Excursão de um dia ao Orfanato de Elefantes de Pinnawala saindo de Kandy

A wonderful experience seeing the gentle giants up close. The ticket to feed the elephants was sold separately inside the premises, a bowl of fruits cost LKR 500. The ticket to bathe the elephants was around 750 LKR per adult which was sold in the main ticket counter. Be sure to plan your visit during their baths where you can see the elephants cross the road into the market and then to the river.

We had a great time visiting the orphanage and then the Millennium Foundation to ride and interact with the elephants. Our guide Shian was very professional, courteous, and knowledgeable. He took us to some other interesting places that we wanted to see, which was not in the tour program.

Everything is perfect. Local operators and drivers provided great service. I highly recommend this tour.

Communication with the tour operator was extremely poor. We received no WhatsApp reply until 7:20 AM on the day of the tour (which started at 8:00 AM), despite our messages the day before. There was no proactive confirmation. The itinerary included pickup from Kandy to the Elephant Orphanage, an added elephant ride/bath, a simple lunch, and a tea factory visit. At 212 USD for two people, it was overpriced. The guide was disengaged and mostly on his phone. At the Orphanage (17 USD/person included), the tour guide (driver) left us in this small place for two hours. The only activity available was a brief feeding of three elephants. The next stop was a tourist trap: we had to pay 20 USD/person plus tips (totaling approximately 60 USD for 20 minutes) for an elephant ride and bath. This was clearly a tourist trap designed for tips. Lunch was included, but the chicken was cold, dry, and very unappetizing. The tea factory was the only highlight, and we genuinely enjoyed it.

This was one of the most disappointing experiences I have ever had. The activity was cancelled and no one took responsibility for processing the refund. Every representative provided different information and no one seemed to know the correct procedure or whom to contact. My interaction with the tour operator was equally unpleasant. The members were rude, unhelpful and unprofessional during the call. I would strongly advise others against booking this activity through this platform.

Klook delivered this trip through Kandy Budget Taxi. We visited Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage, a tea factory, a spice and herbs garden and the Peradeniya Botanical Gardens with Dileep. He was really friendly and helpful, answering all our questions, and drove well in a clean car. The places we visited were really interesting, especially the elephants and the gardens, and Dileep made visiting them really easy. There was a mix up with the booking by the local company at the start of the day. We tried to contact the local operator and couldn’t get hold of them initially, and couldn’t get hold of anyone from Klook either. We eventually got hold of the local agent who advised there was a mix up with the booking, and she had mistakenly thought it was the following day. She was able to arrange for a driver to come pick us up at short notice, but it meant we commenced the tour over an hour and a half later, meaning we were sitting around in the hotel lobby for this time. Klook customer service finally responded 4 days later, which was disappointing. I understand Klook have a high volume of emails but there should be a mechanism to provide more instantaneous customer support to those who need urgent assistance. They advertise 24/7 support but this was not my experience. We were left to sort this issue out for ourselves, which we would not have been able to do if it was not for the generosity and assistance of our hotel owner. Klook, our agent, provided no support. As compensation they offered 500 Klook credits which has a cash value of around £5 when booking another trip with them, which was more insulting that compensatory to be honest. Despite the bad start, Dileep really made up for this. At the end of the day he even took a slight detour for us as we wanted to visit a Buddha on top of the hill. We would definitely recommend him as a driver for a tour like this, but Klook’s customer service is questionable.