Knuckles Forest Reserve Vacations from $473

Decent quality 3 star hotel on negombo seafront. Nice garden facing the beach and great views of sunsets. Guests were a mixed crowd of locals and foreign tourists. Check in process was slow and inefficient. Staff seemed to struggle to process a group booking ahead of us and told us to wait. This took more than half hour. The older lady who showed us to our room incorrectly told us that there was no room service. Her younger male colleague confirmed there was room service and said he was frustrated with this older ladies capability to do her job. We struggled on our first night as the air con didn't work. The maintenance staff struggled to fix the issue and we had to be moved. Many of the sockets were not to the current Sri Lankan /UK standard. In other words they were the 3 round pin sockets.. Buffet on the saturday was very good and wide ranging. Sunday was a lot worse, we think it may have been cos there were less guests All in all a mixed bag but the staff are reasonably friendly, garden is nice. Rooms need updating but compared to some so called 4 star rival hotels i would say this place is decent value for money.

We had a great 3-night stay at Coast 67. The most stunning setting, overlooking the sea and the fairly private beach (there are only a handful of hotels that have access to this beach, so there are no local sellers or other tourists). Being able to walk from the pool, to the sunbeds, to the sand and the sea in just a couple of minutes is bliss. The food was delicious, plus the dining staff were really friendly and warm. The breakfasts are healthy (albeit western focused, rather than sri Lankan), and the lunches tasty too. Reasonably well priced for a hotel. Also, would HIGHLY recommend walking to local cooperative Cafe Veda for dinner - 2000 rupees (£5) for an authentic dinner with friendly staff and calming atmosphere. We went twice in our 3 night stay. The hotel was always very clean, but there are a couple of teething issues: cleaning is every 2 days (which isn't a problem, but worth considering) and there were a couple of power outages (only a few minutes, so no problem either) and the showers stopped working one afternoon/evening. Plus, there are construction works on the road and at the next door beach club, so lots of noise during the day (November 2025). It wasn't a bother though, as the sounds of the ocean are beautiful - especially at night.

Fabulous room, very tastefully appointed, with a huge bed and good size en-suite shower room. The staff are, without exception, friendly helpful and obliging. The architecture is unusual, attractive and interesting, with a little bit of a safari lodge feel to it. The villa is a little bit remote but there is easy access to local facilities via taxi, or Tuk Tuk. Our only slight disappointment was the limited range of choice from the menu available in the evenings and the portions were sometimes less than might be expected. In summary, a fabulous place to relax for a few days among quiet surroundings and you may be lucky to have some interesting wildlife visitors.