a friend recommended his company. Jith replied right away w/ a proposed itinerary that suited me perfectly. My trip was in only two days so I was very relieved and booked. I can not tell you how glad I am that I booked w/ Jith. His team is PHENOMINAL! Upali was my guide and driver. This man is a rare and beautiful soul. I have been traveling for almost 5 months and am an expert in tour guides at the this point and Upali is the best of the best. He has an eagle eye for birds and animals & knows them all by name. He took me to some of his favorite spots and I was able to see flying foxes and the greater Sri Lankan Flameback as well as many other endemic birds and non endemic birds.

Australian-Irish Group - June 2017

Thanks again Burgher brother
Like a bad smell I’ll be back.
Next time 35 people!
Dave

***

We really do appreciate your earnest attention to detial in planning the itinerary and selection of hotels. Your selection of Sri Lanka’s flora & fauna and your patience in assisting with all the details to ensure that once again we have had a wonderful holiday.
Many thanks.
Trish & Kichard Groom.
Melborne, Australia

***

To my Dear friend Jith,
Many years of tours with you and many pleasurable memories. Thank you yet again for all your attention to detail and company. I am getting ideas for our next tour. 
Another success. 
Thanks Jenn xx.
(your co-guide).
Melb. Australia.
P.S. look forward to a visit from you to Melbourne.

Askham / Benson Trip

2 June – 16 June 2017

Met at airport by Upali taken to Goldi Sands Hotel

Goldi Sands Hotel

Nice room

Good Pool

Food was mediocre

Internet, a little patchy

Trip to market very enjoyable

Riverside Villas, Kandy

2 star at best

Room, large but had lots of mosquito guests!

Food, very basic. Internet, very good.

Staff, charming.

Wouldn’t want to stay there again.

Spice gardens v.good

Botanical gardens good

[Cultural] show interesting.

Tooth Palace interesting.

Simon and Andrew with Athula

Excellent in every way. During the planning stages Jith was prompt, responsive and always full of suggestions. Once in Sri Lanka, both our guides were excellent – they knew their birds and where to find them, and they were just as helpful in other ways (this was as much an architectural / cultural trip as a wildlife trip). What was most impressive was the way everything was handled when a close relative of our guide, Saman, passed away overnight in the middle of the trip. Everything was seamless – a new guide was there in the morning, allowing Saman to go home and us to continue without a hitch, and despite having driven half the night to get to us with almost no notice, our new guide was chirpy, happy and on the ball from the outset.

In general: we are very happy with the tour we did and the things we have seen. We are not hardcore birders or photographers, so the birding was certainly good and enough. Only the Serendib Scopes Owl was for me a must have that we missed and for which I expected that we would have tried more to find it at different locations.

Athula was great to travel with, good birder, safe driver, pleasant and taking care of our little son. He did a lot of effort to find the special birds. I would certainly recommend him to everyone.

Our van was very comfortable to travel. All extra guides were very good and always on time, so te organization was excellent.

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Hi

Just to say thank you for organising our tour in Sri Lanka. We really enjoyed our trip and were very impressed with the organisation. Samam, our driver, was very knowledgable about everything and even changed the itinerary to fit in with our individual needs. Dumb was also good for the trip to the beach.

Just a few comments about the hotels:-

Tamarind Tree - Room and food good.

Kitulgala Rest House - Rooms definitely needs updating and the food was quite poor as very little choice especially in the evening.

Sorowwa Resort - Lovely room and food

River Side Villas - Rooms OK, food reasonable good but position rather out of the way so never saw Kandy

Grand - Our room was OK but at the back of the hotel, food was good.

Rock View Motel - Rooms and food OK.

Paradise Beach - Room good  - lovely view but rather noisy with the sea rolling in, food disappointing

Jacky and Martin Bottrill with guide Saman

Hi

Just to say thank you for organising our tour in Sri Lanka. We really enjoyed our trip and were very impressed with the organisation. Samam, our driver, was very knowledgable about everything and even changed the itinerary to fit in with our individual needs. Dumb was also good for the trip to the beach.

Just a few comments about the hotels:-

Tamarind Tree - Room and food good.

Kitulgala Rest House - Rooms definitely needs updating and the food was quite poor as very little choice especially in the evening.

Sorowwa Resort - Lovely room and food

River Side Villas - Rooms OK, food reasonable good but position rather out of the way so never saw Kandy

Grand - Our room was OK but at the back of the hotel, food was good.

Val and Mike-Walk With Jith tour 2017

You understood our requirements and made helpful suggestion to our proposed itinerary. All our queries were answered promptly and efficiently

If you receive enquiries about photo tours, advise them that the forest areas are only good for watching. For good photos there needs to be open views and more light, so Bundala, Yala & Udawlawa are better. More reports/ photos from clients to show what can be taken.

15/3/2017

Val & Mike Walker

UK

Val and Mike-Walk With Jith tour 2017

Doughlas and Brian at Walk With Jith tour 2017

This tour was one of the best tours I’ve been fortunate enough to go on. I’ve been on over twenty, so I do have some experience. We came to get the birds and we got all 34 endemics and I personally got a total of 243 and my UK friend got a total of 253!

The tour manger (owner Jith) picked us at the airport and took us to the hotel. In the morning Thilina (Thilley) Kaurnanayaka was our guide and we were so happy to have him as our guide. He is an outstanding guide and a wonderful person (pleasant, timely, great ears and eyes) can’t say enough!

The accommodations were good as well as the food. The birds? You’ve got to go the SRI LANKA to get their special endemics (34 species).

Dong Nail

March 7, 2017

Tim and Susie Kemp - Walk With Jith tour

We have just spent three extraordinary weeks in Sri Lanka on a predominantly birdwatching holiday with some culture.

The arrangements have been perfect and the trip has run like clockwork. Jith even visited us halfway through to make sure we were happy.

It has been the most wonderful experience, entirely due to Athula, our guide, who was totally committed to our wellbeing and satisfaction. He has a great sense of humour, a ready smile and a zest for life & birds which is infections. His friendly demeanor meant that everywhere we went, we met lovely smile, friendly people & felt very at home. He was mine of information about his country & we learnt an amazing amount from him.

Gary and Jane James

Thank you for a very enjoyable week birding in Sri Lanka. We were pleased to be able to have a focused & tailor-made tour around 3 sites – Kitulgala, Nuwara Eliya & Sinharaja. Our guide, Thilina, was superb. He was very knowledgeable about the location of target birds, very quick to spot them and very good at call identification. He ws also patient, Flexible and always in a good mood, additionally he drove well & safely. As well as birds he told us about local culture, politics, flora and fauna. We had too many highlights at each of the 3 main sites to pick anywhere out ass more special than the other places – including important stops and detours. We enjoyed it all & would highly recommend using this company.

Thank you so much Thili!

Gary and Jane James

14 – 20 | Feb 2017

“Owls Conservation Association” Poland

It was a wonderful Birdwatching trip. We saw all endemics and in total 242 spices of birds.

We had great bird guide Thilina, who has a large knowledge about birds, habitats and birds call. We had too a second guide Angello who know reptiles very well. We was imprested.

All our team (included 2 guys from the bus) had wonderful sense of humour. All four was very good organized. Company Walk With Jith makes good birding tours and we hope come back in Sri Lanka some day.

Sorry for mistakes :)

Dubicka Alicja

12 Feb 2017

Taiwan Group's comment-Walk With Jith 2017

Taiwan Group's comment-Walk With Jith 2017

Carol Hopkins Graeme Munro-tour-Walk-With-Jith-2017

It ws a fantastic tour, Jith. Absolutely Love all the birds & animals we observed. Comments by email when we return to Australia in 1 weeks’ time. Thank you for the gift.

Carol Hopkins

6. FEB 2017

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Hi Jith
As promised, here is my review of our 11-Day birding and wildlife tour, completed on 6 Feb 2017.

Overall Summary
This was a well organised tour, tailor-made to our requests, which provided a fabulous opportunity to see a huge variety of birds and animals with the help of a very knowledgeable and efficient guide and staying in comfortable accommodation with good service and meals.

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Excellent tour with Good Guide (Saman) and all endemics seen.

A few things that could be improved:

Kandy – Could be left out of the itinerary. No special birds there.

Yala – Total Kaos! Too many jeeps in the park. This should be registered by park authorities. Not good, stressful, for the wildlife.

Mirissa – The wetland, Kirala Kele (?), should be included in itinerary not as option for 50 USD.

Time for transports: Where stated 5 hours in itinerary, was 3 hours. Could have spent more time in Mirissa instead of at the airport. ….. Itinerary should be adjusted so mornings are spent birdwatching as much as possible, not for transport. I think we spent too much time in transport also on mornings.

GÖRAN Altstedt

2017-01-30

2017-02-11 Stephen Dean & Upali

We had two guides (in addition to Jith) during our tour, both of whom were excellent. Tilly guided us at Talangama & Kitulgala.  At Kitulgala we stayed at a place that Tilly had not been to before, where he was very good, not only at finding the birds but “reading” the habitat to identify the possibilities.  He worked really hard to find the birds, always making sure we could see them properly.  He was great company.

Jith gave in an excellent service, tailormade for our requirements. I can strongly recommend Walk With Jith!!

The birding trip itself was very well organized and managed by our bird guide – Athula.

Athula was an expert on the birds in all the locations and National Parks -  The Parks are so big that you need to know the best places, to go to avoid the crowds.

Athula also took in to some other great places in the hill to find the endemics. We had a good haul of photos to take home.

Of course, it’s not all about birding for a perfect trip. The guide needs to be patient with guests and Athula was always helpful and attentive.

Overall – Great trip much enjoyed.

Thank you Athula and Jith!!!

David Lischka

8/1/17