Like Tiel, I am delighted that RoseSteve (and Caro) also enjoyed the Deer Park Hotel. You are right - it does retain a small hotel feel. And its good to find total agreement on the food and staff also. Would not disagree with anything you said. It sounds like Caro stayed in Cottage 309 too, which is where we were!

Like you, we would be delighted to go back there. Having started this thread, I must say I am now entirely clear as to which reviews of the Deer Park are correct!

Re-Saga tour staying there - we were on their Wildlife Encounter, and to be honest, it was not much of an encounter! We had all sorts of problems, but certainly NOT with the Deer Park!!

Hi Jobie. We have just got back from the Saga Wildlife Encounter too, staying at Deer Park and Riverina. We met somebody at our hotel on an extension who told us all the problems with the previous tour, which I think must have been the same one as yours. There are still lots of things wrong with the itinerary including the fact that they should use a hotel nearer Colombo for the 1 or 2 night stays instead of driving miles south. However, we enjoyed the holiday very much and had an excellent guide which made all the difference. We loved the Deer Park.

Hi

We organised our travel independently without a tour. I booked all the hotels through a travel agent in Colombo and booked a car and driver through another source. If we hadn't been travelling in the Jauary peak period I might have taken a chance and not booked everything ahead but because it was peak we did book. It all worked out really well. I prefer not to have meals inclusive as I love to try different restaurants. Deer park would be best to go inclusive though as there isn't much else around there and like the others, we thought the food was very good.

Tiel I am just looking into arranging travel for 2 of us on our own..in November.. usually just go but thought we would prearrange some stays, driver and car...do you mind sharing name of agent you used in colombo? also agent for car and driver..if you want you can email me direct I will look at this posting link to see if you would rather email direct. I am in canada.. we have about 3 weks and know that weather can be an issue but it's the best time for us to get away.... thanks

Traveller47

also if anyone else has had good experience with an agent. we are looking to stay in reasonable places.. don't need luxury..more interested in meeting locals and eating local food, culture, flora etc.

Hi traveller 47

From Canada November would be a good time to go. I grew up in Canada!

The agent is info@srilankaholidays.net and his name is Prebudda. We had a lot of email discussions about accommodation and I made the final payment in person. I found him most helpful and very knowledgeable. He was also really helpful in planning the itinerary. I had done a lot of research on destinations and travel but the time taken to get from town to town is much longer than one would anticipate so it's usful to get advice on that. Plus some things look better on paper than they do in reality and vice versa.

The agent can book the car and driver as well. We actually organised that through a friend of a friend. Others we talked to just organised drivers from the train staion in Kandy.

We stayed at quite good hotels in part because it was peak time, I didn't know what to expect and we were travelling with a child.

The rest houses looked mostly very good. We stopped and had a look at a few. They were basic but the ones we looked at were clean and well looked after. They generally had good meals too.

Worth keeping in mind that for lunch you can stop at "bakeries" and get a plate of curries or a variety of other things at very low cost. If the place was packed it was usually a good sign.

I thought the Yala Village and the Deer Park Hotel were two hotels that were a bit different and really worth staying in. We could only get one night at Yala and I'd have loved a bit more.

Places like Kandy and Nuwara Eliya have lots of good hotels at reasonable prices. We were really happy with the ones we stayed in but there looked to be others that were similar.

I found this website really useful for doing research and Prebudda was a great source of info as well.

Happy planning!