Лето посреди зимы! Summer in the middle of winter!

Good day to all! Rested with a family of 3 in mid-January 2013. I will immediately write an impression about the hotel: we were not disappointed! The hotel is really good: neat rooms (we took a deluxe suite), high-quality cleaning every day, and everything is cleaned before lunch, dressing gowns, slippers are hung out in the rooms for tourists, and toothbrushes with toothpaste were given out upon check-in. Shampoo, soap, bathing caps, tea, coffee, sugar, water were reported every day. The hotel is clean and tidy, the staff is beyond praise - helpful, friendly and benevolent. With the Russian language is difficult, as elsewhere in Sri Lanka, but primitive English is enough to understand each other. The chefs deserve special thanks, they cooked deliciously, and there were always dishes of European cuisine and curry, which my husband and son ate with great pleasure. Delicious pastries, fresh fruits (we had papayas, pineapples, bananas), papaya is something! The rooms have a coded safe, hair dryer, thread. needles. In general, we were very comfortable. The hotel area is small, but everything is very neat and tasteful. . I would advise everyone to take breakfast and dinner, this is the most convenient food option, at least in this hotel, because every evening there were dishes from different countries of the world (either French evening, then Mexican cuisine, etc. ). But the most amazing thing about this hotel is the ocean. Hikkaduwa is generally famous for its beaches, especially surfers come off here. Right next to the hotel there are the remains of coral reefs, among which many fish live, we looked for new species there every day in the backwater, which everyone called "paddling pool" or "aquarium" - this is such a small lagoon among corals, free from sea urchins, where you can dive with mask, knee-deep water, but everyone dived, from children to adult men. To the right of the hotel (you need to walk a little) there is a quiet beach without waves, for a relaxing holiday, huge turtles swim there several times a day for a baited place. And to the right of the hotel (up to a kilometer) there is a beach for surfers with big waves, on this beach we swam on the waves, you can also rent boards there, who will be interested. Regarding excursions: we took excursions from the hotel. Before we went, we read advice that it’s better to take excursions from locals, supposedly cheaper, but when they themselves began to study the prices, it turned out that it wasn’t much cheaper with them, and excursions from a tour operator seemed safer to us. A good excursion to Kandy (I recommend), many praised the excursion to the blue lagoon, we did not like the excursion to the Yalla reserve, I do not advise. In general, based on our experience (we went to Sri Lanka for the second time), it is very expensive and time-consuming to go on excursions from the coast in Sri Lanka. The best option is a tour with an excursion program (first, for 3-4 days, you will be taken along the excursion route around the island with overnight stays in different hotels, and then you are taken to the coast, where you are tired and full of impressions already swimming, sunbathing and relaxing). This is the best option for Sri Lanka, I advise just such a sightseeing scheme, and there is something to see in Sri Lanka. The country is charming, we just fell in love with it, that's why we came for the second time to rest there. I wish you unforgettable impressions from your future trip!