Kate & Carl
England, November/December 2025
First visit to Sri Lanka, always wanted to go and finally had time now we’ve both retired.
Heard about Tikalanka through a friend, and have already recommended you to other friends.
We are recommending [Sri Lanka] as a destination to everyone we talk to and would like to go back to see the parts we couldn’t get to this time as well as the north, probably in about 2-3 years time.
Apart from the cyclone we liked just about everything, so it’s hard to say what was best. Clearly the weather was the thing we liked least.
With the accommodation, it’s only fair to say that our experience in Sigiriya and Kandy was heavily impacted by the storm but here’s what we thought:
Horathapola [Estate, Wadumunnegedera] – fantastic experience to start the holiday. It was probably the most heartfelt, intuitive service we had on the whole trip and the food was incredible. We also loved our room and the pool. Not ideal driving there in the middle of the night, but that’s our fault for choosing such a late flight.
Water Gardens Sigiriya [Sigiriya] – amazing room and setting. We couldn’t really enjoy the pool but Netflix and a comfy sofa were a godsend in the rain! We thought the service was disappointing though and really didn’t match the price point or quality of the surroundings. The butler made the right noises but wasn’t very efficient and there was no proactivity. The restaurant service was more successful because it was being managed by the chef. My overall observation is that it needs better management and we wouldn’t go back.
Adigar’s Manor [Kandy] – fantastic food and service here, although at USD60 per person we thought dinner was very expensive. Normally I guess we wouldn’t have noticed so much because we’d have eaten at least once in town, but clearly we couldn’t this time. The rooms are very comfortable and we could quite see that in good weather, we’d have loved the garden and pool.
Fort Bazaar [Galle] – we really enjoyed this, and not just because the sun was shining. The staff were lovely and it had a real buzz, which we very much wanted by this point.
Kumu Beach [Balapitiya] – best room of the whole trip and we loved the setting, although it will be interesting to see how it changes if the high rise hotel next door gets finished. Service was a little less on point than Fort Bazaar but was very friendly nevertheless and we very much enjoyed our stay.
Nihal was very kind, professional and knowledgeable and we always felt safe with him. In hindsight, I think we could have had a clearer conversation with him about what we did and didn’t want to do. For example, the lunch we had on the way back from Polunnawara [Polonnaruwa] felt quite touristy and we would have liked to go somewhere more local but that’s as much about us as it is about him.
Flights – we were enormously impressed by UL [SriLankan Airlines] business class both in and out of CMB [Colombo]. And the airport and immigration were very efficient, in some contrast to Mumbai! [Arranged their own flights]
We didn’t buy much, just some spices, tea, SL cricket shirts and some small wooden trinkets as Christmas gifts.
Otherwise, thank you for making sure we were looked after in the storm.
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