Khiri Travel Sri Lanka has created four ecotourism tours in the country for visitors interested in respecting nature, going local and giving back.
From Mirissa on the southern tip of Sri Lanka, guests can sail in a catamaran with a marine biologist to spot blue whales and dolphins. The trip includes swimming, stand-up paddling, and a seafood lunch on board.
In the Cultural Triangle of Sri Lanka, the Trails of Matale trip lets guests talk to villagers and hike through pepper, cinnamon and coffee plantations before savouring a banana leaf lunch.
In the Kandy hill country, Khiri has created an educational tour of herb gardens in the forest to show how spices such as cinnamon are cultivated. The trip includes a mug of locally grown “wild coffee”, a forest curry lunch and a donation to a reforestation foundation.
Guests can also help with a seagrass restoration project in the Puttalam/Kalpitiya area in the north-west of the country. The experience involves getting muddy and wet in a lagoon planting seagrass, which is an important breeding ground for sea life; followed by a Sri Lankan meal.
Khiri has since January 2021 been offsetting guests’ holiday carbon emissions by charging US$1.50 per person per day. The process is being carried out in cooperation with ClimateCare which helps companies such as Khiri Travel with the technical fulfilment of carbon offsetting.
Since October 7, fully vaccinated tourists can enter Sri Lanka without quarantine, and they only need to present a negative Covid-19 PCR test result taken within 72 hours of embarkation for Colombo.
