About Overa Tours
Thirteen years ago, Kamal Ranaweera started Overa Tours with a single conviction: that Sri Lanka is best seen through the eyes of the people who know it street by street, trail by trail — not from the back of a coach on a fixed route.
Today, that is still exactly how we work. We are a Sri Lankan team, based here, who design private journeys across our own island for travellers arriving from around the world. Every itinerary is built by hand, tuned to how you like to travel, and run by drivers and guides we have worked with for years.
The story
Overa Tours was founded in 2013 by Kamal, who has spent more than 13 years planning journeys the length and breadth of Sri Lanka — from the leopard country of the south to the ruined cities of the Cultural Triangle and the tea line above Ella. In that time he has driven the back roads, stayed in the properties, met the guides, and learned where the island rewards you for arriving an hour earlier or turning off the main route. That first-hand knowledge is what you are actually booking when you travel with us. It is not sourced from a brochure; it was earned over thirteen years on the ground.
Over those years we have welcomed thousands of travellers to Sri Lanka, and a large share of our bookings now come from past guests and their recommendations — the clearest sign we know that we are getting it right.
What it’s like to travel with us
We handle the details so you don’t have to think about them. A private driver-guide who knows the roads. Rooms held at the properties worth staying in — a tea-estate bungalow, a restored fort townhouse, a clifftop above the Indian Ocean. Timings planned around the light, the weather and the crowds, so you reach Sigiriya before the heat and the coast in the right season. And a local team a phone call away for the whole trip, should anything need changing. Because Sri Lanka is compact, a well-planned two weeks can take you from safari to hill country to the southern beaches without a single exhausting day. Sequencing that well is the craft — and it is the part we have spent thirteen years perfecting.
How we travel — responsibly
This is our home, and we plan to keep it worth visiting. We build itineraries that put spending into local hands — family-run guesthouses alongside the landmark hotels, community guides, and drivers who are paid and treated properly. We keep group sizes small and tread lightly in the national parks and heritage sites we are lucky enough to call ours.
What we plan
Every trip is private and tailor-made. Travellers most often come to us for:
- Wildlife & safari — leopards in Yala and Wilpattu, the elephant gathering at Minneriya, whales off Mirissa
- Culture & heritage — the ancient cities of the Cultural Triangle, Sigiriya, Kandy and the eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites
- Honeymoons & couples — fort towns, tea-country bungalows and quiet stretches of the southern coast
- Families — trips paced for every age, with the logistics carried by us
- Tailor-made discovery — the whole island, sequenced around what you most want to see
Start Planning
Tell us how you like to travel and roughly when, and Kamal and the team will build a first itinerary for you — no obligation, and a real person who has been everywhere we send you.