Sigiriya
Jetwing Vil Uyana
Dwelling, paddy and water villas
Built on a restored wetland with the rock visible from the paddy villas.
Where to stay
Three tiers, and the properties behind them
Every price on this site is quoted at a tier rather than a star rating, because a four-star in Colombo and a four-star in Ella are not the same animal. Here is what each one actually buys.
The tiersWhat the number
What the number
on a tour means
Quoted per person for two sharing, across the whole journey. Mixing tiers is normal — most people take the top one for two nights and the middle one for the rest.
Standard
$1,180
from, per person, ten nights
Clean, well-run guesthouses and three-star hotels, always with a pool in the dry zone.
Comfort
$1,460
from, per person, ten nights
Four-star hotels and a colonial planter's bungalow in the hills.
Boutique
$1,890
from, per person, ten nights
Design hotels, a fort villa in Galle and a tented camp at Yala.
Luxury
The ones worth two nights of the budget
Kandy
The Kandy House
Nine rooms in an 1804 manor
A walauwa above the paddy fields, twenty minutes from the Temple of the Tooth.
Hatton
Ceylon Tea Trails
Five restored planter bungalows
Relais and Chateaux, a butler to each bungalow, and the best lake walking in the hills.
Yala
Wild Coast Tented Lodge
Cocoon tents on the park boundary
Bamboo-framed tents between the jungle and an empty beach, at the Yala gate.
South coast
Cape Weligama
Cliff-top villas
Forty acres above the Indian Ocean, and the closest good base for whale season.
Galle Fort
Amangalla
A 1684 building inside the ramparts
The old New Oriental Hotel, restored. You are staying inside the monument.
Comfort
Four-star, reliably, with a pool in the dry zone
Sigiriya
Water Garden Sigiriya
Villas around a spring-fed lake
Every villa has the rock framed from its own plunge pool.
Kandy
Theva Residency
Fourteen rooms on the Hantana ridge
Above the mist line, with the whole valley from the infinity pool.
Yala
Cinnamon Wild Yala
Chalets inside the buffer zone
Simple, well run, and elephants walk through the property most evenings.
Galle Fort
Fort Bazaar
Eighteen rooms around a courtyard
A merchant townhouse two streets from the lighthouse, and the best breakfast in the fort.
Standard
Well run, spotless, and not pretending to be more
Ella
98 Acres Resort
Chalets on a working tea estate
Terraced into the hillside with Little Adam's Peak straight ahead.
Mirissa
Ubuntu Beach Villas
Rooms and villas a lane from the sand
Family run, spotless, and ninety seconds from the whale boats.
A note on what is listed
These are examples, not the full contracted list, and availability moves constantly. If you have somewhere specific in mind, name it — we will tell you honestly whether it is worth the money in the month you are travelling.