They advertise themselves as English speaking drivers, this is not true.
Drivers - yes, they are great drivers, I felt as safe as possible by Sri Lankan standards.
English speaking - NO, not our driver at least. We had a general itinerary and was hoping to collaborate with our driver to be able to provide some local knowledge and advice to fill in the gaps. This was NOT possible, we had to use google for EVERYTHING, even food stops! Our opportunity to relax and go with the flow just went down the drain.
They don't even use their own GPS, we'd tell the driver where we wanted to go, he'd get us to the general vicinity and then we'd have to pull out our GPS and give it to him to find the specific shop/restaurant/hotel etc.
I was very disappointed considering they have such high reviews so far.
Sri Lankan drivers helped us a lot with the design of the route. It was a big help as ours was a last minute trip and we didn't have much time for research or preparation. They replied our emails quickly in a very friendly and efficient way proposing alternative visits along the route. You need to be aware that in Sri Lanka distances are not big however travelling by car takes a really long time due to the roads and traffic facts that googlemaps doesn't take into account.
Overall it was a perfect 8 days trip around Sri Lanka thanks to our driver Rahil. He is very professional, knowledgable and an excellent driver and we really recommend him if available.
We just finished a 8 day tour around Sri Lanka with Sri Lankan personal drivers. Our driver Danuka was fantastic, a very safe and professional driver. He was very helpful, providing recommendations and also helping with translations in restaurants. Danuka was very friendly and trustworthy and he enhanced our holiday.
We spent wonderful 3 days with Samir from Sri Lanka Personal Drivers on the road visiting Sigiriya, Polonaruwa and Kandy.
Samir is a very experienced and attentive driver/guide who will do his upmost for the client in his care. I can highly recommend Samir as a personal driver.
Service at highest level - and thanks to Leonard!
My wife and I had sent a request to Sri Lankan Personal Drivers before our departure to the country and we received feedback same day (!) with suggestions for trip and price. All in all perfect and a good start to the holiday - and the drive of 6 days.
As a bonus, we received a very friendly and extremely professional driver - Leonard A. De Silva.
In addition to being a very skilled and experienced driver, Leonard has great insight both professionally and privately. At the same time he is a friendly, helpful and polite person who will go a long way meeting his guests' wishes. It is precisely the rare combination that made our trip around Sri Lanka a success beyond what we expected.
In addition to just driving us from "A to B" we got an extra good experience of Sri Lanka, which we never forget; the beautiful nature, friendly people, exciting nature and good shopping. Sri Lanka is a safe country to travel around, and with our driver we felt extra safe!
When planning your next tour of Sri Lanka, remember two important things; contact Sri Lankan Personal Drivers and make sure to get Leonard De Silva as a driver!