Chandana

The History Buff, addicted to authentic Sri Lankan food and interested in gems

  • I live in Kandy
  • I speak English, Sinhala
  • Verified Local host
  • Response time less than 21 hours

Hi there! Nice to meet you

Chandana

I'm Chandana , born and raised in Kandy and a licensed tour guide lecturer; which is a must for Sigiriya and Temple of tooth UNESCO sites. The city of Kandy is the last kingdom of Sri Lanka and a "World heritage city". Some traces of British, Dutch and Portuguese architecture still exists adding a great glamour to Kandy. "Full coverage Kandy city tour" and " The Ten tastings of Kandy street food" with my extra value-addition are my favorites.

I am happily married and a father of two lovely boys. I am graduated from two universities and another professional body. Reading in different areas is my hobby and pleasure and love nature, history, culture architecture and many more. I enjoy travelling and sharing my knowledge, experience and views with the others. Safe driving is my enthusiasm with over 25 years of experience.

  • I live in Kandy
  • I speak English, Sinhala
  • Verified Local host
  • Response time less than 21 hours

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Reviews

pauline
23 February 2025
We asked Chandana for special tour outside his usual listed tours in Kandy. Since he is licensed guide we asked for offer to do 2 days visits to Dambolla, Polonaruwa, Anurhadapura. He said he could organise it and we paid 290$ for this with the car drives. Chandana had also added on the schedule other things to do. In the end, during the visits of UNESCO sites, Chandana did not give us detailed information, historical facts or analysis. He was reading the boards with us, and although giving some background information it was not as good as we expected from a licensed guide we had paid 290$. It seems he is not used to giving tours in these locations, he was also getting lost on the way, he had not a good idea of the time we would need for each location and had planned too many things in one day. We were quite disappointed because he agreed to do this tour for us so we expected as a licensed guide he would give us a lot of information. He was not honest to say he is not qualified to do these sites, or had not been in a long time. Otherwise Chandana was on time in the pickup, deiving safely, he is a very nice person and we had good discussions about Sri Lanka in general. We imagine in Kandy where he does regular tours he would have better knowledge and we dont want to discourage booking tours with him there.Nice person, not recommended outside Kandy
Kimberly
2 January 2025
Chandana was punctual, patient and kind. We had been in Sri Lanka for over a week so had tasted many foods already and he was able to listen and adjust as needed. We loved visiting the local market! We appreciated Chandana talking to vendors and helping us taste fresh mango. We really enjoyed watching and tasting large crepe-like pancake and dipping sauces at Balaji Dosai - very local experience. We visited a British teahouse: basic black tea and many foreign visitors. Not my favorite stop. We were disappointed not to try any local drinks (besides tea and King coconut) nor any local desserts. We would enjoy having the last stop be a dessert. It was great to walk around the city experiencing all the sights, smells and sounds.Support Local!
Jennifer
17 November 2024
We were only in Kandy for a short time and wanted to learn more about its history - this was a very time-efficient way to do it! Chandana is clearly very well-educated, with two degrees, and took us to the key interesting places - the war cemetery was a particular highlight; we found it more moving than we had expected. Chandana has a car which makes the tour easier on the feet, and is a very safe driver. He seemed a little shy to start with but as the tour went on he began to share more information. The history is fascinating so we would encourage Chandana to be confident in sharing even more of his knowledge! A Great Way to Discover Kandy
Matthew
26 January 2020
The trip was great and Chandana was good fun and full of the banter! We enjoyed the tour and were able to stop for water and juice in the hot sun! Safe and cautious driver. Chatty but not at all overbearing and plenty of quiet time when needed. Thumbs up! Very informative, relaxed and friendly
Ifty
16 January 2020
The day started off at 7.30am, and Chandana was on time. We headed on the road, but it was a public holiday on this day, with the Hindu festival of Pongal, so the streets were pretty bare, and traffic was light. This made our day quite enjoyable, since we were not stuck in traffic all the time. Chandana’s vehicle is clean, roomy, air-conditioned, and comfortable, and can easily fit 4 people, although we were 2. He is a cautious driver, and we were never concerned about what was happening on the road. Because it was a holiday, the Pedro Tea Factory was closed, and the Damro Tea Factory was open, but not operational (and therefore not interesting to us), so we went to one in town in Kandy. Chandana put in the effort to find alternate locations when the primary locations were a bust, although I would have liked better preparation on this front, since this wasted time on the road (and there will be a LOT of time spent on the road). Based on our interests, however, Chandana put in the extra mile: at the time of the reservation, we were very interested in visiting a spice garden, specifically to see how pepper is grown, a subject matter of great interest to us. In the end, we decided not to modify the itinerary because it would incur additional cost of both money and time, but Chandana still managed to squeeze this in for us: he took us to a private garden in Kandy, where we experienced some legendary Sri Lankan hospitality: king coconuts from a tree in the garden split open for us, and a tour of a pretty extensive backyard pepper plantation. Absolutely wow! I wish I could attach photos to this review, but this experience absolutely blew our mind! The host was gracious enough to even give us some of the pepper and some of the nutmeg from his trees! This part of the day was extremely memorable, and we will be talking about it for years to come. It is a life memory! Chandana is a cerebral, knowledgeable guide, and we learned a lot during the trip. But there were a few confusions that made the experience difficult: when we read the reviews on the website, some of the reviews were for a different tour, that included the botanical gardens. But the tour we signed up for was for one without the botanical gardens, so we ended up not going (and I had built up the wrong expectations and ended up a little disappointed). There were some gaps, misunderstandings and missed expectations because of a lack of clarity, and I think withlocals.com is mostly to blame for this, not Chandana. My recommendation: for a knowledgeable guide, and for some insider knowledge, pick Chandana for your next tour, you will not be disappointed! But do make sure to review your itinerary carefully and make sure that you hit the marks you want to hit. Be active in the tour, and it will pay dividends. On the whole, it was great, and we won’t be forgetting our day with Chandana any time soon.A memorable day with Chandana
Andy
19 December 2019
I had a really great day with Chandana today despite the rain. We did the day trip to Dambulla and Sigiriya. Chandana is an absolutely attentive and good driver and guide! But that's only a minor matter, because although I'm not an native english speaker, I was able to talk to him very well. Not only did he show and explain the different places to me, but we talked about politics, society, religion and sports during the whole drive. It was very interesting to hear his view of Sri Lanka. Beside the main attractions we tasted some Sri Lankan food and visited two further tempels. I can only recommend him.Very nice Guide!
ESME
2 December 2019
Chandana was a great host and was very knowledgeable about the areas we saw in Dambulla. He knows lots of history about Sigyria Rock and the Dambulla cave temples. He was very patient and didn't rush any part of our tour, and he is very pleasant to deal with. We would recommend Chandana to anyone looking for a knowledgeable, friendly guide! Sri Lanka’s Best Treasures: Sigiriya Rock & Dambulla Caves
Koen
20 November 2019
We really enjoyed this tea tour with Chandana. We got a really good insight in the tea industry by going to a tea plantation and a tea factory. The scenery was incredible, and it was special to visit the earliest established tea factory that is still running using traditional methods today. We had chats with a supervisor, tea pluckers and staff in the tea factory. Unfortunately the tea museum is closed on Monday so we couldn't see that as part of the tour, However we went the next day by ourselves and we think a “must” if you want to know the history of tea in Sri Lanka. We found Chandana easy going, knowledgeable and flexible. We were able talk about a lot of things with Chandana and his insights help to get a better understanding of the country we visited. We spent more time on the tea plantation but he was happy to accommodate that. We also saw the botanical gardens which were amazing as well. If you are keen to learn more about the origins of tea in Sri Lanka than this tour is a great option. Just keep in mind that this tour includes quite a bit of driving as the tea plantation is quite far outside Kandy. All in all we look back at a great day out with Chandana and very happy to recommend him.A great day out!
Dominic
8 November 2019
We had an incredible day with Chandana - we visited Sigiriya, Dambulla Caves & 2 other temples. Chandana is knowledgeable, helpful and a great guide. He drove us to each place & showed us around. We recommend this day - wonderful places & a very good guide. Sri-Lanka's Best Treasures Sigiriya Rock & Dambulla Caves
Sara
6 February 2019
Very nice tour with experienced guide. He spent more time than planned to allow us to see everything.Sigirya tour

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