Sri Lanka has some of the best hotels in Asia, but many of the ones most worth staying in are small and easy to miss.
Your first night might be in a six-bedroom house by a lake, 45 minutes from the airport, so you can recover from the flight somewhere calm. Later, you could wake in a tea planter’s bungalow above Castlereagh Reservoir, in a tented camp on the edge of Yala, or in a thatched hut in sixty acres of forest at the foot of a rock temple. If you want luxury, Ceylon Tea Trails and Wild Coast Tented Lodge offer it without losing any sense of where you are.
Wherever you stay, you’ll feel welcome, not managed.
Sri Lanka is where ETG began, so your consultant can draw on more than twenty years of knowing these hotels. They’ll choose the ones that suit what you want to get out of the trip, and tell you why each one is there. These are the hotels you’ll remember long after you’re home, for all the right reasons.
Boutique Hotels
Most of our Sri Lanka trips stay in hotels like these. They’re built in the local style, from converted tea planters’ bungalows to restored manor houses (or walawwa in Sinhala). Most have fewer than 20 rooms, so you’re looked after personally, with Sri Lankan warmth, rather than hotel-school slickness.
Family-Friendly Hotels
Sri Lanka has a brilliant range of family hotels, from jungle hideaways to beachfront retreats. We look for rooms that connect properly, a pool to splash about in safely, or simply plenty to do.
Villas & Hideaways
Travelling with friends or extended family? Take over a Sri Lankan villa at least once. They come fully staffed with a dedicated chef and housekeeping team, yet retain a down-to-earth, family-run feel. Often more cost-effective than booking several hotel rooms, they offer the space and freedom of your own private home.
Luxury Hotels
This is our pick of Sri Lanka’s best deluxe and luxury hotels, and each one has to be pretty special to make the list. Spend your whole holiday in them, or upgrade to one for a treat. It’s entirely up to you.
Eco & Unique Hotels
Over the past few years, more and more hotels have started to offer a genuine commitment to sustainability. These unique properties won’t be for everyone, but they are a fantastic option for those looking to explore some of Sri Lanka’s most wild and remote settings.
