Pick-up location and time: Colombo, 0800 hrs
  • Overview
  • Itinerary
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  • One Day Madu River Safari With Bentota Sightseeing Tour


    Enjoy visiting all the highlights of Bentota on this full-day private tour from Colombo, Negombo and Kalutara. With round-trip, private transportation from your hotel, you can sit back and enjoy the scenery on the journey. Once there, follow a carefully curated itinerary to see the best that Bentota has to offer while listening to engaging commentary from your guide.

    You'll be picked up from your hotel in Negombo, Colombo, or Mount Lavinia at 8:00 AM to drive to Bentota and visit the pristine beaches, better known as golden mile. Next, you'll visit Ambalangoda, known for its exquisite collection of native masks. Many generations of artisans have carved these beautiful artefacts. Afterwards, drive to Balaptiva.

    After a break, you'll take a boat trip on the Madu Ganga River. Discover the unspoiled beauty of the Madu Ganga estuary, a wetland ecosystem that opens to the Indian Ocean. After the boat safari, you'll visit a sea turtle conservation project in Kosgoda beach before heading back to your hotel. Visitors can see the newborn turtles and even be a part of the process of releasing them into the sea. After visiting the sea turtle conservation project, drive to moonstone mines.


    Trip highlights

    • Learn about traditional masks and dancing of Sri Lanka by visiting Mask museum Ambalangoda.
    • 2 hours boat trip through the backwaters of Madu estuary, which is the 2nd biggest wetland on the island (Ramsar wetland).
    • Visit cinnamon island learn about Cinnamon
    • Visit the ancient Buddhist temple
    • Stroll on the golden mile or Bentota Beach
    • Private tour for just you and your party
    • Comprehensive tour of Bentota hits all the highlights
    • The guide provides navigation and engaging commentary
    • Visit the sea-turtle conservation project and learn about 5 different endangered sea-turtle species while taking a closer look at animals of different ages.
    • Visit the spice garden and see the trees and plants that produce valuable spice and herbs.
    • All round-trip transportation from your hotel

    Trip includes

    • Entire ground transportation as per the tour itinerary
    • Transport in an air-conditioned, modern vehicle
    • Service of English speaking tour guide/driver (please inquire for other languages)
    • Bentota sightseeing tour with beach
    • Discount voucher of 10% at a Jewelry shop
    • Entrance fees and activity cost for the following site.
      • Sea turtle conservation centre
      • Madu river boat tour
      • Spice garden
      • Buddhist temple
      • Mask museum
      • Visiting Bentota beach
      • Moonstone mines
    • Meeting arrangements
    • All government taxes
    • All service charge

    Trip excludes

    • Expenses of personal nature such as tipping, porters, laundry, telephones, etc.
    • Any meals not specified, throughout the tour

    Book now & pay later

    Reserve your tour now and pay when you meet us. Send us the duly filled tour booking form, we will arrange your tour and you can make the payment as you meet us on the first day of the trip.


    Best price guaranteed

    We guarantee the best price. If you find the same tour package at a cheaper price elsewhere, we do match the price of other tour packages and furthermore add a further 10% discount to it.


    No hidden fees and commissions

    The price you see on the product pages is the exact same rate that you see in the final stage of the trip booking. There are no hidden fees and taxes such as GST, BTT, service charge, nation-building tax, hotel tax etc added to your bill towards the end of the booking process.


    COVID-19 Special information

    • All customer touchpoints are frequently cleaned
    • Social distancing is maintained in vehicles
    • To reduce crowds, all tours are private
    • Masks are required, please bring your own
    • You must fill out a travel information form
    • Temperature checks are mandatory
    • You must book this activity online, as the ticket office is closed

 

Itineraries

Day 1

Colombo / Bentota / Colombo

Meet & greet by “Seerendipity Tours” Representatives and proceed to Bentota.

  

BENTOTA

Bentota beach is the most popular beach holiday destination on the island. The unique location of Bentota beach resort is one important reason for its popularity as a beach holiday destination. Bentota holiday resort is located on a peninsula and it is connected with the mainland at its southern border.

  

Bentota is mainly comprised of the narrow strip of land that spreads along the north-south axis. Unlike most other islands, Bentota is surrounded by both the sea and a river. One side of the island is the Bentota River while the western side of Bentota is flanked by the Indian Ocean. Large numbers of hotels are built in this narrow strip of land enabling the travellers to have a peaceful atmosphere during the holiday.

  

SEA TURTLE CONSERVATION PROJECT

Projects have been launched to conserve the population of turtles that are reaching extinction and such projects are found along the southern coast of Sri Lanka where turtles come ashore to lay their eggs. The turtle digs a hole on the Beach, Lays her eggs and covers it with sand where it is supposed to, incubate by the heat of the sun. What often happens is, the eggs are dug out by fisherman and sold to people who consume them.

  

But now the eggs are bought up by the conservation projects and are hatched the Natural way in enclosed areas where the Birds don’t have a chance of picking them up and the babies are let into the sea after two days at night time which offers them a better chance of survival.

  

SPICE GARDEN

Visit a spice garden at Matale where spices and herbs used for Sri Lankan cuisine and medication are grown Spices of Sri Lanka attracted the early seafaring merchants who made the long voyages to purchase this precious merchandise.

  

GANGATILAKA TEMPLE KALUTARA

Kalutara is historically important due to the fact that it was one of the 32 places indicated by Arahant Mahinda Thera to the king Devananpiya Tissa in the 2nd century B.C. as a place where one of the thirty-two saplings of the sacred Sri Maha Bodhi tree in Anuradhapura is planted, to which the King extended his patronage. It is recorded in the Sinhala Maha Bodhi Wansa that until such time when the Maritime Provinces were subjugated by the Portuguese in 1505 A.D., the historic Kalutara Bodhi exited intact.

  

In the 16th century, this sacred site was turned in to a Portuguese fort. Though no harm is supposed to have done to the Bodhi it was not venerated by the people during that period. It was after the planting of a Bodhi in the lower terrace of Pahala Maluwa by an Indian Prince from the Pandya country named Wickrama Pandya in 1042 A.D. that the public began to venerated and consider the site as a sacred place. This prince from Indian became viceroy in the Kalutara area.

  

After the Portuguese, the Dutch too use of the present upper terrace or the uda maluwa area as a camp followed by the British as well, subsequently.

  

During the British period, since the latter half of the 19 century, it was used as an office premise with the residence of the Government Agent.

  

MADU GANGA BOAT RIDE

A cruise on a modern motor boat is the best way to exploring the natural wealth of Madu Ganga, the islands in the wetland are largely inaccessible by road. The inhabitants are also using the boats and more often paddle boats as the means of transport. Seerendipity tours offer particularly appealing boat trips around Madu Ganga.

  

This Ramsar Wetland is one of the most visited natural attractions of Sri Lanka’s west coast, with riverscapes to quiet thick grown islands and mangrove forests with sites of immense natural interest. There is plenty of opportunities to spot fascinating wildlife based on the aquatic environment, throughout the tour.

  

MASK MUSEUM

  
Mask Museum of Ambalangoda is the only museum dedicated to mask industry in Sri Lanka. The museum showcases hundreds of ancient masks, that had been used in the rituals and folklore. Most masks that are being displayed are rare specimens of exquisite artworks of ancient artisans. Don't forget to visit the mask factory where a large number of people are preparing masks to explore.

MOONSTONE MINES

Visiting moonstone mine is an extremely rare opportunity because you do not find any moonstone mines anywhere else in the world. Moonstones are confined to a small area near the west coast beaches. These semiprecious stones are very popular among people due to its unique colour. Compared to precious stones such as sapphire and ruby the prices of moonstones are very affordable.

Later proceed to the hotel, the return journey takes around 1 hour.

Retrun transfer to Colombo

  1. Carole:

    we did the Sri Lanak Bentota trip recently as we arrive in Sri Lanak on our cruise ship. We had a limited time for a sightseeing trip (barely 8 hours), therefore we planned to take the one-day madu river safari with Bentota. It was a wonderful trip with nice beaches and boat trip along the Bentota roiver.

  2. Omilaz:

    The boat trip is well worth it, Sea turtle conservation project was brilliant the Bentota beach was good, only negative was the on spice garden. Everything was very well organized with timely pickup, a friendly informative guide and a very comfortable vehicle.

  3. Maricris:

    We booked the Madu river trip from our beach hotel in Bentota and it was very convene to visit it. Very nice nature tour with opportunity to see lot of Faun and Flora.

  4. Clayton:

    The boat tour was so much fun! We also took advantage of the optional activities such as fish massage we could because it was so interesting!

  5. rammoza:

    The boat trip was superb, Great staff gave us maximum flexibility to the trip on our own way. We opt to have snorkeled in the sea with the permission of our guide (which was not a part of the trip) . but snorkling was pretty bad but all in all good trip that i reccomend.

  6. Benedik:

    Fantastic trip in the riverine environment of Madu! We were lucky enough to see a wide range of Fauna and Flora, including a crocodile. Still, there is not many people on the activity means nature is not much disturbed. Our guide said that usually there are hundreds of boats going up and down here with tourists, due to COVID-19 nature has been able to enjoy a bit of silence.

  7. Leena:

    Very well organized; Good value for money; Very beautiful vegetation; We would definitely book the tour again!!

  8. VICTORIA:

    This was an excellent tour!!!! The crew were amazing and the vegetation and creatures are amazing The tour was well organized and def a most if your in Phuket!!!!!!!

  9. prilian:

    observing the monkeys, monitors, lizards at mangove lagoon was very interesting.

  10. Graham:

    It was such a great day. The Team was very friendly. We got a lot of opportunities to witness a wide range of Fauna and flora. The spots are so beautiful. we had a lot of Time to relax and swim at this nice environment.

  11. Brettina:

    The views were unbelievable! But so was the service…and not in a good way! My group of eight friends from the U.S. were shuttled into this boat with about 5+ passengers.

    People were sitting on the back of the boat extremely close to the motor (including a baby) because they ran out of seats! They had no music or entertainment system working. so for two hours many of us were bit of uncomfortable.

  12. Lynney:

    Fantastic trip to enjoy nature

  13. Kumar de sam:

    The trip is well worth it.

  14. Mathew siminson:

    The views were unbelievable! But so was the service… Our group of eight friends from the U.K. we had a fantastic trip with a dedicated commuter, boat and driver/guide.

  15. Zeeshan tamini:

    We had only very little time on the island during our transit and we wanted to use that little time to useful thing. Taking this one day trip we were spot on our target, special thank to Seerendipity.

  16. Gary adams:

    Enjoyed a lot

  17. Plintof:

    Sea turtles and crocodile watching trip was the best part for me. really nice program

  18. Memras:

    Really enjoyed the beaches

  19. Peter:

    Good trip

  20. Shweta rai:

    It is really worth to have such a nice program

  21. Nezma:

    Mask museum, boat trip, sea turtle and beaches all are very interesting but mask museum was my favourite. I never saw a such a great collection of masks in my life.

  22. Malcum:

    The boat tour was the highlight for me

  23. gerhard:

    Excellent trip nice beaches

  24. Johanna silhutte:

    Just wanted to provide a review for Seerendipity. Communication to book the tour was very easy and the team was very quick to respond to my inquiries before booking and kept in communication to confirm the booking as well. Seerendipity provided hotel pick up and drop off and was on time and picked us up at the exact time he said he would so very reliable.

  25. Ramees miliband:

    Great experience with this river safari. We saw crocodiles, varans, birds, monkeys, frog and more. Really can recommend this tour. Our tour guy showed us amazing places, also we got refreshment on the river. Great price for an exceptional day.

  26. Ritu west:

    Very cool boat trip in the estuary. Never will you see anything like this anywhere else! Professional staff and very accommodating! We really liked them!

  27. spaulding maccioni:

    Day trip was great fun, boat was big and only 2 of us with the local guy. Cinnamon island, sea-turtle conservation project, Bentota beach, Mask museum… all are part of the fantastic trip.

  28. Jacob Kaur:

    Decent enough short day but just another Sri Lankan natural beauty. Boat trip is fantastic. had witnessed many dozens of animals birds.

  29. Jerome slruhaimi:

    Our driver/guide Shatha was very good. He was very informative and attentive. The only issue we had with the tour is that we had to wait about 30-45 minutes at the boathouse until our boat was ready.

  30. Christian Thomas:

    It was very conveneint and the drive was only a 1 hour 30 minutes drive from Colombo until the drama begins. Best part was the boat ride in the wetland. Spice garden, Mask museum and sea turtle project, all are very interesting.

  31. Ibrahim mouret:

    Awesome experience! Very nice and friendly guide. It’s a once in a lifetime experience. wetland was amazing and brimming with life..

  32. Eirik suresh:

    The Places we visited were beautiful and the Madu river estuary was incredible.

  33. Eirik tabatabei:

    Great facilities, awesome boat, fantastic crew and the best scenery!

  34. Medosa huebner:

    Amazing trip!!!!! Sunny was so good as our tour guide and was very informative. Only me, my wife and our good guide were on the boat.

  35. Melina sharma:

    Really loved the mix between beach time, Boating, exploring mangroves, watching turtles, and visit the museum. We saw several spots, even some monkeys. Only downside was that the boat was a little bit too speed, but all in all I would highly reccomend this tour.

  36. Masoud Lund:

    This was an excellent tour!!!! The crew were amazing and the mangrove bay breathtaking! The tour was well organized and def a most if your in Bentota!!!!!!!

  37. Mohd Esmat:

    Trip was superb, Great staff and a lot of interesting places to visit. It was luxurious private trip, we all had a great time.

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