A total contrast to the other hotels we stayed in in Sri Lanka, which were all small boutique places with only a handful of other guests (if any!). Kandalama is vast, and the frequent disgorging of tour parties into the restaurant etc, plus the cavernous but soulless public areas and mild chaos of cabs, coaches and cases at the entrance ‘tunnel’, did make it feel more like an airport than hotel at times.
That aside, the setting is lovely, the views special and features like the jacuzzi with balcony views and scampering monkeys nice. As a base for the Cultural Triangle, it does fine, and once you’ve secluded yourself in your room it is peaceful and pleasant enough. Food seemed reasonable quality, though the buffet lunch we had after first arriving from the airport turned out to be extremely expensive in comparison to the rest of our holiday.
A minor quibble, but there’s a culture of ‘over-service’ which some might be happy with but which kind of grated on us. For example, on our way back to our room, we stopped at the bar for a couple of beers, which we thought we’d take up to our balcony for sunset. No chance. You HAVE to have things brought to you in an obsequious manner, the idea that you might like to just buy a drink is impossible. So, despite asking several times, we ended having to walk away from the bar empty-handed, go up to our room, and dutifully wait 20 minutes for Room Service to deliver the very same beers we’d been looking at – and feel pressured to be grateful, offer a tip etc for the whole farce. All a bit pointless and unsettling – I don’t need to mollycoddled to the point of being made to feel incapable. It bugs me when a hotel thinks that this kind of service represents ‘luxury’, when in fact actually just cheerfully doing what your guests want works much better. Still, we got our own back the next day by buying beers in a local supermarket for about a sixth of the hotel’s price and smuggling them into our room – anarchy or what.
