White Water Rafting at Kitulgala

Colombo, Sri Lanka

6 hours (approx.)
Pickup offered
Mobile ticket
Offered in: English

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Overview

Enjoy an active day away from the hustle and bustle of the city on a private whitewater rafting tour along the Kelani River. Reach the rural start point easily with hassle-free hotel pickup from Colombo, Kandy, Galle, Mirissa, Ella, and Udawalawe, then paddle along 3.1 miles (5 kilometers) of rapids and falls under the professional supervision of your private guide. All necessary equipment, plus drop-off to selected hotels, comes included.

Explore rural Sri Lanka on a private whitewater rafting tour
Cover several major andMoved the destination (Kitulgala) to the beginning of the title per the brief and expanded title to included private status and pickup, as important tour attributes. Added the different locations the tour departs from in the overview since that’s important information for travelers. Changed “five kilometers” to “3.1 miles (5 kilometers)” per the style guide (to use imperial measurements with metric in parenthesis). Changed the third bullet to “several major and minor rapids” since the figure didn’t match the supplier provided info. minor rapids–ideal for any skill level
Hotel pickup and drop-off ensures hassle-free transfer
Benefit from the undivided attention of your private guide

What's Included

All taxes, fees and handling charges
Professional guide
Hotel pickup
Hotel drop-off (selected hotels only)
Port pickup and drop-off
Transport by private vehicle
Safety Equipements

Food and drinks
Entrance Fees for Rafting

Meeting and Pickup

Pickup points

Select a pickup point

Pickup details

Bandaranayake International Airport (CMB) All Hotels in Colombo All Hotels in Negombo

Operating hours
.08:00

What To Expect

Cormorant Adventure Sports

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Not wheelchair accessible

Travellers should have a moderate physical fitness level
This is a private tour/activity. Only your group will participate

Supplied by

Cancellation Policy

This experience is non-refundable and cannot be changed for any reason. If you cancel or ask for an amendment, the amount you paid will not be refunded.

Traveller Photos

Gallery picture 1 (from a traveller's review)

Gallery picture 2 (from a traveller's review)

Reviews

3.8

based on 9 reviews

Total reviews and rating from Viator & Tripadvisor

We perform checks on reviews

Wasters

Brian_D, Jan 2026

Didn’t bother to turn up, don’t bother with these complete wasters, booked into my hotel especially and they never turned up

Response from Host, Feb 2026

Thank you for your feedback. We are very sorry to hear about your disappointment and would like to clarify what occurred on the day of your booking. Our driver arrived at the hotel location specified in your reservation and waited for over one hour at the pickup point. Unfortunately, we were unable to locate you at the hotel during that time. As no direct contact number was provided in the booking, we immediately attempted to reach you through TripAdvisor. The contact number supplied to us was not reachable, which made it impossible to coordinate the meeting. After waiting well beyond the standard grace period and with no way to establish communication, the booking was marked as a no-show. We always make every effort to locate our guests and complete pickups as scheduled, and we sincerely regret that we were unable to connect with you on this occasion. For future bookings, we kindly recommend providing a reachable contact number or messaging us prior to the pickup time so we can ensure a smooth experience. We apologize for any inconvenience caused and hope you will consider giving us another opportunity to serve you better in the future.

'Entrance Fee' adds up to 58% to 75% to the cost of this activity for a single traveller.

Ian_M, Jan 2022

I am a solo traveller and booked this trip as it was advertised as white water rafting. My experience of this has turned out to be that what was advertised as white water rafting was, in fact, merely a taxi ride to the destination. This is not clear from the description given by Viator, and it is my confirmed view that this is misleading. As a result this activity is NOT AFFORDABLE for a solo traveller. The description of the activity on the Viator website was that everything was included except food and drink and ‘Entrance Fees for Rafting’. I have booked a few Viator/Tripadvisor trips and Entrance Fees are incidental expenses, typically no more than a few percent of the headline cost. This was not the case for this trip. I paid $60 (US) for the activity. What happened was this. I was picked up from my hotel and dropped off at a shack by the side of the road that had an inflatable raft. Upon my arrival I was told that the ‘Entrance Fee’ would be an additional $45 (US). I challenged this as, it was way beyond mine and anyone’s reasonable expectation of this additional charge. I tried to make my case to the three men at the shack, one of who phoned a ‘person in authority’ and then thrusted the phone into my hand. The ‘person in authority’, in a very officious and terse manner, advised me that the $60 dollars I had paid to Viator was ‘only for the transport to the rafting location’. He repeated that as a fact more than once. It was very clear to me that unless I paid significantly more than the $60 I had already paid to Viator, I was not going to go rafting. I then faced having had a 4 hour round trip wasted due, it was evident to me, to misinformation on the Viator description of the activity. In short, the ‘Entrance Fee’ was effectively the provision of the raft for the activity. Viator don’t include the raft!!! I was left with no option to pay the additional amount, which in the end I reluctantly agreed at $35. I have no issue with the quality of the instruction, and I enjoyed the white water rafting sections, which took up around 2/3rds of the time on the water; It doesn’t state on the Viatour description however that the final 1/3rd would be spent swimming in ‘flat water’. I had expected white water rafting for the whole activity. I did not swim. I had booked the trip with the assistance of webchat, for which I have the transcript. At no time in the webchat did it mention that the Entrance Fee would be so substantially large (in fact no mention is made in the transcript), and prohibitive for a solo traveller - and the person on the webchat knew that I was a solo traveller. The whole activity, with the expected gratuities, cost me more than $100 - for less than an hour of white water rafting. I feel very let down by Viator and their description on the website. It misrepresented what the headline cost actually buys the traveller. Clearly Viator have not got the contract terms right with the provider, and although if the cost is split slit between a group of, say 6 people, it is a small inconvenience to each person, for a solo traveller the substantial additional cost puts a big dent in the holiday budget. I repeat that I feel let down by Viator. What makes this worse is seeing the same Viator activity, white water rafting, at the same location, advertised at half the price on the same Viator website. This does reinforce the provider’s point that all Viator are truly offering is a transfer. I had wanted to make this complaint to Viator directly, as they are the organisation who I transacted with and who are therefore obligated to me as a customer. However, it is not possible to make complaints through their website. Significantly enough, typing complaint into the help section search does not bring up any results. If any human from Viator does read this, I would like my $35 back please. I hope they have the dignity to publish this in full…..

Ungenau Beschreibung und Unprofessionell

Stefan_A, Mar 2022

Habe jetzt für das Taxi nochmal ca.50,-€ bezahlt das ich von Hikkaduwa abgeholt worden bin und zurück. Dann frage ich mich warum ich für die Buchung Option 1 Abholung Galle / Mirissa 71,62€ bezahlt habe. Grundpreis 59,69€. Man geht ich davon aus das ich Rafting gebucht habe , dann steht aber links mit Kreuz : nicht Inbegriffen : Eintritt für Rafting ???? Wie ich in Kitulgala angekommen bin zeigt der Besitzer mir die Preisliste für Rafting und Wasserfall Abseilen....ich gabe ihn zu verstehen das ich nichts mehr bezahle , habe 71,62€ bezahlt und muss jetzt das Taxi noch extra bezahlen. Alles etwas unprofessionell ....... Dann noch was, da wurde beschrieben , Dauer 8 bis 10Std. ja was 8-10Std. dabei reine Raftingzeit nur eine Std. 5km. Das ganze Angebot nicht richtig beschrieben.