You will be picked up from your hotel in Negombo, Colombo, Mount Lavinia, Kalutara, Bentota, Beruwela or Galle and then transfer to visit Dutch Fort of Galle. The fort is a historical, archaeological and architectural heritage monument, which even after more than 423 years maintains a polished appearance, thanks to extensive reconstruction work done by Archaeological Department of Sri Lanka.
Next stop is Ambalangoda, known for its exquisite collection of native masks, carved throughout the generations of professional carvers from the region. Don's miss the variety of masks available for sale, as the current productions are more garish and vibrant in colour.
Later on you will visit Balapitiya and have lunch at Gangabada Asiriya Restaurant. After lunch, you can discover the unique beauty of Maduganga River on a boat trip. A relatively unspoiled lagoon, the Maduganga estuary is a 915-hectare complex coastal wetland ecosystem that opens to the Indian Ocean.
Learn about Sri Lanka’s marine conservation efforts with a visit to a Turtle Hatchery, where you can see rescued sea turtles and discover how hatcheries protect eggs and release hatchlings back into the ocean.
Godfrey escorted me and my husband around Negombo. He went over and above regular service. He took us to a speciality supermarket for herbal medicine and also to the market to look for curry leaves. His knowledge and information shared was terrific. Well done Godfrey. We hope to meet again. Thank you for taking us safely back to the airport. Annie and Craig Loftus Scotland.
Imran was an absolutely amazing tour guide. Took us to all the right places and provided lots of information about the locations and sites we were visiting. The vehicle was large, clean, and had air conditioning. I recommend this tour!
My friends and I booked the Southern Sri Lanka Sightseeing Private Day Trip on October 8, 2019 Operated by Beyond Escapes via Tripadvisor. We were picked up on time but there was no English speaking tour guide like it was advertised on the website. We were really disappointed when we realized the driver was the so-called tour guide. He was busy driving, so he did not have to provide any information to us and we didn’t feel safe and comfortable to ask the driver any questions while he was driving. Then we placated ourselves that when we reached the destinations the driver would tell us more about Sri Lanka. But it turned out our driver was not knowledgeable or proactive; often times we as tourists had to take initiative to ask questions like “ is there anything about this place that we should know about?” he then only told us very basic information. The driver also didn’t manage our time very well; instead of driving us to the lunch place on time, (we were really hungry) but he still dropped us off at his favorite Gemstone place (not mentioned in the tour itinerary) hoping we would buy something there. We then had no option but to skip the Mask museum which was actually on the itinerary! We stopped at the so-called “popular local restaurant” for lunch. Except for the nice breeze and Madu river view, this place was not a restaurant at all. The place was under construction and the toilet smelled. We paid 270$ for three of us to go on this tour thinking we would have a great lunch experience but our lunch sadly was just a plate of cold fried rice, cold fried fish and some french fries and some salad. One of us ordered a coke; it was not even cold; we asked for some ice; they said they didn’t have any ice. By the way, the drinks were not included in the tour fee. Plus, the driver jumped straight into the food without any proper introduction or presentation about what type of food we were about to have. Another let down. After lunch we boarded the speed boat to cruise around the Madu river, the boat trip was okay, we stopped at the place where we learned how Cinnamon oil and Cinnamon power are made, but everyone greeted us as if we were Chinese. We are not Chinese, so please don’t assume every Asian is Chinese and say “Ni-hao”! If you know exactly where people are from, feel free to greet them in their language; otherwise it will just annoy people. To sum it up, though we saw some nice sites, we spent most of our time driving and learned very little. We were sold an English speaking tour guide, but in the end received an expensive driver.
Our guide Thusara was a very knowledgeable and intelligent. He has renovated the trip itinerary to include places that were not even mentioned so that we get even more wholesome experience of Southern Sri Lanka. Throughout the trip he was very compassionate and energetic and has beyond what would normally be expected from a tour guide. He wished our day end with wide smile and "Eid Mubarak", which was something that truly made my parents smile and talk about after the trip. I will definitely use this company/s service (and preferably look out for Thusara) in the future when I visit Sri Lanka again. Take lots of love! <3
One of the best experience i've ever got in my life. Thank you beyond escape. Chuaffer was very cooperative. It ws well organized.
Thank you beyond escapes for making that day so perfect and memorable. Visit to the Kosgoda turtle hatchery and boat ride in madu river was awesome..!
I had a fantastic day because of this tour. Extremely great tour and a service. My chauffeur took me to several amazing places in south coast, Sri Lanka within the day.Boat ride on Madu river, Turtle hatchery in kosgoda were amazing.And Galle fort too.And the chauffer was very helpful and knowledgeable. Thank you Beyond Escapes !
This tour is a great way to see the highlights of the south coast in a single day. The sea turtle hatchery was very neat to see, as well as Galle Fort. The highlight of the tour is the boat ride on the Madu River. The scenery was just gorgeous. My driver/guide did an great job and was very informative and expertly navigated through busy roads.
Thank you beyond escape for arranging such a great journey. Guide was also very cooperative. Thank you
My partner and I had an amazing day at south coast in Sri Lanka.We had a wonderful, knowledgeable guide.Actually, the price of the tour was cheapest we ever had and the service was superb.Madu river boat ride, turtle hatchery, galle fort and mask factory visit.. all made beautiful memories in our hearts.we would like to very grateful to Beyond Escapes for the great service you offered us.
One of a marvelous tours I ever had. Really enjoyed. Madu river boat ride and the turtle hatchery in Kosgoda caught my heart . Actually , It was memorable experience . Thanks Beyond Escapes for giving me such a great travel experience
Great experience - Had a great time with a knowledgeable person.Thank you beyond escapes for providing us such a marvelous guide and a service. We were very satisfied with the places and the service.I would like to recommend this tour for my colleagues after going back to my place..
Thank you beyond escapes for providing such a marvelous guide and a service. I was very satisfied with the places and the service. Can recommed to anyone who love to visit down south.
Our tour guide was Mr. Godfrey Ranatunga. On a road trip with 2 kids was no joke, Mr. Godfrey handled it very well. We enjoyed the trip, especially the close-up experience with the turtles at the turtles santuary. The river boat ride was also an experience. Overall, I give a thumbs up for this trip...
Sri lankas one of the best and miracle place is the Gale fort, this built by Holland colonial period
<p>this trip was great. Our drive was very good but a little bit quiet - we really would have liked a bit more info on the places we were visiting. The boat trip out on the lagoon was really good and we enjoyed the stops at Cinnamon island and the temple too.</p>
<p>The trip was well organized, very scenic, and informative.</p> <p>I think you have to be a history and environmental lover to enjoy this trip as there is a lot of focus on the history and environmental work being done in Sri Lanka.</p> <p>Just one warning - the visit to the Dutch Fort at Galle is self-guided, so make sure that you come prepared with fort information or visit the museum to get a map and orientation. Make sure you walk around the full circumference of the walled fort. Also a lot of walking required, so bring good shoes, hat, and sunblock.</p> <p>I learned a lot and saw things I never thought I would see including water monitors, blue kingfishers, cormorants, fishing boats, floating coconut stores, cinnamon preparation and a floating session through a mangrove swamp - fascinating.</p>
<p>Great tour. Absolutely love Galle and all the stops along the way. The turtles are adorable but beware of one of the guides there because he is a bit handsy. They should actually go to a different turtle place because that particular man was rude and inappropriate. Its unfortunate because everyone else in the entire country was relatively kind and welcoming so this was a negative start to our visit. The tour guide/driver was polite and friendly. He stopped at some nice places. The river cruise was an additional 80USD but it was spectacular and one of the best experiences we had in Sri Lanka. The mask museum was educational and quiet. The museum store also had reasonable prices for all sculptures, masks etc and I would recommend purchasing from there as opposed to any of the places in Kandy. The restaurant we stopped at for lunch was extremely expensive but I think worth it in this case. We had trouble deciding what to order and our waiter went to the side of the sea, received a fresh catch and brought it to us on a plate as an option and we loved it. All in all a great day! I wish we spent 3 of them there!</p>
<p>Good trip very interesting and really just a great day out saw the turtle sanctuary the mask museum was brilliant The Galle fort was a bit of a disappointment but not total rubbish worth the trip</p>
<p>Loved this tour! Our tour guide, Damitha, was wonderful!! We spent time walking around the fort and got to see all the sights there. Then we went to our river tour and lunch. The lunch was simple and wonderful. The river tour was great. Got to see many different islands and go onto them. Different ones were known for growing cinnamon and another had a Buddhist monastery where we received a blessing from a monk. After the river tour, we went to the turtle sanctuary. It was amazing!!!! We just happened to show up at the perfect time and two different nests hatched. What an amazing experience!!! After being able to release some turtles to the ocean, we headed back to our hotel. Overall a wonderful day!!</p>
<p>again very poorly organised. Not much to do and see and nothing worthwhile. Over all we were forcefully convinced to spend time and money on useless herbal medicine.</p>
<p>Our guide for the day was Saneth...he was informative, compassionate and interesting.<br/> I highly recommend this tour as it's also very hard to cover so much ground in a day.</p>
<p>Great!! Our guide didn't really speak English so we didn't learn anything about the Dutch Fort. Maybe a printed handout would be helpful. Our guide stopped at a silk factory and moonstone mine as well. The boat ride in the Mangroves was fantastic!! We also really loved the turtle hatchery! Highly recomm nod this tour.</p>
<p>Certainly worth doing when you're in Colombo. Here's why i only rated it 3 stars:</p> <p>The good:<br/> 1. My driver was very professional, polite, and knowledgeable. He was also a very calm driver despite the craziness of the other drivers around him.<br/> 2. The Old Dutch Fort reminded me of Manila's Intramuros, although the former was much well preserved. Nice to see how they lived back in the day.<br/> 3. My favorite was the visit to the sea turtle hatchery. They're doing a great thing there.<br/> 4. the river cruise was 'ok.' We didnt see much wildlife although the visit to the small buddhist temple was fun.<br/> 5. Sri Lankan's are very friendly. At least every one i met on this trip.</p> <p>The bad: <br/> 1. We felt pressured to buy something or give a donation, and this was in every single place we went to, including the Moonstone mines not part of the itinerary but we were brought there, which was a good thing, but once you're there, you're pressured or coerced to buy something. So when you go on this trip, make sure you budget for these incidentals.<br/> 2. Lunch - the lunch was part of what you paid for. They just started cooking when we got to the restaurant we we waited for an hour for our food. And this was around 130pm already, and we were already very hungry, so we ended up eating around 230pm.</p> <p>Overall, i dont regret going on this trip. In fact, I'm very glad i did. I just wont push it to my friends though.</p>
Monday through Friday 9 am to 7 pm EST
Reach us by phone
Reach us by email