I'm originally Sri Lankan and live in Canada, and I've travelled to 49 countries and done multiple tours over the years, and unfortunately this has to be the worst and most unprofessional tour I've been on. I was travelling with one of my friends, and we worked with Aashik from Kingfisher to customize the tour to visit all the places we wanted to over 5 days, and he mentioned that we would be getting a driver that was a tour guide as well to explain the sites to us. It wasn't off to a good start because our driver Althaf was about 15-20 mins late picking us up from the airport. Day 1 and 2 were overall not too bad, although the driving itself was a bit aggressive (i.e. lots of illegal passing, speeding up, only to slam on the brakes because of traffic), and when we went to Dambulla, we expected our guide/driver to come in and explain the significance of the temple, but he basically said the temple was known for its statues, and sent us off alone. Althaf also mentioned that his driver’s license had expired 2 weeks prior so someone else may be joining us, which was a bit alarming. I had to call Aashik to see who this stranger was joining us on our trip, and he assured me that all was well with his license and no one would be joining us, and he would give Althaf the information he needed to actually play tour guide at the sites we were going to the following day. On day 3, Althaf was supposed to pick us up at 8am at our hotel in Kandy, and was over an hour late picking us up (and kept saying he was 15 minutes away and traffic was bad). Had he just been honest, we would have taken a tuk tuk to the sacred tooth temple since we didn’t know he was going to keep us waiting for an hour. We knew we had limited time, so wanted to see the temple and the Kandy viewpoint before catching a train at 11am, hence why we wanted to start early. When we get to the temple, he sends us off on our own again, because he had to go and pick up our train tickets from someone, so once again, we walked around the temple clueless and got zero historical information or facts about the temple. We only had time to do the temple and had to skip the viewpoint before catching our train. We were taking a train from Kandy to Nanu Oya – the train ride was 4 hrs long, and the drive was 2.5 hrs. When we get to the train station, our driver says he’s 20 minutes away, and will see us soon. We wait about an hour at a coffee shop, and when we call, he says he’s still 20 minutes away and sends his live location (which was 1.5 hrs away). He explains how he was driving from Kandy to Nanu Oya, and speeding so the police pulled him over, and because he had an expired license, they wanted to take him back to the police station, but he managed to bribe someone and get out, and was on his way. At this point, we called Aashik, frustrated because by then we had wasted over another hour waiting for this driver. Aashik offers to pick us up because he’s in the region, but he too was over an hour away. There is no comment about the level of unprofessionalism being late, not once, but twice, and making us wait around for his driver. We decide to take an uber to one of the tea plantations so that the day isn’t a complete waste, and tell Aashik/Althaf to pick us up from there. On day 4, we had planned to go to Horton Plains National Park first thing in the morning to hike to World’s End. As we’re 5 km away from the Park, the car stops working, at which point our driver mentions that the car is 20 yrs old (which we suspected since the arm rest in the car was broken). On day 5, we ask our driver to pick us up at 9am, and we were a few minutes late getting our luggage downstairs, so he went to go eat, and asks us to wait for him to finish his breakfast, so we wait about 20-30 minutes for him to finish eating. At some point, the driver asked me to lend him cash because he didn’t have any and was waiting for Aashik to wire him money – more unprofessional behaviour. We had requested to be dropped off in Moratuwa, and as we’re driving from Ella to Moratuwa, we realize the driver took a wrong turn, at which point he informs us he’s taking us to the airport instead and then another car will take us to Moratuwa, and apparently this had been okayed by Aashik with no communication to us. I called Aashik, who said that they had booked the car for another tour which is why we were being taken to the airport, which would have unnecessarily added an extra hour to 6 hour drive. It’s a good thing we were checking google maps sporadically! Overall, this entire tour was the most stressful and unorganized I’ve ever been on. It’s unfortunate that Aashik sold me on the tour saying that guides would be provided at each of the sites, and if not, the driver would play the guide. Because it would have been better using Kangaroo or another taxi service to do this tour given the amount of actual information we got from our “guide”/driver or just to use another tour company that was more organized and on time. I don’t recommend you book with this company if you want to actually enjoy your vacation because it will be one thing after another.

Had a wonderful time in Colombo, thanks to Mr. Feroze. He is a wonderful guide and driver. The car was good and comfortable, he speaks good English and has a wonderful knowledge of the city. He was very helpful and cooperative as he took me places not included in the tour. 5 stat service

We got to know Feros through PickMe and traveled with him from Colombo to Sigiriya. Everything went quickly and smoothly and he told us a lot about the country. He also showed us a local restaurant with very good curry along the way. We were also able to book a driver through him several times during our three-week stay in Sri Lanka, even at short notice. He always took care of everything and there were never any problems. We can recommend anyone to use his services!

Abdul picked us up at 7:30 a.m. near the cruise terminal. He was running late due to a flat tire but that was not a problem because he is a great young man. He helped us all day during each stop making sure that we are understanding what the locals were telling us and protecting us from any underhanded situations. We felt very comfortable with him chatting as well as his guiding skills, talking about his family and his plans for the future. He asked about our family and we told him about our children and grandchildren. He helped take pictures during the day, often standing and waiting while we went through sites that did not involve him being on site. He was at hand with comfort and water. He helped to calculate the conversion between Sri Lankan money to US dollars. He helped us with finding a reasonably priced place to eat lunch on the way to the elephants. Stayed with us the entire time that we rode elephants in the river. He was nearby. Taking pictures and protecting our belongings. I could not think of a better guide or a nicer young man. My wife and I both appreciated everything that he was able to do for us and with us.

It can be difficult travelling alone as an older woman but from the moment I met Aashik at Colombo airport all my worries faded away. On the way to my hotel in Negombo he stopped and bought and paid for a SIM card for me and changed my currency. I spent the next 3 days in his and Althaf’s company…they helped me to climb Pidurangala which I couldn’t have done without than. Aalshif arranged the most amazing jeep safari with the best guide in Minneriya National Park. We saw elephants from one month old to full adult. These boys have treated me like royalty and I will always treasure the memories.

Great guide. Tour was flawless and nothing less than exceptional! I have elderly family members as part of the tour, the guides were so attentive to our needs and goes above and beyond to make our experience exceptionally comfortable and memorable,

Had the pleasure of using kingfisher tours on this trip. The team know the area very well. They are fun and know all the best things to include. I liked this tour so .much, I booked 2 more tours with them through out my visit. Thanks team.

There were a group of 8 of us and I booked the tuk tuk trip before travelling. My husband is a wheelchair user so we also hired another tuk tuk for this to be driven around for us. Althaf Was our driver and he was knowledgable, good fun and lovely to have as a guide. He made our tour interesting and fun and listened to what we wanted to do, instead of insisting on a set itinerary that some companies insist of making you complete (jewellery shops, fabric shops etc). He fully appreciated the limitations of my husband and respected the fact that, at times, he didn’t want to fully explore at a stop off but I did. He balanced this incredibly well. Our wheelchair was well cared for in the other tuk tuk and we arrived back at the port in plenty of time for our cruise departure time. I’d thoroughly recommend this tour.

Good Service Great information about the country, where to go and what you should not miss! He speaks very good English and answered all of my family’s questions.

Our guides, Althaf and Ruhuman, were exceptional. They drove us from Colombo to Sigiriya to Kandy to Nurawa Eliya to Ella and back to Colombo and they did so under challenging driving conditions and always with amazing skills, good spirits, kindness and care for us. We are so grateful for them. We saw so much and we had an incredible experience thanks to these two wonderful guides. We will remember them and our fantastic time in beautiful Sri Lanka forever.

Wonderful experience with this team. They were very flexible for all our needs and requirements along the tour. Our guide Harish was so kind and knowledgable about his country. We really enjoyed the tour and will not hesitate to book them again and again

Warm and friendly drivers. Went out of their way to make our journey unique and wonderful. They even went and got medicine when I got sick. Remember to bring cash with you as some places dont take cards.

My wife and i booked a 16 day holiday with Secret Escapes to Sri Lanka in January 2025.We had already been to India and South Africa with them so was looking forward to it.Well it lived up to our expectations.What a lovely country and wonderful people.We crammed a lot of sight seeing over the two weeks and stayed at lovely hotels.A special mention of thanks to our driver Felix Fernando.What a star.He drove us all over the island and told us the history of all the places we visited.He told us about trees ,plants and wildlife.I doubt if any knows more about Sri Lanka than Felix.I would definitely recommend Sri Lanka to visit.Ask for Felix to be your driver. Liz &Paul,Scotland

Wonderful tour operator. It is a private tour. Very affordable and the driver was very friendly. The manager who manages this is kind and helpful. Definitely recommended. Right from pickup to drop at the hotel was smoothly planned and executed.

Great tour but short , Kingsfisher tours made everything wonderful on this trip . We would love to hire them again for our next trip to Sri Lanka . Very much recommended.