We adored this hotel. Absolutely loved it. It was recommended by my old boss and he was chuffed when we came home and told him just how much we enjoyed staying there. He says that based on our description, it really hasn't changed much since he stayed there a few decades ago. Old world charm at its best. The room was amazing, and absolutely huge both times even though we had a suite one time and a normal superiour room the other time. Actually the second room, the superiour one might even have been bigger. It was larger than our entire flat in Nice! The Galle Face Hotel is where the term "sunsetting" was invented. You go to the Veranda bar, look over the sea at the sun setting and have a nice cocktail.
We spent quite a lot of time in the Bentota area as our friends got married in Induruwa and my 30th birthday was a couple of days earlier so we decided to celebrate it by the beach in style :-) we booked a lovely place on the river in Aluthgama and settled in for a few days. We walked over to Bentota and went to the beach there for a wander also as they are very close by. Here is the sunsetting over the Bentota Ganga, from the Aluthgama side.
We then moved down to Induruwa for the wedding. Amazing long empty beaches. Just beautiful. We stayed at Sri Vilas - 3 connected villas with a shared pool, right on the beach. Just a gorgeous place for a wedding. There were the most amazing sunsets from the villas. I got up in the morning to check out the beach and had the lovely surprise of the fishermen being busy at work.
When we were in Sri Lanka, we spent a few nights in Kandy up in the centre of Sri Lanka. Very chilled and laid back place. Centred around the Kandy Lake. Monkeys roaming around and all sorts of birds. Visited the Relic Temple which was also lovely. Really worth a visit is the Colonial / English Graveyard up behind the temple.
After the wedding excitement, we went to chill out further down south. We decided to stay in the beach town of Unawatuna. G and I stayed at a homestay which was lovely, with monkeys and peacocks in the trees in the garden.
So relaxing, so serene. We did it every night and recommend doing it even if you aren't staying there, you don't have to be guest. Funnily enough, the reason we were in Sri Lanka was for a wedding and the first night we were in the Galle Face we bumped into the bride and groom by utter chance!
By this time my family had joined me in Sri Lanka and were staying at the Wunderbar Beach Club Hotel in Bentota. We went and spent an afternoon with them there. Nice waterfront place at a spot where the beach is very deep. They have a turtle hatchery attached! So you get to see baby turtles! Turtles are endangered in Sri Lanka as the eggs are a local delicacy in an omelette (and any way, a tiny percentage of the laid eggs make it to the sea as it is naturally).
So there are various hatcheries and organisations helping out by buying the eggs at above market price and helping regenerate the turtle population. Super cute little turtles that you can even play with (though we felt that would be mean). The chicken curry at the Wunderbar was very very good. We had it "local" spicy and it was mindblowing. Couldn't finish it. Had to call in the back up, got my teenage brother to help out. He had one bite and asked if he could have a drink :-) Yummy!
We stayed in the Galle Face Hotel but also in the Galadari hotel, on the other end of the Galle Face Green. It also had a lovely view. Even on a cloudy day. Straight over to the ocean. Love the palm trees reflected in the pond / water: When staying in the Galle Face Hotel we popped to the Galle Face Green next door to catch a lovely sunset over the Indian Ocean like most of Colombo.
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