kirstenrdh

Hi there,
I am in the infancy stages of planning a trip to Sri Lanka and I have some transportation questions. I would like to use drivers to get around the island. From reading through this forum it looks like many people have hired a private driver for the entire trip. Is it possible to find drivers for one way trips between destinations on an as need basis ? ( like it is possible in Bali.) I just don't like the idea of being tied to one driver for many days. I want to avoid the whole kick back thing as well ( staying in hotels they deal with, shopping based on their recommendations etc.) I will not have an abundance of time available, sadly, so train travel is probably out of the questions for me. Any advise ?

crellston

We spent a month there half using a driver. Half not. Understand your desire not to get tied to one driver. Our first was hopeless and, for a variety of reasons, we changed after our first week.

If you are short on time it may make sense to hire a driver guide for the entire trip as, IME it can take a bit of time to organise transport from one place to another, especially on the longer jaunts.

It is easy to underestimate the time it takes to travel there. Double what one would think!

Tour agents there are notoriously difficult to contact and extract information from. Boutique Sri Lanka seem to be highly thought of by many. Reddot is another big tour company and the one we used but, based on my experiences, I would not recommend them. However, they do have a good website which you can use to plan your trip.

It depends on what sort of accomodation you are looking for, but we found that agents could get better accomodation rate than we could booking direct. That was in 2011. The ascendancy of booking.com et al may mean that that is no longer the case.

I wouldn't discount the train entirely as the rides are spectacular, cheap and take no longer than driving in most cases. A great way to get around if you are using individual drivers to get from place to place.

Kathie

We used Boutique Sri Lanka for our trip, and they arranged our driver for us. We had an excellent driver, but the great advantage of using an agent to arrange the driver is that if the driver isn't a good fit for you, if there are problems with the vehicle, they will trade them out for you.

I understand your reluctance to attach yourself to a driver, especially a free-lancer. You are right that free-lancers want you to book your accommodations through them. Another reason an agency can be very helpful.

But you certainly can hire a driver for point to point travel.. Typically, your hotel can arrange this for you.

How much time do you have? What are your interests in Sri Lanka?

annhig

I want to avoid the whole kick back thing as well ( staying in hotels they deal with, shopping based on their recommendations etc.)>>

our experience was that the tour company [BSL in our case] had included in our trip some things that they include in every trip [a spice garden, the elephant orphanage at Kandy] which when we got there we realised that we didn't really want to do. Going there was almost automatic for our driver but that was more the tour company, not him. When we told him what we wanted to do, and not, he generally got the message. And we never had the impression that he was taking us to places because it benefitted him financially; it was more that it was on the itinerary so that's where he's paid to go.

thursdaysd

I, too, used BSL. I had no difficulty omitting, up front, things I wasn't interested in (e.g. elephants). I had an excellent driver. They booked the hotels I agreed to.

annhig

thursdaysd - we found it difficult, until we got there, to work out what we did or didn't, want to see. The big stuff was easy, the lesser sights less so. but we got there in the end and enjoyed virtually everything.

kirstenrdh

Thank you so much, everyone, for your kind replies. Looks like hiring a "constant" driver through a reputable company is a good idea ( however, upon further research I am interested in some train travel as well.) I guess firm communication and planning on my part prior to the trip is of essence. I sadly only have ten nights available. Please do not tell me to plan for a longer visit...I know I should, but I can't ( living and working in the USA does not make for long vacation benefit....) Thanks for all your help and future recommendations

Kathie

Have a wonderful trip to Sri Lanka!

If we can be of further assistance, let us know.

Craig

kirsten - regarding train travel, you can always tell your driver to meet you at your next destination. Several posters have done that. Just hire the driver for the 10 days and do what you want when you want.

susiesan

For our two week trip this past February our driver was supplied by Camlo Lanka Tours. The owner, Kanchana Thanuja,, was incredibly responsive to putting together an itinerary tailored for us and our needs and desires. It all came together smoothly. We had the same driver for 10 of the 14 days we were in Sri Lanka.

http://www.camlolanka.com

Kanchana has his company on FB too. He does a lot of overseas travel for Sri Lankan Tourism promoting Sri Lanka as a destination. I can absolutely recommend Camlo Lanka. Be sure to tell him Susie from Kansas City referred you and he'll give you a better rate.