Pigeon Island - do we buy the Wildlife ticket ourselves or is the boat including permit
Hotel package was boat + snorkel + tickets. A guy on the sand said foreigners pay forty dollars at the hut and the hotel is marking it up. Another said scuba needs a different paper. We just want to snorkel without getting shaken down. What is the actual sequence.
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3 Answers from travellers
Sequence: Wildlife Department hut on Nilaveli beach first, your name on a real ticket, then a numbered boat. Do not buy a combo from a walker on the sand. The park ticket is a national-park ticket, not a suggestion. Snorkel is the normal visit; scuba is through a dive shop with their own park process - you do not freelance a tank. Touching coral and chasing the blacktips is how they start shouting. Blog numbers for the foreigner fee bounce around - pay the posted rate at the DWC hut and keep the ticket.
We paid at the hut, boat was a separate 7-seat pile they quote as a boat price (we split it). Gear rental on the boat. Guide on the live-coral side was worth it. The back of the island is deader.
If you are certified and want a tank, book the shop, they handle the park side. If you are not certified, snorkel. August vis is the reason you came east.
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