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TRAVEL INFORMATION
1) ARRIVAL & DEPARTURE INFORMATION
Arrival and Departure Airport: You should arrive at and depart from the Colombo International Airport (Bandaranaike Intl Airport) in Negombo, Sri Lanka.
Pickup Information: Our tour begins at Colombo International Airport (Bandaranaike Intl Airport). We will be waiting for you after you pass immigration with a sign saying `Access Trips`. Please ensure that your flight arrives between 8am and 6pm on the first day of your session.
Drop-off Information: Our tour ends at Colombo International Airport (Bandaranaike Intl Airport) also. We will provide an airport shuttle service on the last day of your session so that you are dropped in time for your flight.
Airlines and Checking Equipment: If you intend to bring your own equipment, please check with your airline regarding policies for checking and transporting sports gear and equipment before you book your flight. This includes inquiring as to weight, charges and liability.
Flights: We do not book flights or insurance for our clients. For recommendations, click here
2) TRAVEL REQUIREMENTS
Travel Insurance: Travel insurance, including emergency evacuation coverage, is compulsory for all our trips. Please do not attend any of our trips without purchasing appropriate insurance coverage. We recommend that you purchase travel insurance that includes cancellation protection so that you will be covered in the event that you are unable to attend our trip (due to injury, illness or other unforeseen circumstances) or in the unlikely event that our trip must be cancelled. We do not provide travel insurance for our clients. Please contact your local travel agent to purchase travel insurance.
Passports & Visas: All countries require a valid passport (with a minimum of 6 months validity). Citizens of some countries will also require a visa. Please see below for more details:
http://www.slembassyusa.org/consular/visas.html
Age: We do not have any age restrictions on our trips. The majority of our clients are between the ages of 25 and 45, but we also have many clients who are older and younger than this.
3) HEALTH AND SAFETY
Emergency Contact: If you need to contact Access Travel in an emergency, you can reach us during office hours at the following numbers:
Dialing within North America: 1 (650) 492-4778
Dialing outside of North America: +1 (650) 492-4778
If you feel that you need to contact us outside of office hours, one of our staff members will be available on the following mobile lines:
Mobile-phone: +1 650 521 2662 or +1 650 387 4249
If you do not receive an immediate answer when calling the above numbers, please leave us a detailed message and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
Health requirements: Please carefully review the health information section of the following webpage for up-to-date health information, including information on the quality of medical care, the availability of medications and the necessity for vaccinations in the destination country:
http://www.mdtravelhealth.com/destinations/asia/sri_lanka.html. You are responsible for ensuring that you receive any necessary vaccinations before embarking on your trip with us.
Fitness requirements: The majority of our trips are open to people who are beginners in our target sports. Nevertheless, you should have a reasonable level of fitness before attending any of our trips and you should enjoy physical activity and the outdoors. During the majority of our trips you will be able to take a rest if you find that you are over-exerting yourself, but in order to maximize your enjoyment of our tours you should ensure that you are in reasonable shape.
Safety & Security: To maximize your safety during our tours you should exercise common sense and caution at all times. We recommend that you always stick to set travel arrangements, and avoid unknown areas. We also recommend that you wear minimal jewelry and that you keep valuable items safely stored. Always keep a copy of your passport, airline tickets, travelers checks and credit card numbers separate from where you keep the originals. For information on safety and security in Sri Lanka please review the safety and security section of the following webpage: http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1025.html
4) WHAT TO TAKE
Your Bike: It is always good to use familiar equipment, so if you have your own bike and are willing to bring it with you, we suggest doing so. Please see below for instructions on traveling with your bike. We recommend that your bike have at least front suspension and that it is a quality brand (Giant, Trek, Kona, Cannondale, Scott, Specialized etc ). If you bring your own bike it is important that you check it thoroughly to ensure it is in good mechanical order before you depart for your trip. Our team is equipped to make minor repairs but to save you hassles during the journey it is a good idea to check your bike before you arrive. If you are not familiar with bike maintenance, your local bike shop can help you with this.
Things that you should especially look out for are:
* Check wheel rims
* Check and adjust all wheel spokes.
* Check and grease all bearings.
* Check brakes and brake cables.
* Check gears and gear cables.
* Check and tighten all nuts and bolts (especially bottom bracket / cranks and peddles).
* Check chain, quick release clamps, tires, and inner tubes.
* Check handle bars and bar ends
* Check freewheel and rear cluster
* Check seat bracket
Traveling with your bike: In our opinion, the best way to travel with your bike is to partly dismantle it and put it in a cardboard bike box. If you no longer have the box that your bike came in, most bike shops will have surplus bike boxes that they will be happy to give you.
To fit your bike into the box you will need to remove the pedals, the seat, the handlebars and the front tire. You should also deflate your tires and air shocks. In order to protect your bike during the journey, you should purchase some foam pipe insulation from a hardware store and tape it around the bike frame, gear shifters and back derailleur. It`s also a good idea to pack your clothes (in plastic bags) around your bike to provide extra padding.
If you are unsure about dismantling your bike, take it to your local bike shop and they can help you with this for a small fee. We recommend that you pack your bike into as small a box as possible because the tight fit will help to protect your bike and will minimize your chance of having problems at the airport.
Most airlines are willing to carry bikes and many will do so without charging you an additional fee. However, airlines have different policies and these policies do change over time so we recommend that you contact the airline before you fly to find out about their bike transportation policy.
Bike Rental: For those who don't own a mountain bike or who would prefer not to bring their own, we have some available for rent. Please email us at info@accesstrips.com.
Additional things to bring: To minimize the effort of carrying your bags into your accommodation each evening, we recommend that you pack as lightly as possible. We recommend keeping the weight of your bags between 10-15kg/22-30lb. Suitcases are not recommended. Most travelers carry a backpack or rolling bag of small to medium size. You will also need a day pack/bag to carry water, cameras and etc.
We suggest that you bring the following items:
Clothing & Equipment
* your bike (if you decide to bring your own)
* helmet & gloves (you can hire these, but you can bring your own if you prefer)
* water bottle or camelback
* T-shirts
* long trousers
* padded shorts for biking
* a rain coat (just in case!)
* cycling shoes
* walking shoes/sport sandals
* a sweater for evenings (you`re unlikely to get cold, but just in case)
* toiletries
* money belt
* sunscreen
* sunglasses
* swimsuit
* beach towel
* first-aid kit (should contain lip salve, Aspirin, Band Aids, anti-histamine, Imodium or similar tablets for mild cases of diarrhea, re-hydration powder, extra prescription drugs you may be taking)
* day pack
* insect repellent
Documents & Money
* Passport (with photocopies)
* Travel insurance (with photocopies)
* Airline tickets (with photocopies)
* Credit and/or debit card and/or travelers cheques and/or cash
* Any entry visas or vaccination certificates required
Spending Money
* Meals - Lunches are not included in the trip price.
* Other expenses - Aside from meals, there are no required additional expenses for this trip, but you might like to take spending money for such things as souvenir shopping, nightlife and internet cafes.
* Tipping - A service charge of 10% is added to all restaurant & hotel bills. A small tip (no more than 10%) above this is appreciated.
Essentials
* Time Zone - Six hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT+6) Daylight saving time is not observed
* Voltage Requirement - 230/240 volts AC, 50 Hz. Round three-pin Plugs are usual, with bayonet lamp fittings
* Currency - Sri Lanka Rupees (Rs) 100 cents = 1 Rs
Other Tips
* Batteries - Please bring rechargeable batteries, a battery charger (and plug adapter if necessary). Batteries are incredibly toxic and many places that we travel do not have proper disposal facilities. Rechargeables are best but if this is not possible we recommend that you bring any used batteries back home with you for proper disposal.
* Taking pictures - Please ask before taking pictures. Just as you would not like to have a stranger come up to you and take a picture of you while sitting on your front porch either do the locals of the places that we visit. As you can imagine pictures of their children are also not appreciated.
* Dress Code - In Asia the dress standard is more conservative than it is back home. When packing try to pick loose, lightweight, long clothing that will keep you cool in the usually hot and humid climate of Asian summers. In predominately Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim countries we ask that you dress respectfully and avoid very short shorts/skirts and singlet’s/tanktops when visiting temples or mosques or other holy sites.
5) USEFUL LINKS
Country Information: For additional information about traveling in Sri Lanka:
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1025.html
Currency Exchange: For the latest currency exchange information: http://finance.yahoo.com/currency
6) ABOUT ACCESS TRIPS
Who we are: Access Trips is dedicated to offering a wide range of instructional adventure tours. If you`re looking for a vacation that provides a huge sense of personal achievement while still being fun, exciting and rewarding, our tours are right for you. We coined the term `instructional adventure tour` to describe our unique style of travel because as far as we know, we are the only company in the world to specialize in offering a variety of such trips! Instructional adventure tours offer the best of both worlds - expert instruction to help you develop and improve in your favorite pastime (or, if you`re a beginner, to help you learn a new pastime correctly from the start), and varied and exciting itineraries to give you a unique and memorable travel experience. Our tours are the perfect mix of a high quality instructional course and an exciting adventure vacation and you`ll find there`s nothing more satisfying than challenging yourself and reaching new heights in your favorite pastime, while also enjoying a unique and authentic travel experience. Our instructional tours encourage you to develop your potential in a relaxed and non-intimidating setting, regardless of your ability level, and reward you with carefully selected accommodation, delicious food, incredible scenery and unique cultural experiences.
We offer trips in all continents except Antarctica and we currently specialize in snowboarding, skiing, surfing, mountain biking and multisport tours. Our team is made up of instructors who are among the best in the world; we select them not only for their talent and experience (many are professional and competitive athletes) but also for their great personalities and their passion for coaching. Our tours attract men and women of all abilities and ages and, thanks to the fact that all clients have a common interest, our trips tend to be fantastic social experiences in addition to great instructional trips.
Our commitment to our clients: Like many travel companies, we are dedicated to offering the highest quality, safest and best value trips that we can. But our client mission is much more than this: on top of offering an excellent product, we are committed to making a positive change in the lives of our clients. We at Access Trips have all benefited in meaningful ways from the remarkable power of having a passion in life - of having a pastime that brings you pleasure, friendships, a sense of achievement and a total escape from the pressures of everyday life. Some of us have found self-confidence, others friendships, and others motivation and drive as a result of our involvement in sports. We want our clients to also experience the pleasure of finding and pursuing a passion. It is our goal that clients return from our trips having found a new passion or solidified an existing one, having made lasting friendships, having experienced a deep sense of achievement as a result of reaching new heights in their favorite sport, and having acquired a new perspective on life as a result of the unique experiences that our trips provide. We have had more than a few clients who have returned from our trips and decided to make major life changes such as changing careers to pursue more meaningful work, moving countries to be closer to the outdoors, and changing universities to be around more like-minded people. We do not expect our trips to have such a dramatic impact on all our clients, but we do hope that all our clients can be inspired in some small way from the experience of sharing their passion with us.
Our commitment to others: Although we are ultimately a for-profit business, Access Trips is about so much more than just turning profits. We operate Access Trips because we are passionate about travel, sports and the outdoors and because we love to share this passion with our clients, our employees and the local people we encounter during our travels. It is deeply important to us that our business contributes to the world in a favorable way and that we use our resources to affect as much positive change in the world as we can. We believe that we have three major responsibilities: to our clients, to our employees and to the world at large (which includes the environment and local communities) and we are doing everything we can to serve these three groups to the best of our ability. Please see the company section of our website (http://www.accesstrips.com/company/mission/) to read more about the actions we are taking to fulfill our mission and to effect positive change in the world.
7) FINAL NOTE
The information contained in this document is provided in good faith. Due to the nature of travel, details in this document may change. You should thus use the above information as an indication only and not as a contractual obligation on the part of Access Travel, Ltd. |
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