Sri Lanka

[Misericord]

Hello!

I’ve booked flights (me and DH) to Sri Lanka for two weeks at the end of May. We have a vague itinerary in mind but really I was wondering if anyone had any absolute must go to hotels / other accommodation that they’ve been to?

Happy to spend a bit more for something really special or different :)

Thanks!

M

Jumping on here! Going later in the year....

www.expedia.co.uk/Sri-Lanka-Hotels-Trinco-Blu-By-Cinnamon.h4031742.Hotel-Information?exp_dp=&exp_cur=&exp_partner=1D_V2&exp_ts=1524512613718 100%

Beautiful non ruined beach with dolphins and whales around via boat, a really lovely hotel. Everything else on that stretch was very travellesque. With cockroaches.

(True as of 2015 when I went)

I loved Sri Lanka. We stayed cheap and cheerful both times and toured around.

In Kandy, the Queens Hotel is colonial faded grandeur! Otherwise we were at various lodges.

I went for my honeymoon.

We stayed in many places, we had a driver who took us all over the island. Standout hotels are the Mount Lavinia and the Grand in Nurawa Eliya. You can do a walk from there to amazing waterfalls and visit tea plantations.

There are fabulous places on the coast in Bentota and Galle but the hotels we stayed in were destroyed in the Tsunami.

It is an amazingly beautiful country.

Buckingham Place. With my job I must have stayed in about 200 hotels round the world (trust me sounds better than the reality!) and this hotel beats them all x 1000. It's just magical. On a deserted turtle beach with only 12 bungalows with monkeys swinging through the trees. No kids under 7 allowed - I'm 22 weeks pregnant so 7 years 18 weeks until we will be returning 😂

We stayed at the Fortress Hotel near Galle. Possibly my favourite hotel I've stayed at.

Thanks! Will look all recommendations up!

Any recommendations on how best to arrange a driver - is a travel agent just the way to go?

Miser we must like the same sort of holidays. I think we've spoken on the skiing board about Finland. We are also off to Sri Lanka this Xmas - can't wait!

We have booked a tour though as we will be going with my FIL and he likes a firm plan as a total control freak

We are going with families worldwide, but holiday architects were very helpful.

Was also going to recommend Buckingham Place! They have a (quite new) amazing 33m infinity pool overlooking the sea plus a small pool in a tropical garden. Very small number of villa; fab staff; amazing food; beautiful location by beach with no other hotels nearby. We also liked 98 Acres in Ella.

Re driver - I prebooked it all (driver, train, hotels) through Selective Asia who were great. If you go in the Tripadvisior Sri Lanka forum, there are people there who will advise on local agents and anything else. A guy called Erik is very helpful.

Nc’d
I was born in SriLanka and go every year.
Very interested to hear about Buckingham Palace.

The usual tourist things to do, which are good beach resorts from bentota all the way mirissa ( south coast) Dutch fort at galle definitely worth visiting.

In the centre, visit Kandy and the temple on the lake. Train ride from Colombo in observation car is spectacular.
Also visit the hill country & Nuwara Eliya. Definitely worth visiting a tea plantation.

Sigirya is a huge rock in the middle of the country, with an ancient palace on top. Also Dambulla which has a giant Buddhist statue and temples built into the caves at the top.
Best hotel to stay in to visit that area is Kandalama. Built into a rock with the jungle growing over it. Monkeys visit your balconies, but it is 5 star luxury.

Other up & comng places are Trincomalee, on the East coast. Largest natural harbour in Asia.
Also Jaffna in the north neither was accessible during the civil war.

sigirya

trincomalee

Definitely the Queens Hotel in Kandy. And get the train from Kandy up into tea country. We stayed in Banderawela (Banderawela Hotel was another colonial era gem) and visited the Dambutenne tea factory. Galle and Sigiriya are worth visiting for a couple of days each, and if you like a bit of archaeology Polunaruwa is also lovely.

We used these guys to arrange everything they were great www.paradiseholidays.lk/