Getting Around Sri Lanka

Dear virtual tourist Members,

In Sri Lanka only the persons who have a valid license issued by the Sri Lanka tourist Board can engage in the service of guiding.
There are four categories of guide Services
National Tourist Guide
Chauffeur Turist Guide
Provincial Turist Guide
Site Tourist Guide
There for when you want to select the driver/guide try to get one has guide license.

We visited Sri Lanka for 10 days in April 2012. We really enjoyed our
holiday which gave a good impression of the wide variety of things you can
see and do in this beautiful country. Jagath is a very reliable driver, will
never over speed and brings you anywhere you like. His English is good and
his knowledge about Sri Lanka in general and especially Buddhist temples is
very good. During longer trips he would suggest some restaurant where we
could eat and we never got ill and it was always tasty. He is very discreet
and modest and will never sit at your table or force you to visit certain
shops if you don't want. His van is in good condition, has proper seatbelt
and easily fits a family of six people. he told as also he has Toyota car. For more details can visit his web site www.Jagathtours.com email chamigath@wow.lk

Look no further :
A driver and possibly the best guide in Sri Lanka: Kalum Niriella.
We were planning to drive through Sri Lanka only for 5 days but we ended up driving around with Kalum for the whole holliday.
Kalum is a true gentleman professional and incredibly knowledgeable.

You can contact him :
Kalum Niriella
+94 77 685 5443
greenlankavacations@yahoo.com

Made our holliday and incredible one.
Thanks again

Giorgio and Marina

When we planed our trip to sri lanka one of my friends gave me an email address of driver service.
She said that theyhad the service and highly recommended.
We also mail to the company called Gorgeous Lanka.
the lady who owns the company responded very quickly and arranged us a fantastic tour.
From the air port Niranjala had a very good communication with us. has done very good coordination through out the whole tour.
Our driver Nishantha also very good person of his 30's .Speaks good English. Very helpful.
Also their prices seems to be very reasonable.
Company is Gorgeouslanka
Email: gorgeouslanka@gmail.com

I know I was struggling to find much information about self drive in Sri Lanka, so I've posted some comments below from my own experiences over the last few weeks:

Who to hire with:
Europcar [Aban Tours] have a a desk at Colombo Airport along with a few other local operators (who all looked good). Don't expect the full Western experience when collecting the car (it took me 1.1/2hrs+ to finally get in the car despite having pre-booked and paid) - Aban Tours appear to be operating as Europcar under a branding licence only. Otherwise not too bad and I've seen much worse in many other developed countries. My car was a Toyota saloon in good condition but had a lot of miles on the clock (about 125k+).

Driving in general:
If you're not a confident/relaxed driver then don't drive in Sri Lanka. If you have experience of Asian driving (or perhaps Paris/Italy) then should be no problems at all.
So long as you quickly grasp the right of way system... which is the greater the size of vehicle takes priority, then there should be no real surprises.
I actually found the driving quite relaxed due to the slower speed limits which most drivers seemed to keep to (buses/lorries excepted). Lots and lots of pointless overtaking, but just always drive expecting the unexpected.

Roads:
Colombo has good roads, the A2 along the coast is also very good. The new Highway from Colombo to Galle was brand new, excellent and deserted (toll of 400 rupees). The entrance on was still being built which I'm sure will be sorted in no time.
The B roads were manageable but some did turn into lumpy dirt tracks.

Colombo:
There's no real ring road so we had to drive through Colombo to get to the new Highway - this took 3 hours so prepare for lots of stop start. Very busy and roads crammed with vehicles.

Outside of Colombo:
Roads are much more relaxed with relatively few cars. Vehicles are mostly slowish tuk-tuks, mopeds, nutter buses (just let them pass) and lorries. For timing, work on an average traveling speed of about 40km per hr.

New Motorway:
The new highway is great and takes about 1 to 1.1/2 hrs to drive the full length (Colombo to Galle).

Drop-off:
We dropped the car at the departures at the airport with zero problems - approx 10 mins only

Recommendations:
We travelled with small children and having our own car proved a real benefit. Air Con, big boot, flexibility etc
We paid approx 50EU for a GPS SatNav from Europcar (just ask when you pickup). Was a bit rubbish and we hardly used it. We wanted it as as a security blanket - however I'll be using a good map next time.

Requirements:
Must have an international Driving licence. I didn't bother with the Recognition permit (available from Colombo AA Office) and no-one checked me in two weeks of car use. I wouldn't have expected it to have been any real problem to be without anyway?

Self-Drive v's Driver:
Most people moving around opted for a driver. The Drivers mostly sat with the tourist during their meals and it seemed very awkward to us. We had complete flexibility without a driver asking us to visit his brothers shop or similar! Having a Driver may sometimes help secure the best/cheapest places but offset that by having to feed drivers/guides etc. If I needed to pop to the shop I get in the car and done. With a Driver you need to tell them when to be around or have them always hanging around.. personally, this would have driven me bananas.

Hope this helps!
Scott

We were recently in Sri Lanka with a team of Belgian travellers. If you are looking for an experienced driver we would like to recommend Mr. Siroshan Silva.

He is a very good driver, with a lot of experience and he knows Sri Lanka very well. It’s possible just to rent driver+car per day for a fair price,

but as we found out it’s even better to let him choose the accommodation too, because he knows every place for every budget.

On the personal level he is a friendly, flexible man and very reliable man. The car (a little bus) was very comfortable with A/C.

He has a website to contact him www.visittourlanka.com and his contact address is siroshan@hotmail.com. His mobile 0094 776915611.

I can give more information or answers to your questions if necessary.

Erik, Belgium

The busses are an excellent and cheap way to travel all across Sri Lanka, back packs are safe and stored in the back of the bus. journeys range in length, but a good time is a ride that is under 3 hours. Very easy to organise and there is a bus depot in nearly every town and just ask a local they will point you in right direction for which one to catch.
Also the ticket men on the bus are good as well and don't rip you off, you pay the same as a local.

Busses are also excellent entertainment and a good place to strike conversations with locals. Plus people come on the bus and sell nuts, ice cream, snacks etc so you will never go hungry.

Plus they look awesome and the first three roles are reserved for religious people.

We could really find a good driver, Mr.Chamara Perera, 31,Male.

He is honest and gentle person, and took great cares of us in reasonable English and fair cost.

We strongly recommend him as a driver of your trip in Srilanka.
If you are interested in his driving, please contact chamara1980@gmail.com, directly.
You can feel at ease and spend good holidays there.

Mode: AROUND
Phone: His phone:94772165150
Type: Car/Motor Home