Responsible Sri Lanka Tailor Made Holidays

Our goal is to provide guided tours for small groups and individuals to enable them to experience the culture, beauty and ethnic diversity of Sri Lanka. We usually prefer to stay in clean, comfortable hotels and eat from local restaurants and eating-houses in the area. In addition, all our guides are English speaking and residents of the areas we visit which mean that our clients feel more like guests and less like tourists.

All our staff are locals and possesses a very good knowledge of Sri Lanka. We try to incorporate this into our itineraries by striking a balance between well-known “must see” locations to less famous places that are off the main tracks. We also like to sometime travel through alternate routes to destinations. This usually leads us through remote little hamlets and villages of Sri Lanka. This practice gives our guests a complete experience of Sri Lanka and enables them to interact with local people.
Respect for local people, their cultures, traditions, religions and environment are essential to our philosophy and our tours and we work hard to ensure our groups have a positive impact on the places and people visited. We hope that you will be treated as guests and behave as guests whilst traveling with Adventure Lanka Tours.”

General Comments

All bookings done with Adventure Lanka Tours vary in size 1 – 12, with the majority being 2 – 4. A chauffeur/tour leader who speaks fluent English, Sinhala and/or Tamil accompanies the groups or individuals at all times. All our guides are local people who live in the areas of interest and we always arrange for a meeting with the guide prior to the excursion.
The guide during this time familiarises himself with all the guests and informs them on proper etiquette and conduct especially when visiting religious places. This approach builds a relationship with the guide and minimizes any negative effects on the sites.

Contribution to local economies

Employment

All employees of Adventure Lanka Tours are Sri Lankan.

Most of our tour leaders’ hometowns are close to places we visit and therefore they are equipped with an intimate knowledge of the areas we visit.

Our carefully selected chauffeur guides are some of the best in Sri Lanka and possess and in-depth knowledge of Sri Lanka.

We also like to visit ‘non-touristy’ areas and we usually stop for at least a drink of King Coconut water at a hamlet. A King coconut on average costs 20 US cents but even that goes towards helping the community where 1 US Dollar is a lot. I have used this example to illustrate how we try and make a positive impact on wherever areas we pass through.

Food

A very important component in the enjoyment of a region of country is eating the local food. This could not be truer as in the case of Sri Lanka where one can taste a variety of dishes with varying flavors unique to those areas.

Most of our tours include all meals unless specifically requested otherwise. Our tour leaders aim to provide the guest with as much variety as possible and mostly consume local food unique to the region. This ensures that local food parlors, restaurants benefit, and as a result overall quality of the food have increased from a couple of years and more restaurants and eating-houses have fallen into the acceptable category.

We are also quite respectful of all faiths and make sure that all meat consumed adhere to standards.
We do not visit restaurants serving Wild boar, Deer, Sambur and other forms of jungle meat, which are poached illegally.

Environmental Awareness

Our initial problems were not with our guests but with some of our local guides. Most of them were aware of large scale environmental hazards, but it was very difficult to explain to them why such an act like throwing a water bottle out of the window could affect the environment.

To date we have successfully managed to educate them and have managed to eliminate or greatly reduce environmental pollution due to our tours.

Office sundries

We make use of electronic means wherever possible and most of our files are stored in Electronic form. The only time we use paper is to issue receipts and other official documents, which helps us greatly, reduce our paper usage. Wherever possible we print on both sides of the paper.

Water

Even though water scarcity is not an issue in most parts of Sri Lanka we always make sure that none of our guests’ waste water in any way. Notices are usually posted in the rooms of resorts educating guests on the importance of conserving water.

Accommodation

Our accommodation options vary from small family run guest houses to 750 Dollar a night suites. We always strive to create a balance so that all hotels we visit benefit equally.

We have recently added a few home stays and working plantations to our accommodation options. These types of accommodation increase the interaction with the local communities.

We usually encourage passengers to make purchases of food items and craft based items, which are unique to the areas we visit.

Transport

We usually use cars, mini-vans and mini buses for our transportation needs and 4WD off road vehicles for excursions to wildlife parks and nature reserves. All our vehicles are maintained to minimize emissions and all our drivers are instructed to obey the speed limits without exceptions. The practice however trivial, has won us praises from our guests. Our drivers do not consume alcohol or smoke while on duty.

When visiting nature reserves we prohibit smoking to minimize risk of brush fires, and we also advice our guests from wandering off nature trails and other marked tracks to minimize damage on fauna and flora.

Brochures

Adventure Lanka Tours does not have a printed brochure for the following reasons.

We rely on the website for all our sales
Almost all our tours are customized and therefore itineraries on printed brochures will seldom be accurate.

Packed lunches

Most of our meals are taken in guesthouses and restaurants. In the event we have to take packed lunches try to use bio degradable products wherever possible. We are very careful not to leave any water bottles or litter behind.

Damage to the Environment

During trekking and snorkeling trips passengers are informed of the fragility of the ecosystem and required not to touch any thing at all – coral, shellfish or indeed any kind of flora and fauna unless under close supervision from a guide. When working with external providers like Jeep safari drivers, whale watching boats etc we choose our providers based on their commitment to sustainable and eco friendly practices. We also encourage our guests to report incorrect practices by these providers.

When trekking passengers are told to bring plastic zip-lock bags in which to keep used toilet paper. They are advised to keep cigarette butts in their pockets or other container until appropriate disposal facilities are available.

All transportation used is visually tested for smoke emissions.

Responsible Sri Lanka Holidays