Sri Lanka birding & cultural tour

Planet

Visiting Sri Lanka’s national parks, forest reserves and other protected areas of special scientific interest as paying guests invests in the various local projects targeting sustainability, conservation, environmental regeneration and biodiversity enhancement. Each individual park or reserve has specific objectives and priorities, from elephant or leopard conservation to protection of the fragile sea turtle hatching sites, Sinharaja’s diminishing rainforest or threatened bird nesting grounds. Your contribution will help fund these essential programmes, providing the necessary resources and local employment.

The accommodation included in this tour has sustainability and authenticity at its heart:

Galkadawala Forest Lodge – An open-plan forest lodge built sensitively with its natural surroundings and nestled in ‘jungle’ near a picturesque lake in the Cultural Triangle. Most of the structure is built from recycled or repurposed materials and only a few trees were sacrificed during construction. The design concept echoes the early watch-huts that studded this Dry Zone region, built on trees or stilts by chena farmers to protect their crops from animals. According to Maulie, the owner and in-house manager: “Tourism should ideally, in countries such as Sri Lanka, be a means of renewing abandoned environments which once supported cultural heritage. In these circumstances, the vitality of our value systems combined with the tranquil balance of our lives could be shared with guests who seek our hospitality. It is only then that the experiences they seek for which they travel to distant lands may be truly fulfilled… From the outset, the aim was to transform this barren patch of land to a jungle habitation, creating a haven for guests to enjoy a setting in which Man and Nature lived in harmony with each other – the pastoral scene of the rural peasantry in which animals, birds, reptiles and insects also have their due place.”

Hanthana House – A friendly and welcoming homestay guesthouse near Kandy surrounded by one of the first tea estates established on the island. Your hosts, Pathi and Suba, will introduce you to authentic Sinhalese Buddhist life through chats, cooking and village walks. Hot water for showers is generated by solar-thermal arrays and drinking water is provided by a filtration system.

Borderlands Eco Lodge – Overlooking the Kelani River in Kitulgala, the eco lodge and jungle camp provides a ‘glamping’ experience in truly stunning surroundings of tree-clad peaks and clear, rushing mountain waters. The rustic riverfront tents and cabins, all made locally, are covered by thatched roofs, ensuring a dry stay at all times. Being demountable, the structures are non-permanent and may be reused or removed at any time so drastically reducing their impact on the local environment.

Oatlands by Jetwing – Restored and renovated British colonial era bungalow in the center of Nuwara Eliya. The sympathetic refurbishment has breathed new life into this century-old vacation home; many buildings of a similar age would have been demolished or restructured. The bungalow is also furnished with classic colonial trappings of the era, reusing and revitalising furniture and fittings from a bygone age. Jetwing Hotels is also a trailblazer in sustainability on the island, initiating across-the-board programmes for carbon, energy, waste and water reduction, improving biodiversity, and sourcing local produce, internalising supply chains and the responsible use of products.

98 Acres Resort & Spa – Luxury retreat with spectacular views in an idyllic location at Ella in the southern Hill Country. Surrounded by the eponymous scenic tea estate in Uva Province, it was constructed with the emphasis on eco-friendliness and sustainability. The uniquely designed resort of spacious chalets mostly made of recyclable materials blends well with the natural surroundings. Discarded railway sleepers form decks and walls, rough-hewn granite lends simple elegance to floors, and thatched roofs of Iluk straw add to the rustic splendour.

Kithala Resort – Sustainability is enrooted as a core concept of the waste management system and the resort organises regular community-based ‘clean ups’ of the local area to remove non-biodegradable items from the environment. It also invests in environmental research to find solutions to the country's dwindling biodiversity by spearheading the Biodiversity Educational Research Initiative. Also, more than 80% of the fresh produce used is grown locally.

The Rainforest Ecolodge – Tucked away in the wilderness of UNESCO-accredited Sinharaja Forest Reserve and seamlessly blending sophisticated luxury with an immersion in nature, the eco lodge is designed to minimise its impact on the environment through a closely managed sustainable development. This global sustainability award-winning lodge (a LEED Platinum Hotel – 5th in the World) consists of comfortable chalets constructed with recycled materials.

Fort Bliss – Comfortable four-bedroom town villa with courtyard garden and sit-out veranda in Galle fort. Elegantly appointed with antique furniture throughout and built in harmony with the original Dutch colonial architecture of the 17th century, it is located only a few metres from the famous ramparts. Thameez and her husband have gone the extra mile to provide one of the best value places to stay within the fort.

We fully appreciate that flying to Sri Lanka and enjoying a private tour of the island by car impact detrimentally on climate change. However, there are ways of ameliorating some of the impact. Your flight to Sri Lanka is about 80% of the total carbon footprint of your entire vacation and possibly the best alternative to mitigate your flights’ emissions at the present time is to invest in a local community generation project at home. We use petrol- or diesel-engine vehicles in Sri Lanka as a matter of necessity. Currently, there is a poor uptake of electric vehicles (EVs) on the island and the charging infrastructure for EVs is non-existent. We don’t use internal flights for obvious climate action reasons but we do encourage train journeys around the island, particularly through the spectacular Hill Country, along the palm-fringed west coast to Galle and up to seldom-visited Jaffna in the far north.

People

Our team of expert and passionate naturalist guides is exclusively made up of Sri Lankan locals who have many years under their belts of introducing foreign visitors to the wonders of their country and its exotic bird life. All of them are trained and licensed by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, so you are assured of their quality, knowledge and experience. Not only that, they are friendly, caring and a joy to be with! Don’t be shy, relax in their company and you will come away with an incredible experience that will stay with you for the rest of your life. But don’t take it from us – our very positive feedback from past customers is testament to that fact. Our accommodation on this tour is locally owned and managed which contributes directly to the local economy as well as providing essential employment to local people. Tourism to Sri Lanka accounted for 25% of foreign exchange income and 12% of GDP at its height before the pandemic which shows how important your vacation is to the local economy and the difference you can make by traveling there. Much of the accommodation has social responsibility at its core, too: Hanthana House is actively involved in community-based programmes in the local area, particularly through the neighbourhood Buddhist temple and its head monk, Nanda sadhu – such as pre-natal as well as mother and child support initiatives – schemes that contributes to Forgotten Village Sri Lanka project – please contact us for more details. Pathi and Suba offer extra support to their employees, when necessary, many of whom have worked with them for a long time and are considered family. Borderlands Eco Lodge champions interactions with the great outdoors by providing professional development and corporate training schemes for local companies and offices. It also arranges and runs school summer camps, junior school programmes and youth leadership expeditions for local education authorities. Jetwing Hotels has youth development and foster schools programmes, women-focused career opportunities, local tuk tuk support schemes, community swimming pool access (following the devastating Asian tsunami in 2004), local farmer associations, and the emphasis on local employment. Kithala Resort has made a commitment to be a custodian of the traditional agrarian community it inhabits through local sustainability projects including village partnership schemes, sponsorship of youth educational initiatives and local employment opportunities. The Rainforest Ecolodge’s community outreach programme is a sustainable development objective to develop and improve the quality of life of the neighbouring tea estate community with their participation. The local community of 37 families on the Enselwatte Estate was marginalised, isolated and lived in extremely poor conditions when the project began. Consequently, the project initially invested in upgrading their basic facilities while considering a longer term strategy to empower them to access opportunities that would be available once the eco lodge began operations. Medium and longer term areas of the community outreach programme targets health, education, social services and life skills – empowering the community to have a voice over the future of their affairs. A community-managed cooperative society and options to supplement incomes are other longer-term aims. These initiatives have the support and recognition of the Enselwatte Estate management.