не рекомендую do not recommend

Everything that was written in the reviews of past years about this hotel is true. ) Both positive and negative.
I am writing on fresh, daily prescription impressions.

First of all, I strongly advise you to avoid the JoinUP tour operator, at least in Sri Lanka. To begin with, we, about 40 people, many with children, after a tiring 10-hour flight, representatives of this office kept on our feet at the airport for some unknown reason for an hour and a half, without giving absolutely any information, while quickly sending those who had ordered an individual transfer to hotels. After that, we were taken out of the airport and kept for another forty minutes on the street between buses in the signature JoyneApovskaya coloring, still not giving any explanation, except for "hello now, go to the hotel, give me five hundred trunches! ". Then exactly the same bus arrived, into which we were finally loaded and taken.

The bus was practically without air conditioning, that is, it was, but it turned on every 15 minutes for half a minute. When asked to turn on the air conditioner normally, the driver and the bus guide answered that the air conditioner was working. Many in this gas chamber (in Sri Lanka, even at night, the temperature very rarely drops below +26, and even 40 people on the bus) became ill, but the bus guide was not interested, he was only interested in being given a tip when unloading from the bus. In general, three and a half hours before the hotel was a serious test for health. After complaints were made to the hotel guide about this, a bus was served on the way back, in which the air conditioner was set to 16 degrees and did not turn off at all.
Our friends booked a trip from a hotel guide to see blue whales - three hours before the boat, then four hours on a boat in the open sea, then a couple of hours back and forth in the ocean and with a smile "sorry, the whales didn't sail today" in the opposite direction, for all the fun - $450 for two. In summary: if your tour operator in Sri Lanka itself is called JoinUP - look for another tour.

Hotel.
The hotel leaves very ambivalent and contradictory impressions. At the entrance, you are struck by the fact that the hotel has some kind of territory, besides it is beautiful and well-groomed. Upon arrival at 8 am, the hotel staff at the reception with a smile listen to the words of the bus guide (hello, JoinUP) that you need to pay an extra 2000 rupees per person for early check-in, wait 15 minutes until the bus guide finally leaves with his bus , where the rest of the tourists are waiting for him, then they take the tourists by numbers, not demanding money at all.
The rooms, and indeed the entire hotel itself, are shabby. Everything is old, scratched, stale and not new. Bed linen and towels are terribly gray, worn and washed out, it is useless to ask for a change - they will bring the same ones, so the squeamish need to bring a couple of towels from home. The beds are terrible, the bathroom is just terrible. The air conditioner worked for cooling a couple of hours a day, the rest of the time it drove hot air, only one worked at the ceiling fan, the maximum speed at which it was simply dangerous to lie under it. The water from the shower does not drain normally, the bathroom is constantly humid and all sorts of biting insects live. They also live in bed. From the first to the last day they walked bitten, despite all the repellents. At the same time, if you move five meters away, everything is beautiful and pleasing to the eye.

The hotel staff is very strange. Upon checking in, it was discovered that there was no safe in the room.

Made round eyes and promised to bring. An hour later I went down to the reception to remind, made round eyes and promised to bring it right away. Half an hour later he went out, found some manager, who himself, five minutes later, brought a safe to the hump. After 5 hours, when we fell asleep, a team of repairmen began to break through the door with a sign "do not disturb" to find out what was wrong with our safe. And so in everything. A separate song - workers at the bar. During the day, they run between the sunbeds by the pool, bother the vacationers "would you like a drink? ", take an order and disappear for half an hour. They bring an order, they don’t take money, like later, sir, later. And "later" it turns out that you drank not one bottle of beer, but two. Or he didn’t pay for some yesterday’s cocktail. Or something else. And everyone makes round eyes. In general - to pay immediately at the bar, but at the bar to place an order and stand over the soul until they do, and wear it yourself, otherwise you can wait a long time for the order.
One evening I waited 40 minutes, then I came to the bar and asked where and when. They made round eyes and asked to wait. I waited another 20 minutes and went to the room, because I got sick. Scandal is useless - they just do not understand what you want from them. Cleaning is also strange, the first day I left a hundred tips, it was normal, then somehow they didn’t take the money and didn’t change the towels, didn’t leave any money - they cleaned it well, they wound the swans. The guys who deliver towels near the pool have a habit of casually stroking the legs and thighs of the resting men, which also does not bring much joy.

They only took breakfast. I will not judge what lunches and dinners can be with such breakfasts, but the breakfasts were, well, too poor in terms of assortment. Omelet, beans, sausages, some potatoes, a couple of local weird porridges, a couple of curry sacks...
fresh vegetables were not at all fresh, pastries sometimes came across the day before yesterday, there was no cheese in any form, the meat was only on the first morning, the juice in half the cases was very diluted - tinted water. There is, of course, possible. Once in an omelette I found a piece of thick wire about two centimeters long, went to the restaurant manager to show it, he made round eyes, took the wire away ...and that’s it, he didn’t even apologize.

The pool is too small, it was not possible to swim normally. But you can swim almost to the bar, order and drink a little right on the side. Clean the pool thoroughly and well. There are always enough sun loungers, most of the time half is unoccupied. There is also enough shade, although sometimes coconuts from palm trees fall directly on vacationers, and once a thick branch suddenly broke off from the trunk and fell right on a peacefully sunbathing woman. Biting insects in the grass and sand are also enough for everyone.

A healthy long brown snake lives in the roots of some tree, which sometimes crawls out onto the slabs of the stairs to the pool to bask in the sun. Monitor lizards, chameleons, geckos, squirrels - in the right and sufficient quantity and assortment, one evening in the elevator, a toad jumped right at me from the ceiling.

The chicest beach in front of the hotel, which is to the right into the lagoon, which is to the left to the restaurants. However, on the fourth day it began to rain heavily and all the stinky rivers flowed into the sea, as a result, stinking yellow foam formed along the coast for a couple of tens of meters. It became impossible to swim, and even then it was possible to enter the sea only after 14:00-14:30, when the wind and current were catching up with fresh layers of water.
On the first evening, we got dinner at the closest Sun Flower, after which we swore off how to go to a restaurant where even shrimp could be spoiled by cooking, and generally communicate with the local citizens working around the restaurant (Nixon, Lala, etc. ) I don’t I imagine how you can manage to ruin a dish like shrimp? And how can you possibly have anything to do with people who have red, bloodshot eyes like Nixon's? Especially if a wonderful person and guide Nuvan lives and works in neighboring Bentota, about whom I wrote in the last review, to whom I urge you to contact with renewed vigor to organize excursions and trips. However, if it seems to someone that 3800 rupees for a trip to the waterfalls on a tuk-tuk or 1000 for a kilo of mango or 300 for a pineapple is normal, then you can not make any extra effort and surrender to the will of the locals.
From the second evening we dined at Sasika, were 90% satisfied and happy, at the end of the holiday we talked with a couple who first got to Sasika, and then to Fresh, where they had dinner until the end of their vacation, that is, it is even better there.


From half to three-quarters of the hotel guests are "our people", that is, Russian speakers. This is both good and not so good at the same time. It's good that you can find a company for recreation and trips, and in general it's not so boring. It's bad that by default the attitude of the locals towards you will be like a Russian speaker. In particular, it’s not very clear to me why I fly 7500 kilometers in order to try to fall asleep at half past eleven at night, when in the hotel lobby a local musician loudly and without any rudiments of hearing and voice yells about a batyan commander or a glass of vodka on the table, without understanding siysla, but trying to somehow please the public. By the way, about entertainment. For the most part, they are limited to the above, sometimes musicians come across a little better and with a slightly different repertoire.
Once a week a snake charmer comes, it's interesting to see once. On Fridays and Saturdays, somewhere in Bentota, on the opposite shore of the bay, about 15 kilometers away, mega-discos are held, you can go. However, due to the horseshoe shape of the hotel, the sound of the disco comes through the water and is focused in such a way that it creates the feeling that you are already in a disco. And in the room audibility is maximum.

In summary: we had a very good holiday, which neither the locals nor the hotel staff could spoil, despite the fact that they made every effort and effort for this. If I didn’t initially have the desire to take everything easier and not spoil my vacation because of the little things, The Palms hotel could spoil my mood very much and for a very long time. Because both the hotel itself and the staff and the peculiarities of the attitude of the staff to their duties and vacationers are by no means conducive to a pleasant and comfortable stay.
At The Palms, you have to constantly fight for a pleasant and comfortable stay, fight to such an extent that it is no longer clear whether it can be called a vacation. So I don't recommend it at all.