Sri Lanka Tourism Blog

Luxury Sri Lankan holidays are up for grabs at bargain-basement prices after a leading hotel group slashed prices by 50%.

The Aman group, which runs five-star properties across Asia, has cut its room rates on the island, bringing down the cost of a double from £250 per night to £125 in the Amanwella beach resort, and from £316 to £158 at the Amangalla townhouse, in the 16th-century port of Galle, a Unesco World Heritage Site.

The discount remains valid until September 2008 and was introduced, Aman says, “following a decline in international tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka associated with the impact of civil conflict”.

Sources within the Sri Lanka Tourist Board, however, suggest that Aman is exaggerating the effects of the unrest to conceal the fact that its rooms are overpriced, and British tour operators are reporting increasing demand for the island’s tropical beaches.

“Sri Lanka is well on the road to recovery,” says Frances Tuke, of Abta. “First Choice has launched weekly charter flights and arrivals last year were back to 90% of pretsunami levels.”

Vast stretches of Sri Lanka’s coastline were devastated by the 2004 tsunami, and the recovery of the island’s tourist industry has been hindered by an increase in violence between government forces and Tamil Tiger separatists.

No tourists have been hurt in the troubles, but the island remains on a Foreign Office advisory list that also includes Afghanistan, Colombia, Israel and Iraq.

England’s cricketers have just started their tour of Sri Lanka, drawing thousands of fans in their wake. Rosanna de Lisle highlights some of the treats that await the Barmy Army.

Sri Lankans never seem to stop smiling, but when the England cricket team last toured their country, in late 2003, they had genuinely good reason to be cheerful.

England’s tour of Sri Lanka starts on October 1 with a one-day international in Dambulla, followed by two more on the same ground and two in Colombo. Sri Lankans like the excitement of day-night cricket and will bunk off work to watch screens on street corners, but it’s the Test matches in December that are expected to draw thousands of England fans.

So here’s our guide to the three Test venues, along with a few ideas for the companion who’s along for the ride rather than the wickets.

If dialing any of the phone numbers from outside Sri Lanka, replace the initial 0 with 0094.

Kandy: First Test, December 1-5

The hill capital was the last stronghold of the Sinhalese kings and still has a majestic air that is not all to do with its fresher weather. Arrive from hot, heaving Colombo and Kandy’s magnificent Temple of the Tooth, its calm grey-green lake and its steep, wooded hills seem to belong to another country.

The ground
The Asgiriya Stadium is carved into a hillside. England usually play well here, helped by the kinder climate. “Kandy tends to produce nail-biting, adventurous cricket,” says Charlie Austin. “The pitch is quicker and bouncier and the Kandy supporters are very vocal - this is Murali’s home town. They take on the Barmy Army and the camaraderie is very good.”

Where to stay
Much the loveliest place is The Kandy House, but its nine rooms are already booked during the cricket. However, there are plenty of larger hotels, comfortable if slightly staid, perched above the lake and river. The best bets are Amaya Hills, Earl’s Regency, Mahaweli Reach, Hunas Falls, Thilanka; from around £50 double b & b. The scenic Victoria Golf Course has a lodge and chalets.

Where to eat and drink
Kandy is not well endowed with restaurants but the most atmospheric place to eat is Helga’s FollyPub Royal (cocktails and dinner, about £10 per person; book ahead on 081 223 4571). Bamboo Garden (081 447 6099), up the hill from the Temple of the Tooth, is a cheap and cheerful Chinese with a terrace, bar and big screen; main courses from 400 rupees (£1·75). The colonial at the Queens Hotel and first-floor Pub, both on the main drag, Dalada Veediya, will be post-match hangouts.

Diversions from the field
The fantastically gilded Temple of the Tooth draws pilgrims from all over the world. Go at 10am or 6pm to see ceremonies; don’t expect to see the Buddha’s tooth relic, which is in a casket.

The Kandyan Arts Association has dance and drumming every day at 6pm. The British Garrison Cemetery is full of tea planters, whose stories are told by the caretaker. The Botanical Gardens are worth an hour or three. The elephant orphanage at Pinnawela is well known, but you will learn more about elephants, and can ride one, at the Millennium Elephant Foundation up the road.

Senani Silks, near Royal Palace Park, is great for saris. Isini Gems, opposite, is a museum as well as a shop. Waruna Antiques on Peradeniya Road is worth a rummage.

Matale, 14 miles north of Kandy, is famous for its spice gardens and for the renowned batik artist Ena de Silva’s Heritage Centre (066 222 2404). Book three days ahead to have lunch and you’ll be served up to 20 exquisitely slow-cooked curries.

Colombo: Second Test, December 9-13

At first sight, the capital is chaotic and charmless, but beyond the ugly thoroughfares there are pockets of serenity - avenues of rain trees, parks, temples and the odd grand public building.

The ground

The Singhalese Sports Club is Sri Lanka’s Lord’s. There’s no lighting here, so one-day matches happen at Premadasa Stadium. There’s no breeze and the ground can get hot and humid - for spectators as much as players. Leave the grass banks to the locals and find a seat in the shade.

Where to stay

The teams stay at the Taj Samudra. There’s nothing wrong with that, but if you want to wake up in no doubt about where you are in the world, you’d be better off at the Galle Face Hotel. This seafront institution is decidedly worn and the older rooms are probably only for those who wish the empire had never ended, but the Regency wing now has modern bathrooms (double b & b from £47).

For more sophistication, stay at one of Colombo’s new boutique hotels. The Park Street Hotel is a quietly swish conversion of a colonial bungalow (www.taruvillas.com; double b & b from about £140). Casa Colombo packs bold contemporary design into a Moorish palace. The décor is too funky for its shirt, but the MacBook, iPod and personal butler standard to each room make for a cosseting stay (www.casacolombo.com; double b & b from £180).

Where to eat and drink

England fans congregate at Clancy’s, the bar of the Colombo Cricket Club. Bayleaf, an Italian restaurant with a large garden, is also within walking distance of the SSC (79 Gregory’s Road; 011 535 9653). The Cricket Club Café (34 Queens Road; 011 250 1384) is highly themed, with Bradman’s burger and lots of memorabilia on the menu.

The Gallery Café (2 Alfred House Road, 011 258 2162) has great fusion food and, as the former office of the celebrated architect Geoffrey Bawa, even better style; dinner and drinks from £20 a head.

Beach Wadiya serves simple seafood right on the sands. It’s barefoot-relaxed, but you need to book (2 Station Avenue, 011 258 8568).

Diversions

Cricket widows should be consoled by Colombo’s shops. Paradise Road (next to the Gallery Café) sells chic contemporary homewares at prices so tempting you may want to ask about shipping; at Barefoot (706 Galle Road), vibrant, hand-loomed textiles are fashioned into everything from clothes to toys; and Odel (5 Alexandra Place) sells clothes made locally for Western labels, but without Western price-labels.

Galle: Third Test, December 18-22

Dangling into the Indian Ocean like a chunky jewel, Galle Fort is both historic and increasingly hip, as more and more of its 17th-century Dutch merchants’ houses are turned into hotels, villas and shops. Happily, it remains a living, working town and hasn’t become a museum.

The ground

The stadium should be rebuilt in time for the Test, but it’s really only the pitch that is vital: the game can be seen from the ramparts. “It’s like the carnival comes to town - it’s fabulous,” says Olivia Richli, manager of Amangalla, the Fort’s most sumptuous hotel. “There’s a party atmosphere on the ramparts and everyone gets very, very red.” Hats and sunscreen essential.

Where to stay

The teams stay at the Lighthouse, a late Bawa masterpiece that stands dramatically on a headland a mile from the Fort. Two freshwater pools and a superb spa draw non-residents, as does the sunset over the ocean (www.jetwinghotels.com; double b & b from £85).

Galle’s clutch of boutique hotels - Amangalla and the Galle Fort Hotel inside the ramparts, the Sun House and Dutch House in the new town - are fully booked during the cricket, but will be open to diners and drinkers. Tamarind Hill, a colonial mansion near the Lighthouse, should be open by December (www.taruvillas.com, double b & b from about £110).

There are plenty of cheaper options along the coast, such as Sun and Sand and Thambapanni Retreat in Unawatuna, and Amaya Reef and Cinnamon Gardens in Hikkaduwa.

Where to eat and drink

The best spots for sundowners are the Lighthouse, the Rampart Hotel in the Fort and the Ladyhill (Upper Dickson Road). Dine at the Galle Fort Hotel (091 223 2870), which has terrific pan-Asian food, or the Sun House (091 438 0275), where there’ll be a barbecue for up to 40 in the courtyard and a plasma screen in Dick’s Bar (free tuk-tuk shuttle from the ground). The bars - and beaches - of Unawatuna and Hikkaduwa will reliably rock into the night.

Diversions

There’s so much to see and do around Galle that even a cricket tragic could be tempted to miss a few overs. Wander round the Fort, taking in the Dutch church, temple, mosque, bastions and some surprisingly good shopping (find Barefoot, Elephant Walk, Mimimango and several jewellers on and around Church Street).

Surf at Hikkaduwa, dive at Unawatuna or head into the hinterland to Sinharaja rainforest, Samakanda, a visionary ecological project (www.samakanda.org), or Handunugoda Tea Estate (091 228 6364) which produces some of the world’s finest white tea.
# Red Dot Tours (0113 815 0864 or 01937 842846, www.reddottours.com) is the official agent for the England cricket tour. The company can book all the hotels mentioned above. Its packages are especially good value: Kandy Test, including return flights, eight nights’ b & b, airport and stadium transfers, tickets to all five days of the Test, from £905 per person, based on two sharing. Colombo and Galle Tests, with flights, transfers, match tickets and 16 nights’ b & b, from £940pp. Red Dot is also putting on events for supporters during each Test.

Dangling like a dewdrop from the southern tip of India, the island nation of Sri Lanka is a topographical marvel, where rolling emerald plains gently blend into forested hills, and colorful Buddhist and Hindu temples dot the landscape like jewelry. But the beaches that fringe the perimeter of Sri Lanka are what best capture hearts, especially the sloping sands of Bentota, on the island’s southwestern ridge. Tucked between the warm waters of the Indian Ocean and a lazy blue river just behind it, Bentota Beach is a top choice among sun worshippers who know a garden paradise when they see one.

UNAWATUNA beach, in the Galle district, is classified as one of the most beautiful and fascinating beaches in the world. Unawatuna is a paradise for beach lovers, both foreign and Sri Lankan.

The beach is surrounded by a number of star class hotels, and cabanas and is one of Sri Lanka’s most popular tourist destinations. Most of the hotels which were damaged by the tsunami, have now been completely refurbished, and Unawatuna has regained its glamor and splendor.

True to its name, Hotel Flower Garden, at Unawatuna, has been built on a marvellously landscaped one-acre garden which resembles a min-flower garden. It is located within walking distance to the world famous Unawatuna beach, in Galle district.

The hotel which began with nine cabanas in 2003, now offers 25 luxury cabanas with all modern facilities to the discerning traveller.

All cabanas are equipped with A/C, hot/cold water, mini-bar and room service. Hotel Flower Garden has a beautiful and large swimming pool and a well stocked bar.

The restaurant offers the very best in Western, Eastern and Sri Lankan cuisine, together with an ‘A-la-carte’ menu.

The restaurant specialises in French, Italian and German cuisine, the preparation of which is personally supervised by the young owner of the hotel, K. Sassi, who holds a Degree in Food and Beverage, having successfully completed a course in Hotel at Ricken, St. Gallen, Switzerland, for five years as its Food and Beverage Adviser from 1992 to 1996. The hotel offers tours to Koggala Lake, Turtle Farm, fishing in Weligama Bay Beach.

A visit to the ‘jungle beach’ is a unique feature offered by the hotel to tourists.

Simon Hoggart embarks on a holiday in Sri Lanka with the kids — but this time they are the ones in charge

• Simon Hoggart
• Guardian Unlimited
• Tuesday September 11 2007

Where to go … daughter Amy’s advice includes a visit to the celebrated Dambulla cave temples. Photograph: Maurizio Gambarini/dpa/Corbis

When your kids are small, you inform them where the family holiday is going to be. If they don’t like it, they know what they can do — which is, come along and enjoy themselves. Or else. But when they’re older — ours are 21 and 18 — and you want them to choose your trip in preference to them spending a riotous week in Spain with their friends, you have to ask them politely where they would like to go. And it’s you who must like it or lump it.

Which is why we went to Sri Lanka this year. Our daughter Amy, the 21-year-old, had spent part of her gap year working in an orphanage there, up country, near Kandy. She and the other volunteers had been adventurous, using every weekend to visit historic sites, temples, national parks, the tea-growing area and, of course, the beaches. They met some delightful people, ate terrific food, and had a thoroughly exciting time. It was these places that she wanted us to enjoy. Meanwhile, she planned to spend a few days back at the orphanage, getting to know the nuns again, caring for the children.

We could not have chosen a better time. The fear of terrorism (irrelevant to tourists, so far as we could see) has kept visitor numbers down. Many of the best hotels — and Sri Lanka has some superlative ones — are desperate to fill their rooms and will offer eye-watering bargains. (”Rack rates” of hundreds of dollars a night listed on websites, and can be confidently ignored.)

What most people do is to tailor their holiday to their requirements. We went through Jetwing Travels, which also operates many of the best hotels. We told them our daughter’s recommendations, and a few days later they sent back an itinerary.

The package included an air-conditioned van with driver. Don’t think of driving yourself; Sri Lanka is not great on English signage, and the roads are less highways than social gathering places. Pedestrians flap a casual arm just before they cross the road in front of you, bikes and tuk-tuks (three-wheeled taxis) spring out of nowhere. It’s like trying to drive between the stalls in a crowded market. You’ll also want to stop and look at the roadside attractions: we saw kingfishers, peacocks, water buffalo, mongoose and hundreds of fruit bats hanging asleep from a tree, all on our first day. And the fruit stalls are more enticing than any supermarket: paw-paws, melon, pineapples and mangos, alongside the more exotic — rambutans, sour sop and the dreaded durian, famous for combining a stinking exterior with perfumed flesh.

Our driver, Mohd, was affable, spoke decent English, and knew plenty about the places we visited. So after two days recovering from jet lag at a fine beach hotel near Negombo The Beach, just north of Colombo airport, we headed up to the orphanage, pausing for lunch at the elephant orphanage (elephant numbers are down to around 2,000 in the whole country, thanks to deforestation) where we watched a herd bathing and splashing happily in the river.

There was a touching moment when we arrived at the orphanage, and the children who remembered our daughter were thrilled to see her: “Amy, auntie!” they shouted. The nuns were gentle and kind, and the children clearly well-fed, healthy and lively, though it is deeply sad to meet a three year old whose highest ambition is to be picked up and hugged.

So the rest of the family set off on the travels Amy had recommended. We started high in the hills above Kandy, at the Hunas Falls Hotel, which has stunning views down the valley and the most vertiginous golf course I have ever seen. I am no golfer, but even I know that a 40ft vertical drop is unusual at any hole. (They also have the one where you have to get the ball up 40ft.)

After exploring Kandy, with its temples and astounding trees, we headed toSigiriya, the greatest site in the country, a 660-ft high slab of rock topped with a combined fortress and pleasure palace, built 1,530 years ago by a king so evil he seized power by walling up his own father. The climb is steep but easy; you’ll be passed by hundreds of schoolchildren, and teenage monks in red, orange, saffron and brown robes. Our hotel there was the remarkable new Vil Uyana, built on water gardens, every room a small house, reached by a bridge.

On Amy’s advice we took in Polonnaruwa, one of the two finest archaeological sites, and the celebrated Dambulla cave temples. We picked her up at the orphanage, then set off for Nuwara Eliya and the tea country – you sip tea at the plantations, looking out on the deep, pleated, 40-shades-of-green valleys. We took a train to Ella, a journey along rickety tracks barely clinging to the mountainside, like flying at 10mph.

Our last stop was the Lighthouse Hotel near the old Dutch fort of Galle on the south coast. Here we spent a week doing little more than lazing and swimming, reading, eating and drinking. Sri Lanka offers a variety of food, but much the best is their own cuisine: fresh, zingy curries utterly different from the industrial sludge served in some UK Indian restaurants. Or you can eat in guest houses, negotiating the menu in advance with the owner, and a feast there will cost you little more than £2 a head.

Now is certainly the time to go to Sri Lanka, and it’s easily arranged by letting the organiser know where you want to go, and how much you want to spend. We were very grateful to Amy for her guidance. She will make a great parent: “I tell you we’re going to Sri Lanka, and you’ll like it!”

Anna Murphy relishes Sri Lanka’s lush plantations, tasty curries, quaint traditions, lovely beaches - and lack of fellow travellers.

Much of my life I have wanted to go to Sri Lanka. But every time I’ve been on the verge of booking, the Tamils have caused trouble. This year, when I finally bought a flight, things kicked off again. But I went anyway, and am glad I did. Avoid the north-east, the centre of the troubles, and you feel safe.

At times I felt that I had the island to myself - and what a superb island it is: its beaches are Bounty-advert perfection, its tea country the prettiest I’ve seen, its temples drip with character. The food is sublime and my accommodation was fantastic - and affordable.

You could spend a fortnight visiting Sri Lanka’s sights, but in a convenient cluster near the island’s centre - north of the hill town of Kandy, where I began my trip - lie three of the most remarkable.

At Sigiriya, a slab of rock rears out of the forest like a giant’s thumbnail. Paintings of pneumatic women adorn the stone, with poems alongside that were engraved 2,500 years ago. A royal winter palace once sat on top of the rock.

Just to the south are the cave temples of Dambulla. In the main cave are colourful statues of Buddha, lined up like schoolchildren in front of a psychedelic backdrop of swirls and chequerboard. Locals leave offerings of lotus flowers - pink, white and lilac - or trays of intricately cut watermelon and guava.

A few miles to the east, at Polonnawura, the island’s medieval capital, are the vast figures of the Gal Vihara - four Buddhas carved into the granite in various poses.

Despite the many sights that are ripe for exploring, it was tempting to relax at base. Kandy House, a 200-year-old walauwa (or manor house), is built around a cool courtyard; its rooms furnished with antiques and its garden a manicured jungle. In the evenings I sat outside, admiring birds of paradise, drinking a concoction called a ginger kick and steeling myself for the feasting ahead. Supper was a panoply of curries - beef, okra and, most deliciously, hibiscus - followed by wattalapan, Sri Lanka’s answer to crème caramel.

My next stop was a surprisingly luxurious 1930s tea plantation bungalow, reached by a train that winds among the hills. We crossed slopes covered in a brilliant carpet of green tea bushes, which looked almost like the lawns of English suburbia. The illusion strengthened when we arrived at Norwood, the bungalow, with its Axminster rugs, its well-upholstered sofas and its bay windows overlooking a garden of begonias and hydrangeas. Beyond lay more plantations, the ant-like figures of Tamils - imported from southern India in the 19th century and identifiable by their dark skin and bright clothes - working away with huge baskets on their heads. In the distance rose dramatic peaks.

Visitors can cycle or walk between the four plantation bungalows, but I found it hard to drag myself away from Norwood. This was a place where, should I wander out of my room and ask for a cup of tea at around 4pm I might find myself served a full high-tea, a tottering fine-china tower of scones, ham-and-mustard sandwiches and lemon tarts. Then it was cocktail hour and the staff would press me to accept a Castlereagh Signature - I never discovered what the recipe was, but it tasted lethal. On my pillow at bed time was a bud of tea - the “first flush”, picked in the morning - and between the sheets a tartan-covered hot-water bottle - it can get chilly at 3,100ft.

From the tea plantations I travelled to the fortress town of Galle on the south coast. Europeans and Americans have been buying property there for a song for years, and I suspect that if it weren’t for the effects of the tsunami and terrorism it would have turned into a sort of Marrakesh-cum-Lower East Side.

Galle’s Dutch-built Old Town was largely untouched by the tsunami, thanks to its beefy ramparts. Its streets are lined with charmingly named dwellings - Jasmine Cottage; Ernest House - with pitched roofs that sweep down to verandas. Small wooden gates and fences separate cottages from the street, and front doors are of stained glass. Around one crumbling square are the courthouses, where lawyers sit outside, tapping away at ancient typewriters.

The former New Oriental Hotel, renamed Amangalla and now part of the Aman chain, is right in the middle of it all. These days it is even more glamorous than in its 19th-century heyday and its vast proportions are made more elegant with an array of antiques. If you lounge long enough by the pool in the garden, you’re liable to be offered a bowl of delectable home-made ice cream. The hotel has an excellent hammam, and its barber will provide the closest of shaves while you recline in the original N O H-marked chair.

It was not always so perfect, as illustrated by an entry in a guestbook from the 1970s. “This is the Fawlty Towers of Asia,” wrote one unhappy customer. “If you are reading this when you have just checked in, check out now…”

Today, though, I advise the opposite for this wonderful island: check in as soon as you can, before the rest of the world discovers its charms.