Uncover the best of Nuwara Eliya the local Way

"We had a really good time during our day trip. We started our trip in Kandy where Deshan picked us up from our hotel. We visited the Ambuluwawa Tower which offers great views. Then we went to a tea factory where we also had a tea tasting. On the way we stopped at some waterfalls before making the last stop at the historical post office in Nuwara Eliya. From booking the trip to ending it in Nanu Oya - everything went perfectly well. We would definitely book a trip with Deshan again :) "

"The day started off at 7.30am, and Chandana was on time. We headed on the road, but it was a public holiday on this day, with the Hindu festival of Pongal, so the streets were pretty bare, and traffic was light. This made our day quite enjoyable, since we were not stuck in traffic all the time. Chandana’s vehicle is clean, roomy, air-conditioned, and comfortable, and can easily fit 4 people, although we were 2. He is a cautious driver, and we were never concerned about what was happening on the road. Because it was a holiday, the Pedro Tea Factory was closed, and the Damro Tea Factory was open, but not operational (and therefore not interesting to us), so we went to one in town in Kandy. Chandana put in the effort to find alternate locations when the primary locations were a bust, although I would have liked better preparation on this front, since this wasted time on the road (and there will be a LOT of time spent on the road). Based on our interests, however, Chandana put in the extra mile: at the time of the reservation, we were very interested in visiting a spice garden, specifically to see how pepper is grown, a subject matter of great interest to us. In the end, we decided not to modify the itinerary because it would incur additional cost of both money and time, but Chandana still managed to squeeze this in for us: he took us to a private garden in Kandy, where we experienced some legendary Sri Lankan hospitality: king coconuts from a tree in the garden split open for us, and a tour of a pretty extensive backyard pepper plantation. Absolutely wow! I wish I could attach photos to this review, but this experience absolutely blew our mind! The host was gracious enough to even give us some of the pepper and some of the nutmeg from his trees! This part of the day was extremely memorable, and we will be talking about it for years to come. It is a life memory! Chandana is a cerebral, knowledgeable guide, and we learned a lot during the trip. But there were a few confusions that made the experience difficult: when we read the reviews on the website, some of the reviews were for a different tour, that included the botanical gardens. But the tour we signed up for was for one without the botanical gardens, so we ended up not going (and I had built up the wrong expectations and ended up a little disappointed). There were some gaps, misunderstandings and missed expectations because of a lack of clarity, and I think withlocals.com is mostly to blame for this, not Chandana. My recommendation: for a knowledgeable guide, and for some insider knowledge, pick Chandana for your next tour, you will not be disappointed! But do make sure to review your itinerary carefully and make sure that you hit the marks you want to hit. Be active in the tour, and it will pay dividends. On the whole, it was great, and we won’t be forgetting our day with Chandana any time soon."