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  • Genuine Encounters

It’s all about whom you are meeting. Our tours are designed to grant you an intimate peak into the country and meeting real local people. With our special relationships cultivated over the years, our tours offer access into villages and homes to provide truly unique perspectives. This is something we are really specialized in. You do things together, share a meal or take part in a religious ritual; you become their guest but not a paid tourist.

 

Drivers/Chauffeurs

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Our pool of drivers/chauffeurs has been graded A & A Plus, depending on their experience in the Travel and Tourism field and the feedback we have received from our valued guests. We constantly ensure that our visitors receive the services that best meet their requirements. If you are an individual traveller or a family, your companion will be your driver/chauffeur from the moment you arrive in Sri Lanka until you depart.  Most of our drivers/chauffeurs are fluent in English, but we do have drivers who speak other languages such as German, Dutch, French, Hindi, Arabic etc. Our drivers/chauffeurs accompany only groups of 7 travellers and below.

 

National Guides

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We give our fullest assurance that groups of 8 travellers and above will be escorted by one of our well experienced National Guides. The knowledgeable guides, with their different linguistic abilities, will be invaluable in showing guests around places of interest in Sri Lanka and making them feel comfortable communicating with the locals. From the moment of arrival until departure, the group will be led and guided by our National Guides that converse in the mother tongue of the visitors.

 

Local Hosts

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We always design our tours to let our guests get the most out of their Sri Lankan experience. We strongly believe in the practice of offering authentic local experiences, not commercialised touristic shows. This is the reason why we take our valued guests to our local hosts to experience what their day-to-day lives are like. Be it a village trail, cookery demonstration, lunch/tea in a village house, travel by a tuk tuk, fishing in a catamaran or any other excursion with locals, we can give the utmost assurance that our valued guests will receive a remarkable and genuine local experience.

 

 

Special Hosts

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Diversity is our forte. We understand that our visitors have different preferences and expectations, so we have aligned our experiences to ensure that all our guests are equally delighted. Our special hosts are scattered around the island to offer our guests various experiences. Be it a Poet, an Artist, a Historian, a Balloon Pilot, a Social Worker, a Yoga Master or a person who speaks on Spiritualism, they will share their knowledge and experiences with the promise that our guests will have a worthy time with them.  

 

 

Celebrity Hosts

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Meeting a well-known celebrity will be a relishing moment of anyone’s personal achievements. Sharing the celebrity’s experiences and achievements with the guests will enable them to widen their knowledge base and become familiar with the known, unknown or lesser-known fields of interest. The celebrity host may be a film star, a renowned sportsman, a war hero, a tribal leader, a businessman, a film director or a producer. Experiential Journeys will bring the celebrities to the visitors, giving them a wealth of interesting memories to take back home.

 

 

Accommodation Hosts

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Our accommodation units are carefully selected to offer our visitors an unbeatable hospitality experience. Most of the accommodations we select are owner-run properties since our desire is to make our guests feel as if they’re staying with their family and friends and not in a hotel or a guest house. Our accommodation styles are chosen to provide the best local hospitality during their stay in the Paradise Isle. Be it a guest house, a villa or a homestay, the properties we recommend will enable our guests to experience remarkable and exceptional hospitality with our accommodation hosts.

 

 

Special Guides

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Being a haven for travellers, Sri Lanka offers diverse experiences and sites sprinkled around the tropical paradise. Travellers with different levels of interest in different experiences are offered special guides to cater to their requirements of the experiences in that particular field of interest. Whether it is a Trekking Guide, a Cycling Guide, a Birding Guide, a Naturalist, a Destination Guide or an Activity Specialist, our ultimate goal is to provide our guests with exceptional service with a touch of personal style.

 


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 From our news bulletin archive 

Local Hosts You Will Meet

 

 

 

Our policy in discouraging Animal Cruelty, Tourist Traps and Staged Tourist Shows

Animals Are Friends Too: Discouraging Animal Cruelty, Tourist Traps and Staged Tourist Shows

We at ExJ stay away from tourism experiences that are staged and involve animal cruelty and shopping traps that are contrived to exploit and deceive clients.

Even though some of the popular ‘attractions’ are not included in our programmes due to the above reasons, we have no objections in our clients making their own arrangements with our Drivers to visit these places.

 

Why we do not promote following attractions

 

Turtle Hatcheries

As this concept has serious negative aspects in terms of conservation, we do not encourage our visitors to patronize the turtle hatcheries, as not all of them are really turtle-friendly. We instead encourage them to observe turtles in their natural habitats.

Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage

When we became aware that the animal welfare standards there were questionable, we stopped encouraging our clients to visit the orphanage. We are pleased to observe that the Born Free Foundation has now adopted similar measures.

Elephant back rides – Habarana

There’s uncertainty surrounding the attitude of this place towards animal welfare. There may be a few ethical operators, but in general, we are not in agreement with how the place is run. We all would love a photo of us riding an elephant, but is a lifetime of pain caused to these magnificent mammals really worth a few fleeting likes on social media?

Traditional Village Tour with a Canoe Trip and Bullock-Carts – Habarana

This is a tourist trap where a lot of the trip is ‘staged’ for commercial purposes. Such fake touristic experiences will not give our visitors an idea of what life in the country is really like, so join us as we show you the real side of Sri Lanka. And at the end of every vacation, always ask yourself, “Did you feel that your holiday was ethical, eco-friendly, and reduced environmental impacts?”


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