Sri Lanka Hotel Recommendations

GAdventures tour – 14 Days Sri Lanka Encompassed:  Did the job, not fantastic.  Some of the hotels weren’t really good, some of the additional tours were a bit ordinary.  It doesn’t include the historic places.  The tour covers all the standard sights and it saved me having to plan it all, find out how to get between places and spend hours trying to choose hotels.  If I had done it independently it would certainly have been cheaper, but a lot more time arranging transfers and on the road.  I would have spent longer in some places, like Sigiriya and gone to Polonnaruwa ruins, maybe more walks in Ella, walked around Negombo city, not just the waterways as examples.  But on the whole I got to see everything I wanted to and had company while I did so.

Tangalle – Alpha Monkey Hotel and Tree House - Here’s my online review ‘Perfect location to be right on the beach. However that comes at a cost. Very very basic room, never cleaned or towels replaced, and they were old and dirty. Had to ask to borrow broom to get all the sand out. No hot water in shower, bed ok but mossie net had holes. Not much furniture to sit on. You could use the restaurant though and that had nice places to sit. Only 6 lounges so once used up, nothing. Pool has no lounges or chairs round it. For 2 of the 2 days there it was being cleaned and out of action. I recommend it for absolute beach front, but 3 days was enough for me.

Basecamp Yoga Retreat, Weligama - Lovely rooms, yoga up the hill with a great view, twice a day.  The vegan breakfasts were fabulous. Solo friendly because everyone chats over breakfast and they put on organised dinners.  I went to karaoke with the group and got friendly with one of the yoga teachers. Weligama beach was ok.  See my post on Sri Lankan Beaches. 

Villa My Way Yoga Retreat Ahangama - Recommended by a friend, who’s friend from New Zealand moved there and is one of the yoga teachers.  I had 4 days as the only guest, so personal tuition in yoga was a bonus.  Lovely peaceful location, about 30 minutes walk or $2.50 ride from town.  The beach wasn’t great, like a lot of beaches in Sri Lanka.

Shoba Travellers Retreat, Galle – Cheap, basic, has just about what you need.  There are nicer places but the come at an additional cost and Galle is not cheap as it is quite touristy in the old town.

Colombo – Morven Hotel – I chose this hotel because GAdventures start their tour there.  It was ok, location a bit far from most things and Colombo is hot so walking is hot and sweaty.

Impressions of Sri Lanka

Everyone I’ve spoken to rave about how wonderful Sri Lanka is.  It’s not that I didn’t have a great time, and enjoyed many of the things I did and saw, but I didn’t find it extraordinary. As one friend put it, looking at my pictures, there was nothing stunning, or totally awesome, or different from many other places.  Nothing that took my breath away.  I get the appeal.  It is small, easyish to get around, has a great diversity of landscapes, history, wildlife, culture, beaches.  But none of them are spectacular.  

Want to see animals, Africa is the place to go, lions, elephants, zebras, giraffes.  Sri Lanka has elephants, I loved seeing them, they are different to African elephants.  If you haven’t been to Africa then it would be exciting.  The safaris I went on were a bit ordinary though.  Chasing a leopard that you don’t see.... Hours on bumpy dusty roads and all else you see is deer, peacocks and a few other random animals.  Admittedly my safari was great because I saw a Sloth Bear, which I am told is rare.

Beaches, as I explain in another post, really aren’t that great.

Spice and tea plantations, lovely, but they are in lots of places in the world.  Temples, well, temples are everywhere.  Yes I loved the temple of the sacred tooth and Dumbulla cave temple.  They were a bit different, but to be honest, as a well travelled person, I saw lots of huge cave temples with 1000’s of Buddha’s in Myanmar.  

The scenery was lovely, but again, not stunning, the train ride, supposedly one of the best in the world, was lovely.  Was it really special or one of the best I’ve been on? No. I didn’t go to the historic sites, but heard they are similar to other bigger and better places I have been to.  I didn’t go to the North, and maybe that is a bit different.  

This sounds such a negative post.  It isn’t meant that way.  If you are not so well travelled in other parts of the world, I can see why people love Sri Lanka, there is everything, in a small easy to get around Island that is reasonably cheap.  Am I glad I went?  Absolutely.  I always love to see places for myself so I can form my own opinion and when people talk about Sri Lanka I can now picture it. There were standout moments.  I was fascinated  by the fish market at Negombo, the markets in Colombo, Galle fortress old city,  the fruit markets, Lion Rock was great, Dambulla cave temple, yeah I did love the elephants.  Learning about the culture and some of the food. Would I recommend it?  Yes, as I am sure most people will love it.  It just isn’t one of my highlight places. 

Train Ride

About the food, it is like Thailand, in that all the food is very very spicy.  Sri Lankan ‘a little bit spicy’ is not Western a little bit spicy.  It always came out really hot.  Even food that is not supposed to be spicy would be slathered in black pepper, making it hot in another way!  I was so looking forward to a spaghetti Bolognese after all the curries and it was so hot from all the pepper.  Take note and be aware!

Effort versus Payoff

I have been learning on this trip to assess whether the effort to get somewhere is worth the payoff when you get there, and using that to decide where to go.  For example, take southern Laos.  The most popular places to visit are in the North, where I spent all my time in the end.  Down south there are 3 locations that travellers see, Thakhek, Pakse and the 4000 Islands.  To get there the route would be Thakhek, Pakse then the Islands.  Due to the bad roads in Laos, a bus ride from Vientiane to Thakhek is 8 – 12 hours, then the same to Pakse and a bit quicker to the Islands.  When you get there, there are 3 or 4 day ‘loops’ to see waterfalls and caves and limestone scenery in TK and coffee and tea plantations and rolling hills in Pakse.  You have to book your own hotels and either hire a motorbike or a driver.  I don’t ride motorbikes and a driver would be $240 US dollars.

Nong Khiaw

A long walk up but certainly worth the effort

I am not jaded from my travels at all, and often have that ‘wow’ moment at something new, and take photo after photo of places that excite me, but waterfalls and caves do not fall into that category, unless they are very special.  Had it been easier to get to, or easier to get around, with day trips I could have booked or just needed a driver for a day, I would probably have visited these extra places in Laos.  But... and that is a big but...the effort and cost did not seem worth what I would see at the end. 

I also have lost the need to see everything in a country or a place I am going.  I am starting to prefer to take things a bit more easily and go only where I know, or at least think, it will be something I will enjoy seeing.

Another example is Sri Lanka.  I decided to go on a tour, for various reasons, which I will outline elsewhere, and gave myself 2 weeks at the end of the tour to go back to places I like and on the beach.  The tour did not cover the ancient cities of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa. I would probably have liked to see them, but then several travellers along the way told me they are nice, but a bit like other places I have been, such as Borobudur in Java and Angkor Wat in Cambodia.  It was going to be a long way to get to them, having a days travel each way and then overnight in a hotel and arrange a tour for the next day.  I decided that the payoff at the end was not worth the time and effort to get there. 

I also make some choices about where not to go because they are harder as a solo.  The example above about Southern Laos is a good example.  Had I been travelling with someone else, I would probably have gone.  Not because it was any easier, but it would have been nice to share the long journeys, the joy of seeing things when we got there, and the anxiety I sometimes feel when going to new places alone.  (More of that in another post). 

So in summary, I am making choices based on my interests and how difficult it is to get there or see the place in question.  

Sri Lankan Beaches

In my 2 extra weeks in Sri Lanka after my tour, I visited a number of beaches on the south coast. I'll start by saying, if I were looking for a beach holiday, I would not have Sri Lanka as my first or even third choice. There are many more accessible, beautiful and calmer beaches other places in the world. Thailand, Bali, maybe Malaysia (not been there for many years). Sri Lanka may be marginally less crowded, but also more expensive. I think the quality of the hotels here are not as high, Imelda you pay a lot more money. 

However, if you come here to see the rest of the country, which is totally worth it, and want some beach days at the end, I would choose Unuwatana. It's close to Galle, which was my favourite city. It's also closer to Colombo, if you want to go straight from the beach to the airport. Like stretch of clean sand, small waves, clean water, restaurants and hotels right on the beach. The streets around the beach have a nice vibe with more restaurants and shops. I wasn't there at night, but I think it would be quieter than Mirissa. 

If you want a quiet, empty beach, choose the far end of Tangalle. Jungle, lagoon, huge stretches of beach to walk along. You can't swim there though. It was very rough. No 5 star hotels, not many restaurants at the far end. The backpacker end was busier. 

Weligama is for surfing. Beach not so clean, small waves, locals swimming, fishing and fish restaurants, more of a night scene. It's quite stretched out though. 

Mirissa is the best known and most popular and I liked it the least. Too busy, noisy, small street frontage that was busy and hot to walk along. Best night life though, and a turtle hatchery right on the beach. 

Ahangama was another beach area I didn't like. Most of the beaches in Sri Lanka are only accessible through restaurants, Ahangama being the worst. The beach isn't even that large. I had an ice-cream at a cafe and left my stuff there in order to have a swim. There was a nice little shaded beach called 'Secret Beach's but it's not a secret anymore!

Finally I looked at Hikkaduwa and Bentota on the journey between Galle and Colombo.  Hikkaduwa was a nice long beach, but again, the beach backed right on to a main road so was not so nice to walk along.  Also they had a spot called Turtle Point, which had huge loggerhead turtles coming right amongst people's feet as they were feeding them with fish they bought from locals.  It was fascinating but also awful to watch the tourists feeding and touching them, when it has been drummed into most of us not to touch the turtles.

Bentota was another nicish beach, off the main road, but more upmarket than the other places I saw. 

I left Sri Lanka for the Maldives, and that is what I think of as gorgeous beaches. Endless azure blue seas, small waves, easy beaches to walk along.  

So in my humble opinion, don't go to Sri Lanka for a beach holiday, but if you go and want a few days on a beach at the end, my pick is Unuwatuna!