Full-Day Kandy Highlights Tour

The tour guide had difficulty with speaking English. He did not give us any guidance other than taking us a few touristic places. He took us to Botanical Garden and a private tea factory and left us there at the front door with no any information about the places. We could have taken the same tour with a taxi driver. The car was very old and dirty which we assumed was normal but we have found a much better car with our hotel for a cheaper price. We had to leave them in the middle of the tour since it was not making any difference making this tour with a guide who is no use.

Our guide was not the best at English or knowledge.We basically had to plan the tour for him. Botanical gardens the highlight.

We had a very nice day with our driver Peyanta Panagala. He was a very friendly and helpful man and took us to a lot of interesting places.Botanic garden and Temple of the Tooth was fantastic. As it was a private tour with Peyanta he was eager to make it our tour. On his day of Peyanta even helped us to get seats in 2nd class on the Train to Ella. We were so glad we didnt have to stand up on this 6,5 hour Journey by train!

This is nothing but driving around in a terrible car, and traffic, all day long. I wouldn't recommend this tour.

This tour is excellent - you can't get a better guide than Priyanth. He knows exactly where to go and when to go, and is always smiling and joking and accommodating. We spent almost the whole day out, and had complete fun. The last stop was the Temple of Tooth which was brilliant, so were the dance performances and not forgetting the gigantic Botanical Gardens. Highly-recommended.

I highly recommend this tour. We almost covered everything in one day.

Tour could have been better coordinated. Our tour operator was not very communicative and did not describe the destinations properly. He did know some tricks on how to save us some money here and there. We did not like particularly the visits to gem and wood factory and spice gardens. As clearly these are tourist traps where if we buy something the tour operator along with his buddies get a commission for over priced items. Did not like the fact that we had to tip everywhere we go. I mean we are paying entrance fees or in case of Kandian Cultural show we paid 1000rupees and then they expect us to tip after we take a photo. i would have rather not taken the photo.....I would not recommend this tour operator.

All thanks to Priyank - the driver/guide, me and my mother had a wonderful experience of Kandy beginning the trip with a visit to Pinnawala and ending it with a lovely evening of Kandyan Cultural dances. The best part of the trip is the visit to the Botanical Gardens which is worth the money you pay to enter. The spice garden, the gem and tea museum can be given a miss. The Temple of the Relic was quaint, but crowded as it was during the time of the Esala Perahera. When in Kandy, take this trip. Priyank may not be very conversant in English, but is very influential, making the trip easy on your knees.

Great tour Excellent guide did what I asked for and more If you know they have favourite places to stop that is fine but stick to your schedule and you wont be disappointed Hos English wad good and managed to do everything at elephant orphanage

You are paying for the driver to take you to the various places of interest. Good way to see everything and it is just you or the 2 of us in our case in the car. Worth doing, just research first so you don't get ripped off. Elephant orphanage: Tried to charge us 5,000 LKR for a 30 min ride when we knew other places were only 2,500 LKR. After we said we didn't want to ride them then, they dropped the price to 2,500 LKR. I think the driver gets commission for bringing people here as there are many orphanages. One guys who worked there took my camera to take pictures and kept saying how we should pay money to them after we paid out 2,500 rupees each as other British people had and had also given them extra money and some English t-shirts. All a bit of a money making scheme and we felt a bit uncomfortable. Spice Garden was very nice, and free to walk around, although you have a guide that makes you try and buy products afterwards. Tea plantation: Very interesting and you get to try some tea at the end. We bought some tea here as we did actually want to take some back with us. Botanical Garden: The driver firstly tried to take us to a Gem Shop which is not in the itinerary but we said we didn't want to, and he said but it is free. I expect it was owned by a family member and wanted us to buy some gems from them. The Botanical Garden is nice 2,000 rupees to get in to see some flowers etc. We were also badgered by some guy who worked there for money Temple of Tooth Relic: This was nice to visit, although after paying 1,100 LKR to get in you, our driver handed us over to a guide, who expected us to pay him at the end, even though we could not understand a word he was saying. Kind of ruined it for us as we wanted to walk around at our own pace but we felt bad for him so stuck with him. You have to hand your shoes in before you can enter and when you collect, they try to get more money off you, in order to get your own shows back. They see tourists a mile off!