Olanka Travels Reviews 

Me and my husband wanted to visit Sri Lanka for a while but could not decide on the right package for us, but then we found Olanka and we knew from the first moment that this is it. I spoke to Paris first and she directed me to Priyanka and she was absolutely fantastic. She went well above and beyond with the experience and tailored it to our expectations. Our allocated driver Lakshman (aka Roy) was great. He showed us the authenticity of Sri Lanka and introduced us to the best food ever. We went from strangers to friends very quickly and we felt sad saying our good bye.
When we were dealing with Olanka we felt like individuals rather than being treated like one of many. It was very personal and friendly
We highly recommend Olanka for your next holiday. I hope more people will visit Sri Lanka and will treat it with respect as it is one magical place, we need to learn a lot from simple but yet loving people living there

Absolutely amazing experience with Olanka Travels with Dino as our tour executive and Amila as our tour guide driver. Both of them literally made our entire trip from start to finish unbelievable. They are absolutely the most wonderful people you can ever meet, I would highly recommend everyone in the entire world to visit the absolutely gorgeous stunning beautiful country of Sri Lanka and if you want to do it without any stress contact Dino and Amila, you'll be in safe hands and you won't have to worry about a single thing, they will both make it so that you have an unbelievable experience throughout your entire trip, thank you so much for everything Dino, Amila & Olanka Travels!

Unforgettable vacation with my family of 7 days in different locations in Sri Lanka.Thanks to the unstable work, patience, kindness and availability of Sanjana who found us a hotel more beautiful than the other and organized for us the best we could see and visit. In addition, she put the driver Anura at our disposal, which we could not have found better. Everything went very well. I will definitely recommend this agency and the people I dealt with to my friends.

We had the most memorable honeymoon trip of 13 days in Sri Lanka in the middle of major economic crisis. I had booked with Olanka travels in January for my trip in April. Manjika was my tour assistant and she became a very close friend to us eventually. She helped us in picking the destinations and kept in constant touch with us before and during the trip. I appreciate her commitment to creating the best experience for us. In fact we were sceptical about proceeding with our plans to Sri Lanka because of the economic crisis, however we continued with the trip because of the confidence we had in Manjika. Also, our driver Kumara was very professional and very helpful. He was always on time and took initiative to ensure our seamless experience. He bought us water, coffee and medicines and also lifted our bags for us. He drived us to the airport in off hours and understood our pallet and took us to suitable restaurants as we are pure vegetarians. Overall I applaud Manjika and Kumara for their loyalty towards us and commitment.
Definitely recommend Olanka travels to anyone planning for Sri Lanka.

Dont book with Olanka for any foreign tour...

My experience with Olanka Travels srilanka is very very bad and i am still struggling to get my due refund amount through them. even after two months of incident.

the story goes like this , we booked Maldives hotel for 15 nights through Olanka travels . initially they book one hotel asked for 2500USD then suddenly one day before travel they said that booked hotel got covid issues and we need to look for new hotel.
till late in the evening they were not able to find hotel and we had our flight booked next day. Finally they sent one option with additional pay of 280 USD and we had to accept with no other choice. full money was online transferred to Olanka immediately and we were ready to travel to Maldives.

Upon arrival in maldives , we had to wait for long time till somebody come and pick us and took us to a hotel in hulumale clear sky inn. as soon as we enter hotel , the hotel manager told us that we are booked for two nights only !. i told him we have paid for 15 nights and please settle with travel agent for any payment issues as i already paid from my side.

the hotel was not good and the staff was very arrogant. after two nights Clear sky Inn asked us to checkout suddenly. they were standing on our door and asking to leave immediately. we were family with small children had no choice to move to another alternate hotel arrange by Olanka. when we went there .... it was disaster and no family can stay in such place. and that too for the money i paid to them.
We rejected to arrangement but Olanka was unable to arrange other alternate. we had no place to go nothing to eat that day and my family was suffering that whole day.. ( it was worst day in maldive .. thanks to Olanka). finally i arrange on my own one hotel and Olanka agreed for refund of my money (2500 USD) which i paid to them after deduction of two nights.
till now i am following with them but of no success. they deny to give any refund with reason being the money is already paid to hotel in maldives and they are unbale to get the money back from maldives.
For me i paid to Olanka , due to there mismanagement and payment issues, me and my family suffered lot, i had to pay additional money to new hotel as well.
even after Promising of refund now olanka is denying. many email has been sent for followup but of no use. talked to their CEO Mr. Ravi as well ( he promised he will look into issue) but of no use. till date i am following to get my hard earn money back.

It will be great help if anyone let me know if any other way by which i can get my money back.

THANK YOU OLANKA!! Darsha my travel agent executive is the BEST. She made me the greatest itinerary. Indika my chauffeur and tour guide was one of the greatest people I have ever met and he made sure I had the most comfortable trip and squeezed in 12 days worth of activities into my 5 day trip! Unforgettable experience and I am so thankful to Darsha and Indika! Thanks so much Olanka!!

When you book through a travel agent you expect to receive assistance when you need help. Once these guys have your money they dont care about you. Unlike other travel agents during Covid, these guys just simply vanished. You couldnt ring them or email them, they didnt answer any social media posts for help or anything. They didnt offer a refund for cancellation of services they can no longer supply. If you book with these guys you are taking a massive risk. There are plenty of other reputable agents that you can and should use if booking a holiday in Sri Lanka. We are looking forward to going to Sri Lanka when governments allowed us. We just wont be re-booking through Olanka. They have ruined the trust that you need with a travel agent.

I booked a tour with Olanka Travels in February for travel end of July. They were very responsive when they wanted my business, commit to booking with them and making payment. I was getting several emails and texts a day.
Due to Covid-19 I have had to cancel the tour, as per their cancellation policy I might add, and requested a refund numerous times via email, text and phone calls, but all in vain. Are we surprised - after all, they have my money now and it was quite a large sum as we were a party of 8 for 7 nights!
I wish I hadn't booked at all with Olanka Travels now if I had known how hard it would be to get my money back even though I have cancelled in line with their cancellation policy which is the excuse he gave another customer who had to cancel but was not in line with the cancellation policy! They always seem to find a way to wriggle out of their commitment to avoid issuing refunds once they have your money.
They offered me vouchers which I have told them is not feasible already and they should be honouring their own cancellation policy which I adhered to. Any cost incurred at their end should be covered by the 20% they will still hold of my money - Shocking! They finally agreed to a refund in 3 instalments. I received the first one after much chasing and now the second instalment is due there is no contact from them despite the several calls, emails, text messages. Their website is also down and so if they have gone bust they have stolen my money too!
Oh, and by the way - Don't be fooled by the 4.5 google review rating - Some of these are from Olanka's own staff or the tour guides they use! I'd even give zero stars if that was an option for this review.

We booked a tour to Sri Lanka in March 2020. Unfortunately we arrived at the airport in Sri Lanka to be met by the military as the border had been closed. We were unable to enter the country due to Covid 19. We were initially informed that we would receive a refund from Olanka travel as we had not received services we had paid for. After the initial communication we heard nothing from them again. I sent hours sending emails and trying to contact by phone. It is August now and I have still not resolved the situation. I have received one email from them during all this time to which I responded but no reply.
Realise it has been difficult situation given the Covid outbreaks but would expect better customer service from Olanka travel. Happy to take your money.

Thanks to Olanka Travels for organizing a really unforgettable 5-day tour in Sri Lanka in February 2020. And special thanks to manager Kasunika and driver Kanchana, who were very helpful and professional on all stages of the journey. They managed to create and fulfill a flexible itinerary, which worked in changing weather and traffic situation. So, every bit of the journey was a delight. The tour included visits to Dambulla, Sigiriya, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya and Ella, and also a lot of hiking and even a ride on a trainAlthough I stayed in budget hotels, all of them were great! So thanks again)

We just came back from 12 magical days in the beautiful Sri Lanka where we visited: Negombo, Sigiriya, Dambulla, Kandy, Adam's Peak, Nuwara Eliya, Ella, Galle, Bentota and Colombo, a tour organised by Michelle from Olanka Travel. Michelle managed to include everything we asked for and has made our experience a very enjoyable one.

I have nothing but praise to give the staff at Olanka travels. They took care of our whole trip as well as were very accommodating to the changes we made along the way. Our personal driver was also very informative and was the perfect guide during our trip.

Looking back on the trip, we believe that the only changes we would have made to the itinerary was to skip Kandy and spend more time down south by the beach and take a short surfing course. Otherwise, every single place we went to was worth the visit and I cannot recommend Adam's Peak and Sigiriya Rock enough - truly a beautiful experience.

Just a little suggestion to Olanka Travels, we would have preferred hotels that were located more in the centre of the towns, although the hotels booked by the agency were very nice and up to standards.

I wish to thank Michelle from the agency for organising such a wonderful and detailed trip.

We booked 2 packages wit them. to make things easier as we went to Srilanka and Maldives through them. on their Itinerary they mentioned breakfast and dinner for all days, which they ended not fulfilling with horrible excuses. our flights arrived late and they would lie to tell us they either arranged the dinner with the hotel which did not happen when we arrived in Maldives, so we were starving and pretty much all the restaurants were closed in the area so we went to bed with empty stomachs.

Before that, we had a hustle with them with the hotel booking in Srilanka and in Maldives, they get the money and the next day they tell you the hotel was fully booked and suggested a horrible hotel which we had no choice over as they were paid already and we were in Dubai and the are in Srilanka at the time. they sold us this nice beautiful hotel overlooking the beach and they booked us to this horrible hotel between the island in between peoples houses which their pool was so dirty we didnt use, no condiments in the room, immediate when we checked in the electricity went off when we arrived to the room, the carpet was so dirty the walls were still getting fixed, the plugs was working properly I had to hold the plug the whole time i'm charging or ironing my clothes, it was worst 1st experience of 4days in Maldives. Olanka travels did not seem bothered whatsoever with our complains. instead they kept going back and forth arguing with us cause we did not know where their offices are in Srilanka and we had limited time in Srilanka. Its a total REGRET booking with them.

In srilanka we stayed in 3 different hotels 2 booked through them. and the hotels were really beautiful problem was the 1st hotel we found lizards in our room(Amaya lake hotel), 2nd hotel food was amazing but bed sheets were torn and so dirty(Okwin resort) the 3rd hotel was was our favorite, we found a huge spider in our room which we reported and the house keeping took the spider and didn't kill i but instead open one room and put it there. THIS WAS SO SHOCKING. We had our bags with us the whole time and i had 4 currency cash money, which 2 currency's got lost in the room when we left our bags to have breakfast and left house keeping in the room, it was so disappointing and shocking that the hotel did not do anything about it. later the day after our excursions we had lunch at the hotel which they said everything was included even after asking so many times. after we ate they brought the bill to us and told us to pay for drinks. what kind of service is this we had the worst 9days of our trip. 1st 2 days they also assigned a driver who cannot speak English and we had a tough time communicating with him. all this feedback given to Olanka travels and our travel consultant "Randima". and the apparent Manager which was horribly rude and kept giving excuses instead of solutions. they still did not care AT ALL!!! IT WAS THE WORST EVER. dealing with fighting for food that we paid for and everything else mentioned above.

We took photos of some of the problem we faced unfortunately my phone was not water proof and it got damaged in Maldives when we we were, though i shall retrieve the photos and i will add them later.

the only nice thing that came out of this trip is the waiter we met at Kaani Village hotel his name is "Shaha" nice personalty and great service we got from him.
We also had a driver called Yashan for the last 2 days spend in Srilanka. he is well-spoken, professional and funny.

We had terrible experience with this company.

Welcome to the ocean of lies i.e. OLANKA TRAVEL

All they're interested in is your money!

They have ruined our 18 years anniversary trip to Maldives.

Take special care with Shahika and Nadhi the travel agent!
Both are Frauds, they will give you the rates and tell you to transfer the amt to their account, once the transfer is done they will tell you that the rooms have been sold out, I has given in my request for dates was 28 th September check-in and 1st October check out for paradise island Maldives but once the payment was received they immediately told that the rooms has been sold out we even checked with the resort people they told us that the rooms are available for that particular dates and Shahika and Nadhi told that rooms are available only after October 9 and when I told them that if you cannot provide the rooms as promised by you please refund the amt and they told that as per company policy you will get only80% Refund. I need to lose my hard earned money for no mistake of me. And they forced me to take the room as per their dates.

After Going to Maldives they were not even bothered to Inform the Resort People about the time of our Arrival and the Resort People came after we called us taking mobile from the local person over there waiting for 2 Hrs.

They had also promised that you will get your rooms in very Good Location if you book through them instead of websites like booking.com or similar websites which offer less price then them hence we booked one water Villa (for myself and my wife) and one Beach Villa (for my 3 children’s) through them one room was in one corner and the other room was in other corner of the resort and the location of the room was also pathetic, One more lie

They also not informed us that you will be having different restaurants for pool villa Restaurant and beach villa restaurants and all the time I was away from my kids for breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Not to add that they charge 3% on top of all money transfers for payment and/or credit card payments.

DO NOT BELIEVE IN ANY PROMISE of this company. Keep yourself away from.
Robbery in day light especially for those people who are making booking from other Countries as you cannot do much once you are trapped in their Web.

They are only interested in your Money…….Big Cheaters

The Lasithi (trip planner) with this travel agency was the best agent I have ever worked with. She answered the questions and delivered an itinerary for us that captured exactly what we were looking for my sister and her husband, the first trip to the Maldives. Overall this was the lowest stress trip. They loved that transportation for the trip was always on time and professionally staffed. All tickets for activities were covered. And the guides for most of the sites visited were truly were passionate about explaining.

About Lasithi, she was very proactive during the whole trip, once she helped us at 3 AM (early morning) when my sister and my brother in law, stuck at the airport while the Immigration. I really appreciate the work and dedication she showed towards them.

Thanks, Olanka and Lasithi for making the trip awesome for my Brother in Law and my sister.!!!! Best of luck!!!!

Sonali ,the tour consultant, who arranged the tour and the accommodation was really responsive as she manged to arrange my honeymoon in a very short notice. She is very professional as she handled all the details in order to meet all my expectations. Also Kanchana, the driver, was really helpful he is not only an excellent driver, he is also a tour guide as he is very knowledgeable and very friendly.

It is highly recommended to travel through Olanka.
They really made my honeymoon unforgettable!

This was our first trip with olanka travels, but the experience was fantastic. very well arranged trip by olanka executive. accommodation was really awesome, all the resorts were out of the city but we enjoyed a lot there. food was also good, you cant get Indian food there but they were preparing as we asked them to do. Tour guide was also very humble and knowledgeable. We wish whenever we visit Sri Lanka we should go with Olanka Travels only. Thanks a lot for the support Olanka Team. Many thanks to Hansani, our tour executive. I am very happy with her continuous efforts for making our trip memorable.

Last week I returned from a holiday in Sri Lanka arranged by Olanka Travels.
My tour consultant, Ishara, was excellent arranging the holiday. She put together several itinerary like Minneriya Elephants Safari, Cave temple, Temple of the Tooth Relic, Royal Botanical Garden and Demodara 9 Arch Bridge etc. but my boat cruise on Madu River Wetland (Madu Ganga Ramsar Wetland) (was not in the itinerary but was recommended by our driver Mr. Sandun) was the best of all.
Thank you Ishara Priyadarshani & Sunsun for making my visit to Sri Lanka memorable.

We have just returned from a fantastic 17 day trip round Sri Lanka, an island which has been long on my bucket list and finally with some thorough planning assisted by Olanka Travels’ Ms Randima Fernando, we had a great trip!
As we are pensioners, we decided to use budget hotels on our travels and Ms Randima did a fantastic job to find these for us. Special mention goes to Kandy, Haranthi House, situated in the hills outside busy Kandy and then Misty Hills in Ella (although to reach our room we had to climb some 90 steps, but the view was magnificent) The only remark about some of these budget hotels was that not all of them had toiletries but then we had ours......
When we arrived at Colombo’s airport, we were greeted by Mr. Indika, our chauffeur for our trip, with a great big smile! As we arrived on a Saturday evening, traffic was heavy getting to Negombo where we spent our first night and the. Following morning, Mr Indika was at our hotel with his big smile and loads of information of our next destination Anduraphur . All through our travels, we could count on Mr. Indika who was flexible and courteous. His knowledge about his country is enormous and in fact we could have done without the official guides at places of interest as he gave us all the information.
The only disappointment we had was our train trip from Nuwara Eliya to Ella: our afternoon train did not arrive 3 hours later due to some engine repair, hence what was supposed to have been a train journey with scenic views ended up as a train journey in total darkness, however Mr. Indika came to our rescue as he suggested that we do a partial return trip by train the following morning and of course we enjoyed the scenery. Hence lesson learnt, these train journeys should be undertaken in the morning in order to factor in any delays......

Thank you Olanka and thank you Mr. Indika for giving us a wonderful time in Sri Lanka.

We did a two week round trip with Olanka. The Hotels were booked correctly and the driver drove us to all the places mentioned. But unfortunately were quite disappointed of the service. First of all, they declared the prizes not honestly. We had to pay for all activities mentioned in our itenary extra and it was not declared clearly in "exclusions"! Also they only recommended us agencies, restaurants, hotels and things to do, where they could get a lot commission, even if the reputation and reviews on tripadvisor were terribly bad (for exemple the spice garden!!) and they were extremly overprized. The "3 star hotels" were mostly not on 3 star level at all. They should only offer the 4 Star standard. Our advisor wanted to meet us on the last day and after arriving 30 minutes late, she did not seem to really care about our feedback.

Be Cautious while booking a tour with Olanka.

First ,overall we enjoyed the tour.

But we were not happy with olanka's caretaking at Sri lanka.

They had simply provided us with a vehicle and a driver and totally forgotten to follow our caretaking.

We were totally under the control of the driver. So to say,we had no freedom at all.The driver argued when we asked about a program that was not completed but provided in the itinerary.

Hence our humble request to olanka's future clients is if there is any addition or deletion in the itinerary, please discuss and finalise it completely before the start of tour.

Please read the itinerary word by word carefully several times and do the changes accordingly.

Bargain the cost after getting two to three quotes of other tour operators.

Bottomline is once you arrive at Srilanka,you are at the mercy of the car driver.