Ebert Silva Holidays commences Colombo City Tour Open Deck rides

Ebert Silva Holidays commenced the exciting Colombo City Tour Open Deck double decker city tours last weekend amid much enthusiasm and interest from Sri Lankans young and old. Colombo City Tour showcases Sri Lanka’s premier city to both Sri Lankans as well as foreign nationals and is a venture by Sri Lanka Tourism and Ebert Silva Holidays with unmatched panoramic views of the city in its big red open deck double decker coaches.

As the country embraces the ‘new normal’ Sri Lankans eagerly came on board to enjoy the “Heritage of Colombo” and “Colombo at Night” weekend tours. It was an opportunity to responsibly break free from restricted activities and have a refreshing and joyous open deck sightseeing experience in the city of Colombo. The tours conform to strict health guidelines ensuring maximum safety and precautionary measures to safeguard passengers and team members against the pandemic. Temperature checks, sanitization and protection with facemasks are mandatory for passengers and all onboard throughout tours.

Known as ‘Kolon thota’ , the native name of the city meaning ‘port’, became ‘Colombo’ with the advent of the colonial rulers to the island. Today the city is an interesting and colourful tapestry of many races, religions and cultures and showcases a wonderful colonial heritage blended in its many moods. With a rapidly changing skyline Colombo is indeed a unique city of ‘old and new’ that is swiftly unfolding into a spectacular tourist destination in the region.

Both the Heritage of Colombo and Colombo at Night tours with duration of approximately 4 hours, operate during the weekends sightseeing within the city limits of Colombo and extending to the administrative capital, Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte. The tours feature many places of historic significance in the city such as the prison cell of the last King of the Kandyan Kingdom. The humble structure shadowed by the surrounding high rise buildings in Fort is where King Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe was temporarily kept a prisoner until he was sent to Vellore, India, in 1815 by the British. The old Colombo clock tower and light house on Chatham Street is a lesser known historic treasure in the city as it is even two years older than the ‘Big Ben’ of Westminster in London. It was designed by Lady Steinberg Ward, the wife of the British Governor Sir Henry Ward and built in 1857. Seen also on tour is the President’s House and it’s surrounding buildings as well as those along York Street which are iconic monuments from the British era.