I live in Sri Lanka and, therefore, have an opportunity to visit many hotels (usually on the week-end). This week-end I took my local family to Kani Lanka for the day.

I like swimming and took the togs along intending to get changed there. That was ruled out as the hotel wanted to charge me £20 to hire a room for the afternoon. Strange that they have a free changing room for the pool.

At the pool side I asked for a tomato jiuce. Sorry, we don't have any. I asked for a King Coconut. Sorry, we don't have any. Anything expensive? Oh yes sir, lots.

The buffet was disgusting. Roast Lamb that I could have soled my shoes with and no gravy. Oh, I could have had mushroom gravy if I wanted.

I agree withy many of the previous posters that service is not existant and, sadly, like many other establishments here, they simply want the money.

There are many hotels in this country who genuinely want to serve their customers and make them feel welcome.

This is not one of them.

My wife and I were visiting Sri Lanka for the first time and choose the Kani Lanka resort through First Chioce because of its execellent write up in the brochure and its fit to our requirements.

The coach drive from the Airport to the Hotel was interesting and took over three hours!

On our journey we were kept awake by the First Choice rep who made it clear that we were to book any excursions through him and not the beach boys. He told everyone on the coach horror stories of previous holiday guests that had gone with the beach boys. Due to this we booked an overnight excursion with the First Choice rep...this was our first big mistake, i'll explain more a little later!

When we finally arrived at the hotel we were greeted by staff and the lobby scene from the brochure...i have to say this is probably the first and last picture that resembled the brochure. The picture of the lovely modern dining room in the brochure did exist but was only used on a few occasions while we were their. All meals are eaten in a much less glamerous room above the modern dining room, i have no idea why!

We were all ushered to our rooms on arrival, we paid a supplement when we booked the holiday to upgrade to a superior room which meant we got a lagoon or beach view. This is a con, all rooms have either a lagoon or beach view! We were very dissapointed with the size of the room, cleanliness and general quality of the room. Damp patches on the walls, plug sockets hanging off the walls, lights that didn't work, stained bedding, filthy toilet and shower. It goes without saying that this is no where near a 4 star hotel. I rate this as a 2 star hotel, i have stayed in cleaner and better equiped hostels.

The evening entertainment was niether cultural or interesting. i felt like Simon Cowell on the X factor as it really was that bad. Generally the entertainment was a sole guitarist trying to sing old english songs badly.

As for pool side entertainment...for the first two days after we arrived there was nothing...then out of the blue on our third day an entertainment guy turned up who was excellent at getting people up for aerobics, pool volleyball, darts but this was generally only for a couple of hours a day. Bear in mind you get no entertainment at all on Wednesdays & Thursdays as these are his days off.

one last thing to say about the pool...on saturday and sundays the pool is packed out with local Sri Lankans which we were only told about on our arrival. The locals are treated like gods by the Hotel staff and you are made to feel very second class. You also notice that the standards in the Hotel rise at the weekend when the locals are around.

On several occasions we were reffered to as the foreigners by the locals who speak very good english, i agree we are foreigners...but should it be thrown in your face all the time when on holiday...perhaps not!

The food was fantastic, my wife is a vegetarian and she had no complaints. If you enjoy curries you will be in heaven especially the one labelled "Hot", try it!

Please don't forget that everyone you meet in Sri Lanka wants money / a tip. We had a guy who cleaned our room on a daily basis, unfortunatly the day before we left he had a day off and we were unsure if we would see him again before we left, so we left money in an envelope for him with reception. The guy who stood in for him on his day off literally pinned me in the room by putting a hand on each side of the door and not allowing me out of the room until he had made it quite clear i should be giving him money for the days he was cleaning the room. Needles to say i gave him nothing, we later saw the guy who had cleaned our room all holiday and put the cash in his hand.

Now a quick word about the excursions...don't use First Chioce for your excursions, the beach boys are great and much cheeper. We made the mistake of booking with First Chioce and felt completed cheeted at the end of it. We booked an overnight excursion where we were supposed to stay in a five star hotel called the Cittadel in Kandy surrounded by lovely tea plantation. What we actually got was a shabby hotel in the centre of Kandy right next to a shanti town rubbish dump with people rumaging throught the rubbish to feed themselves. Please note that you will make lots of stops not on the agenda which are to line the pockets of the tour guide as they get commission for taking you into the shops. I didn't mind so much at the start of the journey, but when you end up taking a detour that takes five hours rather than the planned 2 hour trip home just to go into yet another wood carving shop or jewel shop it starts to wear thin.

I hope this has given you a better insight into this hotel.

Believe it or not we never complain about our holidays as they have always been fantastic with First Choice, but felt on this occasion you needed to know the truth about a very bad Hotel.

Remember that alot of people who write these reports are on honeymoon or getting married at the hotel which i sometimes think is blinding there judgement!

The Kani Lanka is approx 2 1/2 hours from Columbo Airport. The resort is as described having a relaxing spa appearance and atmosphere. It is a few minutes from the nearest town Kalutara. We had a wonderful time so dont be put off by what follows, i must be critical as these are the sort of things you will want to know.

Rooms:- We had a superior room which had a lovely view over the Indian Ocean. The decoration was very nice but it was lacking in a few areas. The bed was 2 singles pushed together with seperate linen for each (from speaking to others this was common throughout). There was aircon, TV/DVD and a reasonable amount of storage space. There was a shower but no bath, and no table or chairs.

Restaurants:- There was a main buffet restaurant with a reasonable selection of international dishes. There were however no a la carte restaurants so it was self service all of the time which was dissapointing considering there are usually 3 at most places we have been.

Pool:- The pool was great overlooking the beach and sea. It was a good size with plenty of sun loungers. Mats for the loungers and towels were put out by the friendly pool staff.

Spa:- Very good treatments but well overpriced. Expect to pay UK prices.

Staff:- The staff were friendly but were not willing to go the extra mile as we have found on previous holidays. It was near impossible to get somebody to regularly serve drinks at your table or by the poolside even with tipping. They were polite and friendly though.

Trips:- There are lots of interesting things to see in Sri Lanka and most are within a reasonable travelling distance. We visting various temples, elephant orphanage and sanctuary (including riding and washing elephants), tea plantations, turtle hatchery, waterfalls, and evening traditional dancing. You can either go with the rep or with the 'beach boys' who are cheaper, expecially if you go with others. The problem with the beach boys is that once you have spoken to them once, they wont leave you alone and are constantly waving to you from outside the resort when you are trying to relax next to the pool which gets irritating after a while. However, they are friendly and safe to travel with and provide a good standard of accomodation on overnight stops.

Overall everything was very nice looking at the Kani Lanka but lacked the atmosphere and facilities of everywhere I have visited in the past. Not worthy of its 4* label.

The previous reviews describe very well the feeling of arriving at th hotel and finding an oasis of relaxation. The people couldn't have been nicer and the hotel was well appointed and clean. The humidity was very high, simply because of where it is (it's also the rainy season, so some rain each day) but air conditioning was effective and they tried hard to eliminate mosquitos.
Food was fantastic. While we were there some of the guests were unwell and felt it was the food but four of us all ate different choices and were completely well so it may be these guests were unfortunate in catching a bug. There was a choice of spicy, mild or European food at all times. The fruit was really good. The only criticism was that the waiters were over-efficient, which is irritating if you don't like hovering.
The tours all seemed to be rather long days out, so we did only one two-day trip (it's the roads that make it slow, but also very entertaining). However we asked for a bespoke trip one day to do some shopping and also go to a Turtle reserve, where we released baby turtles into the sea. They arranged this trip for the 4 of us for just £10 each in a good mini-van with a guide for the day (as long as we wanted). We also took a lovely boat trip around the lagoon on which the hotel sits, from their boat-house. The guide was very knowledgeable and quick in spotting all the wildlife.
Weddings were pretty, but very low key, so it depends what you are looking for.
The spa is gorgeous (my daughter and I went three times) and very good value for money.