Srilanka tour -through Make my trip. Review on Makemytrip

Our tour to Srilanka was for five nights and six days, arranged through Make my Trip, Chennai office.

The MMT  executives, particularly Mr. Syed  were very nice and responsive. After noting down my requirements-mainly to visit Trincomalee temple-MMT suggested a package which included Dumbulla caves, Sigiriya Fort, Kandy Tooth temple and Colombo city. It was only a land package, ie, air tickets were booked by myself.

We started on 22-03-17 early morning and returned on 27-03-17 night.

First the plus points:

All the four hotels booked by MMT  were excellent and worth the money.They were budget hotels, but perfect for night stays. Breakfast and dinner were included and hence no hassles on food. Three of the four hotels kept kettle and coffee/tea sachets in the room, which was a great help for people like us who are used to take coffee at odd times.

Since only the two of us had booked on these days, a separate car-Nissan Bluebird- was provided with the chauffeur-cum- guide who could speak in English . He was always punctual and stuck to schedules.Smoothly drove on the decent roads of Srilanka, on all the six days.

Enjoyed the visits to all the places given in the itinerary as per schedule.Pleasant overall.

Now the few minus points;

All the midway restaurants where the chauffeur  took us for lunch and tea, were quite expensive, by Indian standards. In one such restaurant, one litre of mineral water was charged 180SLR whereas it was available in all shops along the road for 40SLR. Just for two cups of tea, they charged us 500SLR, which shoud'nt have been more than 250 in any other decent hotel.

The shops shown to us were also very expensive . also lot of bargaining was involved, which put us off. On our repeated insistence, he took us to the local market in Kandy which was quite lively and  cheap with plenty of varities.Unless you visit the local shops and markets, you will never get a feel of the country. Otherwise, all the star hotels and expensive shops are one and the same all over the world and nothing really Srilankan in them.

The package included two nights stay at Kandy, which we felt was a waste of time. There is nothing much in Kandy which could'nt be covered in a day. The second night could have been booked at Yala or Galle and a trip via the picturesque Nuwaraelia and Kadhirkamam would have made it complete, though at some extra cost. When we tried to make the changes through the agent at Srilanka, he said that it was too late as they have to rebook the hotel and we have to forego the payments made to Kandy hotel. .This could have been avoided, if some flexibility had been built in, or atleast the local agent had discussed with us before finally booking the hotels.A little extra cost would have been perfectly OK for such a trip via Nuwaraelia.

Few Tips:

If one has limited time and want to cover all major attractions, MMT is a good option. Better discuss with their staff in detail  before finalising the plan. Also  do some research yourself   and make appropriate changes to their packages  suiting  your needs and tastes.

MMT  packages offer both inclusive of air ticket as well as exclusive of it. I would suggest to book the air travel ourselves .There are  substantial variations in the  cost of airtickets from Chennai /India  depending on the days of travel Better to finalise the flight tickets before deciding on the exact dates of commencing the tour.

If one is a budget traveller like us, better avoid the expensive restaurants which do not really worth the high cost.

If someone is from Tamilnadu, better ask for a Tamil speaking driver.which will make communications comfortable.

The entrance tickets to all the attractions are quite high.At most of the places, cards are not accepted. The best course would be to use the ATMs of major banks like Commercial Bank, which offer reasonable exchange rates. I feel about 40000SLR may be adequate for  lunches/tea, entry tickets to the attractions and some minor purchases for two persons in  a package of six days like ours.(ie, excluding the package cost paid in advance to MMT)

It may be noted that entry rates for SAARC countries are roughly half of the rates applicable for other countries. At some places like Sigiriys fort, they wanted to see the original passport to give the discounts applicable for SAARC. If not passports, atleast carry some Govt. ID proof for verification at the ticket counters.

Avoid talking politics . discuss everything else. Srilankans, in general, are very nice and helpful.