My traveling companion, Judy, and I visited New Zealand in January 2019 on a tour with Tauck (Wilton, CT; 800/788-7885, www.tauck.com), which had a wonderful itinerary, covering primarily the Queenstown and Wellington areas. It was a great experience. However, we wanted to see more of the North Island, so we made arrangements for a private tour.
On a 17-day private tour from mid-August into September 2018, my wife and I had a guide in Kenya who was certainly the best guide I’ve had in my 10 or so trips to Africa over the past three decades.
Mohamed Shariff was our driver/guide during the Kenya part of our Kenya/Tanzania tour set up through Monograms (Littleton, CO; 866/270-9841, monograms.com), a division of Globus that arranges private tours.
There are few things that make me emotional. I didn't expect one of them to be Egypt.
I have been fortunate to travel to many areas of the world that are renowned for their ancient cultures or scenic beauty and are designated as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organization). Somehow, however, the offerings of the island nation of Sri Lanka, situated off the southern coast of India, managed to escape my attention until recently, when two of my travel forum correspondents infused me with their enthusiasm as they planned their own tours there.
Sri Lanka is endowed with eight UNESCO sites — an amazing number for a country of this size — and I was privileged to visit five of them during my private tour in January 2018.
Planning a visit
Sri Lanka, until fairly recently, has not been an easy place for travelers to visit. Plagued by a brutal, 26-year-long civil war, Sri Lanka began to reappear on tour providers’ itineraries following the end of the conflict in 2009, when the country’s remarkable sites were once again available to travelers.
I decided to book a private tour in order to allow the most flexibility and the inclusion of sites that were of special interest to me. Go Tours Lanka (www.gotourslanka.com), based in Kandy, Sri Lanka, created an amazing itinerary for me that was customized according to my specific desires.
My 8-day program cost $700, not including hotels, meals or entrance fees. I opted to book my accommodations on my own in order to ensure the quality and location that I wanted at each stop. The tour cost did include transportation and full guide services in (excellent) English at all of the places on the agreed-upon itinerary.
Ruwan Wijerathne, the founder of Go Tours Lanka, personally escorted me. His services as a guide were enhanced by his professionalism, extensive knowledge, friendly support and interesting conversation.
We traveled in a comfortable, air-conditioned Toyota sedan on a program that included the Golden Temple of Dambulla, the ancient cities of Sigiriya and Polonnaruwa, the Sacred City of Kandy and the Old Town of Galle. All five of these places are UNESCO sites, and deservedly so.
During our trip to Southern Africa in September 2017, my wife, Carlanne, and I were able to visit Indian Ocean and African locations we had missed on previous journeys.
Through Palace Travel (Philadelphia, PA; 800/683-7731, www.palacetravel.com), we made arrangements for private tours of Réunion Island and Namibia, with a few days at Victoria Falls at the end of our 25-day vacation.
