First trip to Sri Lanka
We want to share our impressions about our vacation in Sri Lanka in the city of Kalutara (Kalu in Sinhalese means Black), the Black River flows in the city. The city itself is very large in area (40 by 40 km), home to about 80.000 people.
We stayed at the Royal Palms Beach 5 * hotel, the hotel is very pleasant in terms of service and decor, a very green area, a large swimming pool (with a bar), there are enough sun loungers for everyone (although, according to the old Slavic tradition, many begin to occupy them as early as 6 in the morning), The food is a little monotonous, so we recommend taking it only for breakfast, because. there are good cafes and restaurants nearby where you can eat quite inexpensively, about $ 30 for two is a full lunch or dinner (dinner at the hotel costs $ 50). The rooms are spacious, each room has a balcony, contrary to many reviews, we want to say that we did not notice a persistent smell of dampness, although we lived on the first floor. The only thing we and two other tourists who came with us were faced with the fact that the tour operator did not notify the hotel that one large bed was needed. The first day I had to live in a room with separate beds, then this issue was quickly resolved.
Probably everything about the hotel, now we want to share how we spent time and where we managed to visit.
There are not very many excursions on this island and they are all very difficult physically and for long journeys, after reading a few reviews before leaving about the guide Roshan (ours call him Alexander), we decided to turn to him for excursions, and by a strange coincidence, the first of those who it was Roshan who approached us during our first trip to the beach (there are municipal beaches). We asked him about the prices for excursions, compared them with the prices of the hotel guide, and made our choice in favor of Roshan.
We managed to visit 3 excursions.
The first was in Gala (fortress), on the way there we visited: a boat trip along the Bentotta River and mangroves (crocodiles and monitor lizards live there), a cinnamon plantation, mines where sapphires, emeralds, moonstone and many other precious and semi-precious minerals are mined , turtle nursery, the conclusion of our trip was a wild beach in the bay, where we had a nice lunch and a swim, the tour takes almost the whole day, but it is very interesting from 8 am to 5 pm.
The second excursion was in Kandy, on the way we visited: a rubber plantation, a pineapple plantation, a tea plantation, ate in a cafe in the mountains (wild monkeys live nearby, you can take a treat for them with you)), an elephant nursery, an Ayurveda center, rode elephants, bought from the manufacturer, the Royal Botanical Gardens. from 5 am to 8 pm
The third excursion was the shortest (we reached the waterfall in Kalutara) it is very beautiful there, locals swim there.
All excursions organized by the Russian-speaking guide Roshan (almost a citizen of Ukraine) were at the level, all trips were on comfortable Tayota and Nissan cars for 4-7 passengers.
In total, we had 8 clean days at our disposal, and we spent them unforgettable)
The ocean has always been exciting, but this is even better, because. swimming in calm water is boring))