What a tailor-made Sri Lanka trip costs, and why

Tailor-made trips are hard to price on a web page. The reasons are real (every trip is different, hotel rates move with the season) but the effect on you is that you often write an enquiry without knowing whether the answer will be comfortable or alarming. We would rather explain the pieces, so that when our quote arrives it makes sense.

What is in the price

A SriLankanStory quote is close to everything-except-the-flights. For a typical trip it includes:

• your accommodation, one room per night at the hotel class shown on each day of the plan, with breakfast;
• a private air-conditioned vehicle and a licensed driver-guide for the whole route, including his accommodation and meals, fuel, tolls and parking;
• airport transfers on arrival and departure;
• the experiences and entrance fees named in the day-by-day plan: the Sigiriya climb, the jeep safari with park fees, the train tickets, the cooking class, the boat;
• us: planning, the written itinerary, the bookings, and someone on WhatsApp throughout.

What is not in it: international flights, your visa or electronic travel authorisation, lunches and dinners unless a day says so, travel insurance (please have it), tips, and anything you decide to add on the day. We list all of this in the quote, in plain words, so that there is no second document to read.

What moves the price

Five things, roughly in order of how much they matter.

1. Hotel class. The biggest lever by far. We quote in five classes, and the same route can cost very different amounts depending on which you choose:

• Budget: clean, simple, well run, often family owned; fan or basic air-conditioning.
• 3★: comfortable, reliable, a pool more often than not.
• 4★: the sweet spot for most of our guests; good rooms, good food, character.
• 5★: the big names and the serious resorts.
• Boutique: small, characterful, often a converted planter's bungalow or a villa; priced anywhere from 3★ to 5★ depending on the place.

Most of our guests mix them: simpler in the Cultural Triangle, where you are out all day; nicer in the hills and at the beach, where you actually use the room. Our quotes show the class, not the hotel name, until you confirm, because availability changes daily and we would rather promise a standard than a name we might have to swap.

2. Season. Hotel rates on the south and west coasts rise from mid December to March and peak over Christmas and New Year; the east coast is the reverse. April, October and November are the kindest months to a budget. The car and driver-guide cost about the same all year.

3. How many of you. The vehicle and driver-guide are a fixed cost per trip, so they are much cheaper per person for four than for two, and cheaper for two than for one. Children sharing a room with parents are usually charged less by hotels, sometimes nothing under a certain age; family rooms and connecting rooms are quoted per hotel.

4. Length and pace. More nights cost more, obviously, but fewer moves cost less: every change of hotel is a drive, and long drives can mean a larger vehicle or a longer day for the driver-guide. A slow trip with three bases is often better value than a fast one with eight.

5. The extras. Safaris in a private jeep, whale watching, reserved train seats, a village tour, a cultural dance show, an Ayurvedic treatment. Each is a line in the quote and each can be taken out.

How paying works

Once you are happy with every day of the plan, we send a written quote with the price, what is in it and what is not, and our terms. To confirm, you pay a deposit of 25% within seven days of accepting; the balance is due 30 days before you arrive. You pay by bank transfer, in the currency we quoted you (euros, pounds, US or Australian dollars), and there is no VAT added afterwards.

If you cancel, our cancellation scale applies and is in the quote before you pay anything; it is also on our booking terms page. Talking to us costs nothing and commits you to nothing: a draft itinerary and a price come first, the deposit only after you have said yes.

Why not just book it ourselves?

You can, and some people enjoy that. What you are paying us for, beyond the car and the hotels, is the knowing: which guesthouse in Ella has the view and which only has the photograph of it; that the Ella-to-airport drive is a whole day and should not be your last; that the train seats go on sale a month ahead and sell out by lunchtime; that Yala usually closes for a few weeks from early September; that the east coast is dry when the south is not. And someone to call when a plan needs changing at seven in the evening. We have found that this usually saves people money as well as trouble, but we would say that, so ask the guests on our reviews page instead.

What to do next

Look at a trip or two on our tours page to see the shape of what we do, then tell us your dates, who is coming, and the hotel class you have in mind. One of us will write back within a day with a first draft and a price. If it is too much, say so; most routes can be reshaped without losing the things you came for.

Sath and Dan