Nihal
Thank you for the excellent service you and your organisation offered me and my family. It was a great result and a very enjoyable visit. We will always remember this trip and if ever we were to do it again, I will be in contact with you. I will recommend to all whom I know that are likely to come to Sri Lanka to contact you. On behalf of my family please accept our thanks.

It was an extremely pleasant surprise to have met you after such a long time .

Ayesha & Jamshed Madon
Just wanted to thank i-escape and especially candice at tailormade tours (columbus tours) for organising our trip to sri lanka last week. we have a small boutique guesthouse in goa ourselves and the purpose of this trip was to check out similar properties in sri lanka.

lunuganga was sublime. at galle we got an upgrade to the dutch house as the sun house was being renovated. that was a wonderful surprise for my 50th birthday on the 18th of march. fort printers was also lovely with really attentive helpful staff but the free three course gourmet lunch for i-escape clients didn't happen. we asked but perhaps they were not aware of the offer and we did not want to insist. for the record, we found the food everywhere in sri lanka was not only mediocre but very overpriced.

havelock bungalow is a little jewel. one of colombo's best kept secrets and we are so glad we chose to stay there. the staff went out of their way to be helpful with suggestions for eating out at local restaurants and arranging transport. they even gave us another room at half rate for half of the next day as we had a late night flight and needed somewhere to park our stuff.

thanks to your excellent website we were able to choose from amongst the best boutique properties. thank you i-escape and tailormade tours for a wonderful trip. we will definitely be using i-escape to plan other trips in the future.

Ann & Geoff (Price)
We're now back home from our time in Sri Lanka, and want to thank you for organising such a wonderful tour for us all. It's such a beautiful country and we'd love to visit again. Please thank Pathi for all his driving - there were some long distances involved and he took great care of us.

The hotels were fantastic, apart from the Polonnaruwa Rest House, and hopefully this will be brought up to scratch now that it's in the Galle Face Hotel group. All the rest were stunning, and we'd definitely stay with them again.

Keith, Lynne, Jai and Jenny.
Thankyou so much for a wonderful trip - tour, We had a fantastic and relaxing tour with a great driver who looked after us exceptionally well.

It looks like our next trip will be in 2011 so will contact you once again for your assistance and guidance.

Sorry it has taken so long to write this email... on return we became normal citizens again with work commitments and routine - yuck!! But this will pay for the next adventure.

Once again Thank you So Much - we had an absolute ball and cannot wait to do some of it all over again.

We have no reservations in recommending your tours to anyone.

Sara
Time has flown by and I just wanted to thank you so much for organising our wonderful trip. We were so spoilt, so well looked after! We loved the tea trails, the Beach and Kandy Houses. Kandy is a charming place and will certainly be returning there one day along with the tea trails. So much to do and not nearly enough time.

Hope all is well with you and please thank Patti for looking after us so well.

Sinhala, Tamil & English. Sinhala, (also called Sinhalese or Singhalese) is the mother tongue of the Sinhalese ethnic group which is the largest in Sri Lanka. It belongs to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages.

Sinhala is spoken by about 16 million people in Sri Lanka, about 13 million of whom are native speakers. It is one of the constitutionally-recognised official languages of Sri Lanka, along with Tamil. Tamil is a classical language and the oldest of the Dravidian language family and spoken by the Tamil population of Sri Lanka.

The rupee, LKR, is the official unit of currency of Sri Lanka. The currency is subdivided into 100 cents. The currency is unique in that it is the only currency that is printed vertically on the back. Like most currencies, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka issues the Sri Lankan rupee.

Travel Notes:

Since most shopkeepers in Sri Lanka do not have change with them, it is worthwhile to break larger notes into the smaller coins.

The maximum local currency import and export is 1000 rupees. The import of Indian and Pakistani currency is restricted. All other foreign currency imports are allowed, however amounts over 5000 US Dollars must be declared.

Contact your GP prior to departure.

If Vitamin B6 is taken at a recommended dose approximately 2 weeks prior to your arrival in Sri Lanka this will ward off the mosquitoes away from you!

Sri Lanka boasts a year-round tropical climate for holidaymakers. Sunny warm days are the norm, even during the monsoon period. The southwest monsoon can bring rain to the western, southern and central regions from May to July. It can be cool in the central hill country, especially in the evenings. Weather patterns throughout the world have been completely unpredictable in recent times and before going should only be used as a very general guideline.

Pure cotton clothes are the most recommended for all areas of the island other than the hill country... Whilst in Nuwara Eliya, Hatton and surrounding tea country regions, a warm t-shirt for the day and maybe a light sweater or pullover for the evening is a must, since the temperature drops. Whenever visiting a place of worship, avoid wearing skimpy clothing - as this is a sign of disrespect. A hot tip for ladies - keep a cotton shawl handy which you could use whenever going into air-conditioning from the heat outside (in some hotels/restaurants the air-conditioning is freezing cold). Open toed hardy sandals for walking are comfortable, because of the humidity. Most hotels and other establishments expect you to be smartly dressed for dinner.

Unlike in the rest of the world, in the far east, even though 10% SERVICE CHARGE is included on invoices, service personnel expect a tip or "santhosam" which is the colloquial terms for tip, for services rendered. Our recommendation would be to decide on the proportion of the tip according to how happy you were with the service and standards.

Bellboys, Waiters, chauffeur guide drivers expect a tip at the end of their service. Recommended tip for Bellboys is around Rs.100 per suitcase - for Waiters (if the 10% service charge is included) it would depend on the opulence of the restaurant.

If you dine at Paradise Road Gallery Cafe, and you are two persons, and the food and service have been spectacular, it would be customary to leave a tip of between Rs.750 - Rs.1000 for your server. If you are lunching at a roadside cafe en route, you could leave Rs.200 for well served, tasty meal.

When it comes to your chauffeur guide, our recommendation is around Rs.1000 per day (for 2 persons) but of course it's up to you to increase or decrease your tip according to how well you were taken care of.

Please note that these are suggested amounts - you are in no way compelled to follow our guidelines.

Sri Lanka is a relatively small island - all sights should be easily accessible with the correct infrastructure of roads and railways, unfortunately the upgrading of road and rail transport has been neglected severely - and although there are several highway projects in the pipeline, completion dates of these projects, are still up in the air.

When planning your roundtour around Sri Lanka please remember:

1. Distances are deceptive and are mainly dependant on the roads leading there.

2. Never judge time against kilometers (for eg. 100 km should take us 1 hour 15 mins) - totally incorrect.

3. Always ask us beforehand for an idea of how long it would take to go from destination to destination.

4. Finally always abide by the route taken by your chauffeur guide as he/she will know the easiest and best route locally from point to point.

Sri Lankan cuisine will undoubtedly awaken your dormant taste buds with its array of spicy curries, freshly prepared seafood, cooling fruits and delectable deserts! Experience the array of spices each with its own special texture and aroma that mix together in the correct proportions to form the marinade for the famous Sri Lankan curries. Ground cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, cumin, chili, saffron and a host of other spices are used in the preparation of CURRY POWDER, which is used raw or lightly roasted in the cooking of meat, fish and vegetables, succulent!