Elephant Reach Crowned "Best Wildlife Resort" by Lonely Planet

Elephant Reach Hotel, Yala, earned top honours as Lonely Planet Magazine, India’s "Best Wildlife Resort (International)", 2015.

Adding to the honour of winning such a prestigious award, Elephant Reach also became the first Sri Lankan hotel to be recognised by an international travel forum.

Although, the hotel has always catered to the whims of even the most discerning traveller with its world-class service levels, this award came as a pleasant surprise, as all the winners were kept in the dark about the awards throughout.

Vardhan Kondvikar, Editor of Lonely Planet Magazine India, said, “The LPMI Travel Awards has been firmly established as the industry-best measure of what travellers love.  We began with a strong list of nominees selected by industry-wide travel experts from premier travel facilitators, which were then voted on by Lonely Planet Magazine’s army of well-informed readers.”

The selection criteria set forth by Lonely Planet is thorough and the judging panel spared no expense or effort in ensuring that the most stringent quality standards were adhered to by the winners. As a result of the thorough and discreet nature of the judging process, none of the nominees knew of the competition until the winners were officially announced. Feedback from travellers and guests at the hotels played a pivotal role in the decision making process.

Malinga Fernando, Managing Director of Elephant Reach Hotel, was emphatic about the win. He stated, "We have always been confident of our service levels thanks to our continued focus on training and motivating our team and also the feedback we obtain from our guests. Our repeat clients bear testament to what is to be expected from Elephant Reach. We're especially proud of the fact that we are the first Sri Lankan hotel to be bestowed with such an honour."

 

Lonely Planet Magazine, headquartered in India, has cemented its place as a truly international authority on travel. The LPMI Awards has been held by Lonely Planet Magazine for the fourth successful year where travellers themselves vote for their favourite destinations and hotels. The winners were selected from the nominations by a panel of travel experts and professionals. This panel comprised of Lonely Planet Magazine Editor Vardhan Kondvikar; Veena Patil, Managing Director, Veena World; Manu Kashyap, Director, Windmill Holidays; Sucheta Potnis and Hans Tuinman, Founders, Travellers-palm.com; Madhavan Menon, Managing Director, Thomas Cook India Ltd; and Deep Kalra, CEO, Makemytrip.com. The award ceremony, powered by Flight Shop, was held at the JW Marriott Hotel Mumbai Sahar to felicitate 32 favourite travel experiences.

Elephant Reach Hotel, Yala, extends its sincerest gratitude to all clients who made the hotel a part of their travel experience. This is only the beginning and the Elephant Reach team will continue to raise the bar in world-class accommodation and service. 

  

Environment And Health

A clean environment is essential for human health and well-being. However, the interactions between the environment and human health are highly complex and difficult to assess. This makes the use of the precautionary principle particularly useful. The best-known health impacts are related to ambient air pollution, poor water quality and insufficient sanitation. Much less is known about the health impacts of hazardous chemicals. Noise is an emerging environment and health issue. Climate change, depletion of stratospheric ozone, loss of biodiversity, and land degradation can also affect human health.

At Elephant Reach, as an Eco friendly hotel which contains Eco friendly chalets we can ensure that our guests are 100% secured within the time of their arrival and departure.

Kataragama Festival

        The Kataragama festival is a major Festival during the month of Esala, July-August. Kataragama is a jungle shrine dedicated to god Skanda and is popular pilgrim center for Buddhists and Hindus where devotees flock year out. During the festival Fire walking on the dawn and the grand perahara are some of its highlights.

Elephants In Yala National Park

        Yala National Park is home to a variety of game, both big and small that will keep a family of wildlife enthusiasts on safari, busy. There is a substantial Sri Lankan Elephant population at the Yala National Park, which is a recognized subspecies of the Asian Elephant, and can often be spotted in large herds, baby elephants in tow, at various locations inside the National Park.

Yala National Park is home to a variety of game, both big and small that will keep a family of wildlife enthusiasts on safari, busy. There is a substantial Sri Lankan Elephant population at the Yala National Park, which is a recognized subspecies of the Asian Elephant, and can often be spotted in large herds, baby elephants in tow, at various locations inside the National Park. - See more at: http://www.elephantsinsrilanka.com/elephant-safari-yala-national-park-sri-lanka.html#sthash.CVRxkt2x.dpuf

The Biggest Deal Of The Year!

Sri Lankan Sloth Bear

              The sloth, also known as the Stickney Bear or labiated bear, is a nocturnal insectivorous species of bear found wild within the Indian subcontinent. The sloth bear evolved from ancestral brown bears during the Pleistocene and shares features found in insect-eating mammals through convergent evolution.Although little is known about the social habits of sloth bears, it is generally assumed that they are solitary animals, except for females with cubs but adults are also known to travel in pairs with the males being gentle with cubs.

              They have  long, shaggy black fur, and have particularly 

long hair around their necks that looks like a mane. They have little fur on their bellies and the insides of their legs. Adult sloth bears usually weigh about 300 pounds, females being somewhat smaller than the males. They are usually 3 feet high at the shoulder and about 6 feet long. Sloth bears have a long muzzle with agile, protruding lips, and nostrils that can be closed when raiding termite mounds.They have a hollowed-out bony palate and no front teeth so they can suck ants and termites out of their nests. 

              Sloth bears are omnivorous and are known to eat a wide variety of different plants, animals, and insects, but prefer termites. They will eat fruit, raid beehives for honey and larvae, while corn, and yams, are also known to be included in a sloth bears diet. Sri Lankan sloth bears are mostly nocturnal, thus the best times to observe them would be early morning and dusk, feeding and traveling by night, and sleeping in the day. They are excellent tree climbers, and are often seen hanging from “palu” a kind of a berry tree, a sloth bears favourite fruit tree in Sri Lanka.

What is wildlife and eco-tourism?

                 Eco-tourism can be defined as travelling to exotic areas or responsible travel to nature while making little or no impact on the natural habitat and at the same time impacting the improvement of local society. Wildlife tourism is a coordinated journey into the wild where people can be at one with animals in their natural habitat. This must, however, be done in strict conformity to wildlife regulations, taking utmost precautions to conserve and protect the natural habitat. Where there is wildlife attraction, there is almost certain to be eco-tourism. Combining your visit to Yala national park with a stay at Elephant Reach Hotel will not only let you experience a magical new dimension to life but also an integral part of conservation and rural development efforts.