Sensory Indulgences | Bringing New Life to Colombo Experiences
Colombo, the vibrant urban capital of Sri Lanka used to be a hot stopover for foreign travelers 12 years ago. During my time at Sri Lanka in Style, I remember booking the Galle Face Hotel for my guests for 2 and sometime for even 3 nights. Mind you, the Colombo then was so much different to the Colombo you see now. Less high risers, hotels, restaurants, night life, bar culture and activities. However, over the years this changed with the post war boom of industries including tourism. Foreign investments poured into the country with renown hotel chains, apartment complexes, restaurant chains, malls and cinemas all wanting a stake in the Colombo plot. The city came alive with sights, sounds, colors and people. Although one might expect that more foreign travelers would have patronized the city, to much disdain the opposite happened. Colombo slowly started to fade away from their travel itineraries and was cornered into a one day or a one night stay over.
Back in 2019 when Brindley and I conceptualized Sensory Indulgences, we had to decide on our pilot destination in Sri Lanka for experiences. Unanimously we picked Colombo despite the skepticism of a lot of our peers and loved ones. We felt that we owe it to our beloved home town where we were born and raised. Most importantly we realized that Colombo is where the story of Sri Lanka starts to makes sense in terms of where years of history, culture, heritage and colonialism ended up. Think about it. If you visit Spain, would you miss a visit to Madrid? Or if you visit France, are you going to skip Paris? Sadly, travelers coming into Sri Lanka were skipping Colombo. This had to change.
The next two years for us was really tough due to the pandemic. However, we endured and slowly started bringing order to the chaos by weaving together seamlessly thought through experiences for Colombo. We activated our vast network of contacts which ranges from intellectuals, to adventure specialists to the tuk tuk drivers and wayside food vendors. Many a night and day was spent on research and road testing experiences so that it is nothing short of perfect for our bespoke clientele. Today, we are super proud that we have close to 15 unique experiences in Colombo inclusive of street food tours, dodgy bar hops, exploring an ancient kingdom on bikes, night tours of the city, arts tours and so much more.
When the news came that Colombo has been featured as one of the best destinations to travel in 2022 on CNN Travel we were elated. (https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/where-to-travel-best-destinations-2022/index.html)
We felt a strong sense of achievement as well as humbled to be blessed with such a supportive network of family, friends, peers, travel partners and professionals who believed in us and our vision for Colombo.
This is just the beginning of our story. Keep watching this space for more details on where our adventures will take us next.
