Charles Andrew

We had the good fortune of booking Charles as our tour guide for our 12 day holiday in Sri Lanka and, thanks to his excellent service, we all agreed that it was the best holiday we'd ever had (including our teenage children....and that's even compared to Disney World!). 

Even before we arrived, Charles surpassed our expectations with his offers of assistance over email to make sure we had the best time and that continued throughout the holiday. Nothing was too much trouble and he arrived on time each day with great positivity and an beaming smile.  He has excellent knowledge of the whole island, and we felt very comfortable and safe in his air conditioned 8 seater van, providing chilled bottled water everyday. 

Charles seems to have contacts for any type of activity we wanted to do and we had a great time touring Kandy and Ella, including a visit to a tea factory where he pursuaded the owners to allow us to pick some tea leaves, dolphin watching and snorkelling - he even managed to take us into the signal box at Nuwara Eliya while we waited for the train to see the 150 year old switches that are still used to control the points before he drove with our luggage to meet us off the train at Ella! He also arranged a superb safari in Kumana National Park, on which we saw a lot of animals up close and in their natural habitat (and invariably with no other vehicles alongside us), including water buffalo, deer, elephants, the elusive leopard and one of only 12 rare black-necked storks in Sri Lanka. 

On days that we had planned some time to relax with the children, Charles was happy to leave us to do our own thing but was always on hand if we needed him to take us to a different beach or restaurant in another town.

Initially, I considered hiring a car for our holiday but I'm so glad I didn't as Charles is so much more than a driver - he's a fixer. There are a lot of guides that have good reviews but Charles certainly deserves his amazing feedback as he definitely gave us a perfect holiday and made it one that we will never forget. Thank you Charles.