We toured Madu River because we had time before our flight and wanted to visit a small-scale cinnamon plantation and producer. The boat ride was pleasant, passing through mangroves, fish spas, prawn farming, floating juice stalls and temples. The cinnamon tour was short and simple yet informative. We bought some of their products because we trusted them and they were reasonably priced. They were referred to by our local guide so based on other reviews, maybe there are other plantations or producers who might not be so genuine. We paid a costly 4,500 Rs. for the boat ride even though we only made one stop.

we had this attraction as a part of package tour in srilanka.15 km from our bentota hotel.
busy with tourist.nice ride for app 1 hour(couple-pvt tour).deep river at some point but jacket provided.old boat but we think it was safe with 1 person operating/explaining.
some point of interest. you may get down to buy spices/fish foot massage/but we did not.small old hindu temple in the river .nice view through bushes/worth it if you like boat rides.

This was not among our planned activities to do. We went to Turtle preservation project but were highly disappointed to see the sorry state of the hatchery and exorbitant prices. We decided not to go there and then our guide suggested we should take a river safari in Madu river.

There are a bunch of agencies which provide the safari. You can choose any one of them as all of them take the same route. Some have better boats than other. We chose the cheapest one and paid 4500 LKR for 5 people. They also allowed our guide to board the boat (I don't know if they had a special arrangement with him).

It was a 1 hour 30 minutes ride during which we had a fish massage and a visit to Cinnamon tea farm. We did not go to the temple and just checked it out from our boat. FIsh massage was pretty good. It's not expensive even though it's in the middle of the river. The fishes were quite big as compared to the fishes in the fish tank at other places that offer fish massage. At tea farm, we were offered freshly brewed cinnamon tea which was quite good. We did not buy anything from there, when asked we respectfully refused.

We saw a lot of different and beautiful birds during our ride. Also checked the local life alongside river. Talked to vendors who were selling their stuff in the middle of the river on a wooden platform.

Overall, a good experience. The river was pretty dirty though and could definitely use some preservation.