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What To Expect

Đánh giá

• Dishonest and greedy operators with no shame asking for extra money after demanding an immediate review

  Joe L,

  18 thg 6, 2025

  - Viator

  1.00

  I’d like to say this was the experience of a lifetime. When it comes to experiencing the unique wildlife in their natural habitats on a beautiful day, we cannot fault it. However, this isn’t the fault of the beautiful animals, and that is where the positivity ends sadly. The context of this is that we’d struggled to find a tour that had a pick up and drop off in Ella. We got in touch with Viator directly to ask about this possibility and got met with all the enthusiasm in the world with a bit of unwelcome pressure to book immediately; with the promise that this had been agreed with the tour operator and we didn’t need to worry about anything else. The fun starts here. With next to no communication from both Viator or the operator prior to excursion. We received a last minute and poorly written email from the operator advising that our tour had been postponed from the early morning until the afternoon. With absolutely no follow on communication when we pointed out this had messed up our follow on plans, we felt we had no choice but to suck it up and wait at the randomly rearranged pick up point for the afternoons excursion. When the pick up time finally came, the operator did not have our name on the list. Clearly they hadn’t bothered to update it with the ‘cancelled’ morning tour. Along with this we were advised that not only had Viator not gone through with our booking request to return to Ella, but we would need to arrange our own transport back at our cost. When thrown this information, we immediately called Viator customer service to sort this out, only to be met with an unhelpful handler who did not only not listen to what was happening but decided just to talk over the top of us stating the 24 hour cancellation period and refused to look back at the email trail of the booking process. Consequently the tour party left without us, yet miraculously the driver came back ten minutes later in a smaller van and tried bartering from $110 AUD for a private taxi back to Ella once the tour was done. The now well known. ‘Pick me’ comparison trick did the job to reduce that price - and left with the choice of sucking it up or missing out altogether, we got in the taxi. The driver then decided it was an audition to become an F1 driver to catch up the other van, averaging twice the speed limit and somehow avoiding disaster on almost every turn for the best part of two hours. We arrived at where the tour began, somehow unscathed yet somewhat nauseous. The tour itself was great, no complaints there; the driver knew his stuff and managed to find every animal. When we got back to the drop off point for everyone to go their separate ways, we were surrounded and hounded for an immediate review on this platform by the office staff; precious little in the way of understanding their target market who appreciate privacy - they already had our money and in all likeliness this review will do little to hamper their operation. We then got back in the same minivan for our ‘dice with death’ experience round 2. Where the sort of friendly driver saw it as his second round of interviews to become a race car driver. (Whilst we recognise driving is different here, this experience was dead set dangerous). This time dodging the wild elephants who’d come out to play. Going back to the sort of friendly bit, it was only really to try and force our onward travel plans so he could try and sell his comparative services and day tours of Ella to us. This was whilst admitting there had in fact been a morning tour…essentially we must’ve been the unlucky ‘overbooked’ couple and rather than being honest, they’d caught themselves out on this obvious lie. The other kick in the nethers was that he admitted he was always returning to Ella, with or without passengers - essentially he’d had a bumper pay day taking $85 AUD off of us. It was mildly amusing to see his quiet reaction when we decided to play unrealistic price guessing on what we’ve already booked. So in review, the human element of this was exceptionally poor. Prior to this our experience of Sri Lanka and its people had been fantastic; lovely, honest and hospitable people. In stark contrast, this bunch are a group of smiling mercenaries who see nothing but a gold mine of western tourists to be preyed upon. We have also not been refunded or offered any sort of make right option from Viator. Their set up is disgraceful and very hands off, not my problem. The wildlife was stunning and make me love animals and dislike humans even more than I already did.

• Sasanka was perfect guide...

  Adam K,

  16 thg 6, 2025

  - Viator

  5.00

  Sasanka was perfect guide and driver. We had great time seeingg lots of animals. Great experience. Thank you!

• We see lots of creatures...

  Mandy L,

  9 thg 5, 2025

  - Viator

  5.00

  We see lots of creatures !! Elephant, deers, buffalos and even leopards!! Sasanka is our driver. He is so nice!! Just a reminder that they wouldn't pick u from the hotel. You have to go to the meeting point by yourself.

• Good but prepare for a long day

  Jessica F,

  6 thg 3, 2024

  - Viator

  3.00

  Wonderful to see lots of elephants but prepare for a long day (12 hours with pick up and drop off). We thought we were paying for only 3 hours which is perfect but the total time in the park was close to 5 hours. It was very hot by the end. We received a meal and water in the morning but not enough to last the length of the safari and there is no where in the park to buy food/water. Warning to bring extra if you can.

• Wonderful Excursion

  Andrew R,

  22 thg 2, 2024

  - Viator

  5.00

  This was our second visit to Yala national park while in Sri Lanka. Our driver was extremely helpful in showing the wildlife Leopard, Bear, Elephant, Sambar, Monkeys etc Had amazing experience watching Leopard walk very close to us through path and upto the tree and although so many trucks watching we got amazing photos and video shared to capture the moment and holiday memories! Many thanks for wonderful experience and throughy recommend!