Your rating of this hotel:
6.0
from 10
Hotel ratings by criteria:
Rooms:
4.0
Service:
3.0
Cleanliness:
3.0
Food:
5.0
Amenities:
7.0
general information
Sri Lanka is an island nation with a population of about 21 million. person, religion, mainly Buddhism. The climate is tropical, from October to April the weather is good, sunny, short-term rains are possible. The rest of the time it rains all day and it gets dark much earlier. By the way, daylight hours here are 12 hours (approximately from 0.30 to 1.00). Time difference with Ukraine +3.5 hours.
An important factor is that the first and last day you spend on the road. We, for example, the road in one direction took about a day. Among other things, the second day we spent sleeping. As for the last day, we spent it in the hotel lobby waiting for the bus to pick us up, since check-out from the hotel takes place at 1.00.
Thus, when buying a ticket for 10 days, in reality, you rest for 6-7 days (for some reason, tour operators are silent about this.
Arrival
We flew from Kyiv with FlyDubai with a transfer in the UAE (2.5 hours of waiting).
The tour was ordered from the JoinUp operator, when boarding, our names were not on the list (the reason turned out to be the lack of timely payment for airline tickets). After numerous calls, the situation was resolved and after standing in another queue, we nevertheless boarded the plane. We flew on a Boeing 734, each seat has a built-in screen, paying you can watch movies, BUT it is also possible to charge phones through them via USB, so take cables with you in your hand luggage. They don’t give food or drink on planes, they carried food with them in hand luggage, they bought water at the airport for 1 Euro, they didn’t take water during the transfer, although they had to go through a second personal control. In Dubai, you arrive at terminal 2, so there will be no chic duty free there.
We arrived in Colombo early in the morning. They immediately withdrew money from an ATM at the airport, the exchange rate is 10-11% more profitable than if you change dollars from money changers.
ATMs are “hidden” in the large hall, on the right just before the exit to the city from the airport, in general, in the same place as the exchangers. The weather forecast on the Internet predicted endless rains and thunderstorms for us, although in fact everything turned out to be wrong. It rained several times throughout our stay. We went to the hotel on a small air-conditioned bus, quite comfortable with one stop (3 hours). When boarding the bus, they tried to knock us off a tip for help with luggage (1000 rupees or $ 10). Don't give anything to anyone, it's a scam.
Visa.
The cost of a visa on arrival is $35, but you can also apply for a visa online yourself in this case, the cost will be $30. Confirmation comes after half an hour. There is a separate counter at Colombo airport where visas are sold, upon arrival the whole crowd will rush there, if you paid for the visa online, then you can safely go to the passport control counter, if you have supporting documents, the visa will be put right there.
Hotel
They settled us somewhere at 12, half an hour after arriving at the hotel. Upon arrival, they gave some kind of "yupi". Separately, it is worth mentioning the guy who populates. He will tell you that you will get the best room in the hotel and how he tried for this (the rooms in the hotel are almost all the same, except for 10-15 overlooking the garden). Then he will start asking for money for the temple to some children, do not give anything.
As for the hotel, it is big enough, more than 100 rooms for sure. From the balcony there is a view of the ocean, palm trees, chipmunks who love our seeds very much. It is not very comfortable to live on the first floor, since all the balconies overlook the common beach. There are ants in the room, a couple of times there was a cockroach. Lizards climb the corridors every evening, so it will be more comfortable on the upper floors.
Yes, their sockets are the same as ours, only with one additional connector, as I understand it, so that children do not stick their fingers.
There are tons of videos online on how to get around this. They took the adapter at the reception and did not invent anything.
Everything worked in the room, the only "but" is the high humidity. Things in the room did not dry out, but rather were saturated with moisture (keep this in mind when checking out, as the weight of your things may increase and exceed the limit of 20kg. )
Food
I'll start with breakfast, which was included in the price of the tour. You can eat, but no pleasure. Besides, every day is the same. A lot of spicy food, which the body refuses to perceive in a day or two. Of the fruits, only papaya was normal, everything else was green and not for everyone. They did not give any really exotic fruits, we bought them in a shop on Unavantuna (a village 7 km from the hotel)
The hotel also has an a la carte restaurant. It's quiet horror. The prices are outrageous, the food is disgusting.
In order not to write for a long time, mushroom cream soup, costing about $ 5, turned out to be made from a package ala "knor"
Cafe "Sea food" is located 100 meters from the hotel on the right (if you stand with your back to the exit). Prices are reasonable, although we found cheaper, it all depends on the distance, quite tasty. For example, in the cafe of the same name at a distance of 1.5 km from the hotel, prices were already 1.5 times lower. Despite the same name, the dishes can differ as you like. In “Sea food” there are waiters who speak a little bit Russian, you can arrange excursions.
On the other side of ”Sea food” there is a cafe, whose name, unfortunately, I don’t remember, 300 meters from the hotel along the beach (landmark plane). I've only been there once, on the first day. I ordered rice with seafood for 1000 rupees, I didn’t like it and stopped going there, although the prices there are probably quite cheap.
Further down the beach (1000 meters) is a German restaurant. The food is not bad, the prices may be a little more expensive, all of them are focused on the Germans.
Bathing
To begin with, we have never seen our guide (name Igor) during our entire stay, and not because we did not want to or could not. It is probably strange why I am writing about this here, but it will become clearer later.
The beach is located right next to the hotel, the waves are constant, if you notice a red flag on the shore, this means swimming is prohibited. We learned about the meaning of the red flag much later. So, take it as seriously as possible, swimming is VERY DANGEROUS, people die every year. Do not come close to the line where the waves are formed, and even more so do not swim over it. This is the ocean, a terrible force that simply does not notice a person in its enormous power.
To the left of the beach, if you stand with your back to the hotel, there is a small bay, hidden behind the reefs from the waves, where children can swim safely.
You can still swim in Unavantuna, the water there is calm, deep enough and you can swim comfortably and swing on small waves.
There is also Jungle Beach, but I have not been there, it is a little further from Unavantuna.
Tours
Upon arrival at the hotel, we were given an envelope with a brief description of the excursions. Here, choose what you want. Local excursions are cheaper, though don't be fooled into thinking that the quality is the same. Most of the population does not speak Russian and knows only a couple of words in English, so they will explain themselves and lead the tour at best on their fingers.
There is a sightseeing tour with a stop in Galle, a turtle farm, a spice garden, etc. As for me, a scam for dollars. In Galle, we got on the 350 bus, right from the hotel (stop 20-30 meters on the same side of the road as the hotel, since they have a different traffic than ours) for 20-30 rupees per person. We drove back from the bus station by bus 350/2. Price 30 rupees to the hotel. There is a large supermarket nearby with a KFC sign, the prices are not cheap.
You can walk to the turtle farm, a little further than the German restaurant, the entrance is 500 rupees and we couldn’t bargain, so we didn’t go there. But everything looked rather poor. .
The same goes for a trip to the lake. Walk 1-2 km but in the opposite direction from Galle. There is a boat sailing on the river. They say that sometimes you can see a crocodile. They are small and hide all the time.
There is a bird garden near the lake, but we did not really understand where it was.
Local population
Here the feeling is twofold. But you shouldn't trust anyone at all. No matter how they tell you that you are friends, etc. , they will still breed for money. We went into areas where there are no white people at all. The attitude was neutral, well, they looked secretly ...I did not feel any danger.
The biggest breeders and unpleasant types are tuk-tukers. You shouldn't talk to them at all if you don't have to go somewhere.
They call some space prices of 500 + rupees for a trip not far in 1 direction. Yes, keep in mind, if you ask a tuk-tuker to take you somewhere for shopping, he will take you to where he has a percentage and will already have something, so he can take you and generally for free.
Way home
As always, check-out is at 12:00. The bags were put into the luggage room. At the reception, you can ask to weigh it. Our flight was at 01:40. We sat in the lobby until 18.30, then we took a small air-conditioned bus to the airport. About 10 were there. I must say that the control system there is different from those that I saw earlier. At the entrance to the airport, a light search and bags through a metal detector. Then exchangers and a large hall with toilets. You can wear warm clothes there (this is important, it’s not hot on the plane, and it’s even cold at Dubai airport). Then more serious control and check in. Then duty free and 1 more control when entering the gate. We waited for about 4 hours at the transfer.
Upon arrival in Kyiv from the plane, we were immediately dropped off at the airport (without a bus), which is important, since we were poorly dressed.
Sri Lanka is an island nation with a population of about 21 million. person, religion, mainly Buddhism. The climate is tropical, from October to April the weather is good, sunny, short-term rains are possible. The rest of the time it rains all day and it gets dark much earlier. By the way, daylight hours here are 12 hours (approximately from 0.30 to 1.00). Time difference with Ukraine +3.5 hours.
An important factor is that the first and last day you spend on the road. We, for example, the road in one direction took about a day. Among other things, the second day we spent sleeping. As for the last day, we spent it in the hotel lobby waiting for the bus to pick us up, since check-out from the hotel takes place at 1.00.
Thus, when buying a ticket for 10 days, in reality, you rest for 6-7 days (for some reason, tour operators are silent about this.
Arrival
We flew from Kyiv with FlyDubai with a transfer in the UAE (2.5 hours of waiting).
The tour was ordered from the JoinUp operator, when boarding, our names were not on the list (the reason turned out to be the lack of timely payment for airline tickets). After numerous calls, the situation was resolved and after standing in another queue, we nevertheless boarded the plane. We flew on a Boeing 734, each seat has a built-in screen, paying you can watch movies, BUT it is also possible to charge phones through them via USB, so take cables with you in your hand luggage. They don’t give food or drink on planes, they carried food with them in hand luggage, they bought water at the airport for 1 Euro, they didn’t take water during the transfer, although they had to go through a second personal control. In Dubai, you arrive at terminal 2, so there will be no chic duty free there.
We arrived in Colombo early in the morning. They immediately withdrew money from an ATM at the airport, the exchange rate is 10-11% more profitable than if you change dollars from money changers.
ATMs are “hidden” in the large hall, on the right just before the exit to the city from the airport, in general, in the same place as the exchangers. The weather forecast on the Internet predicted endless rains and thunderstorms for us, although in fact everything turned out to be wrong. It rained several times throughout our stay. We went to the hotel on a small air-conditioned bus, quite comfortable with one stop (3 hours). When boarding the bus, they tried to knock us off a tip for help with luggage (1000 rupees or $ 10). Don't give anything to anyone, it's a scam.
Visa.
The cost of a visa on arrival is $35, but you can also apply for a visa online yourself in this case, the cost will be $30. Confirmation comes after half an hour. There is a separate counter at Colombo airport where visas are sold, upon arrival the whole crowd will rush there, if you paid for the visa online, then you can safely go to the passport control counter, if you have supporting documents, the visa will be put right there.
Hotel
They settled us somewhere at 12, half an hour after arriving at the hotel. Upon arrival, they gave some kind of "yupi". Separately, it is worth mentioning the guy who populates. He will tell you that you will get the best room in the hotel and how he tried for this (the rooms in the hotel are almost all the same, except for 10-15 overlooking the garden). Then he will start asking for money for the temple to some children, do not give anything.
As for the hotel, it is big enough, more than 100 rooms for sure. From the balcony there is a view of the ocean, palm trees, chipmunks who love our seeds very much. It is not very comfortable to live on the first floor, since all the balconies overlook the common beach. There are ants in the room, a couple of times there was a cockroach. Lizards climb the corridors every evening, so it will be more comfortable on the upper floors.
Yes, their sockets are the same as ours, only with one additional connector, as I understand it, so that children do not stick their fingers.
There are tons of videos online on how to get around this. They took the adapter at the reception and did not invent anything.
Everything worked in the room, the only "but" is the high humidity. Things in the room did not dry out, but rather were saturated with moisture (keep this in mind when checking out, as the weight of your things may increase and exceed the limit of 20kg. )
Food
I'll start with breakfast, which was included in the price of the tour. You can eat, but no pleasure. Besides, every day is the same. A lot of spicy food, which the body refuses to perceive in a day or two. Of the fruits, only papaya was normal, everything else was green and not for everyone. They did not give any really exotic fruits, we bought them in a shop on Unavantuna (a village 7 km from the hotel)
The hotel also has an a la carte restaurant. It's quiet horror. The prices are outrageous, the food is disgusting.
In order not to write for a long time, mushroom cream soup, costing about $ 5, turned out to be made from a package ala "knor"
Cafe "Sea food" is located 100 meters from the hotel on the right (if you stand with your back to the exit). Prices are reasonable, although we found cheaper, it all depends on the distance, quite tasty. For example, in the cafe of the same name at a distance of 1.5 km from the hotel, prices were already 1.5 times lower. Despite the same name, the dishes can differ as you like. In “Sea food” there are waiters who speak a little bit Russian, you can arrange excursions.
On the other side of ”Sea food” there is a cafe, whose name, unfortunately, I don’t remember, 300 meters from the hotel along the beach (landmark plane). I've only been there once, on the first day. I ordered rice with seafood for 1000 rupees, I didn’t like it and stopped going there, although the prices there are probably quite cheap.
Further down the beach (1000 meters) is a German restaurant. The food is not bad, the prices may be a little more expensive, all of them are focused on the Germans.
Bathing
To begin with, we have never seen our guide (name Igor) during our entire stay, and not because we did not want to or could not. It is probably strange why I am writing about this here, but it will become clearer later.
The beach is located right next to the hotel, the waves are constant, if you notice a red flag on the shore, this means swimming is prohibited. We learned about the meaning of the red flag much later. So, take it as seriously as possible, swimming is VERY DANGEROUS, people die every year. Do not come close to the line where the waves are formed, and even more so do not swim over it. This is the ocean, a terrible force that simply does not notice a person in its enormous power.
To the left of the beach, if you stand with your back to the hotel, there is a small bay, hidden behind the reefs from the waves, where children can swim safely.
You can still swim in Unavantuna, the water there is calm, deep enough and you can swim comfortably and swing on small waves.
There is also Jungle Beach, but I have not been there, it is a little further from Unavantuna.
Tours
Upon arrival at the hotel, we were given an envelope with a brief description of the excursions. Here, choose what you want. Local excursions are cheaper, though don't be fooled into thinking that the quality is the same. Most of the population does not speak Russian and knows only a couple of words in English, so they will explain themselves and lead the tour at best on their fingers.
There is a sightseeing tour with a stop in Galle, a turtle farm, a spice garden, etc. As for me, a scam for dollars. In Galle, we got on the 350 bus, right from the hotel (stop 20-30 meters on the same side of the road as the hotel, since they have a different traffic than ours) for 20-30 rupees per person. We drove back from the bus station by bus 350/2. Price 30 rupees to the hotel. There is a large supermarket nearby with a KFC sign, the prices are not cheap.
You can walk to the turtle farm, a little further than the German restaurant, the entrance is 500 rupees and we couldn’t bargain, so we didn’t go there. But everything looked rather poor. .
The same goes for a trip to the lake. Walk 1-2 km but in the opposite direction from Galle. There is a boat sailing on the river. They say that sometimes you can see a crocodile. They are small and hide all the time.
There is a bird garden near the lake, but we did not really understand where it was.
Local population
Here the feeling is twofold. But you shouldn't trust anyone at all. No matter how they tell you that you are friends, etc. , they will still breed for money. We went into areas where there are no white people at all. The attitude was neutral, well, they looked secretly ...I did not feel any danger.
The biggest breeders and unpleasant types are tuk-tukers. You shouldn't talk to them at all if you don't have to go somewhere.
They call some space prices of 500 + rupees for a trip not far in 1 direction. Yes, keep in mind, if you ask a tuk-tuker to take you somewhere for shopping, he will take you to where he has a percentage and will already have something, so he can take you and generally for free.
Way home
As always, check-out is at 12:00. The bags were put into the luggage room. At the reception, you can ask to weigh it. Our flight was at 01:40. We sat in the lobby until 18.30, then we took a small air-conditioned bus to the airport. About 10 were there. I must say that the control system there is different from those that I saw earlier. At the entrance to the airport, a light search and bags through a metal detector. Then exchangers and a large hall with toilets. You can wear warm clothes there (this is important, it’s not hot on the plane, and it’s even cold at Dubai airport). Then more serious control and check in. Then duty free and 1 more control when entering the gate. We waited for about 4 hours at the transfer.
Upon arrival in Kyiv from the plane, we were immediately dropped off at the airport (without a bus), which is important, since we were poorly dressed.
Translated automatically from Russian. View original
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