I had agonised over a choice of hotel after reading all the TripAdvisor reports on hotels in Kandy. The Mahaweli Reach seemed to be by a narrow margin the better choice. I understand why - the hotel is of a reasonable standard, although the rooms are just about ready for a remodel. The rooms were large, the bathrooms showed their age - grouting in a poor state - mainly clean but not spotless. The food at dinner fair, breakfast was better. The service inconsistent. The grounds were pleasant overlooking the river. We were given an early morning wake-up call by the troup of monkeys raiding the bouganvilla flowers on the balcony - glad the door was closed.

Overall, one of those experinces that you can't say was great - nor was it bad. A pass - an ok experience.

As a hotel, just about average, I would say. Two big faults : there is only one elevator for the whole hotel, and secondly (unbelievably) there are just 9, yes 9 recliners at the pool. No mattresses, and the towels supplied are worn and ragged. To add insult to injury, you are expected to sign for them! Do they think we are going to steal them???

This hotel was absolutly awful.
The place was old and falling apart and i could not believe it was a five star hotel- what a joke.

The room we were given had dirt all over the walls, none of the furniture matched and was all broken.
When i pulled open the chest of drawers by my bed the door fell off. The dressing table had watermarks from glasses stained all over it.
We were a honeymoon couple and we had two beds pushed together!

The rug in the bedroom had stains all over it. The bathroom door had black tape holding it together. There was mould all over the bathroom.

The plug sockets were missing of the tv and lamps and instead the wires poked directly into the wall!

I decided to console myself and get a beauty treatment as the advertisment on the reception made it look like a wonderful spa, when i found the "spa" it was literally a white tiled room with a bed in it, resembling more a cell then a spa!

The food was absolutly disgusting, and for my breakfast in the morning i couldn't even bring myself to eat it, it just looked awful.

We were suppossed to stay here for two nights as part of our ceylone north tour. The next day our fantastic rep sorted us out with another hotel up the road called the citidel. This hotel was lovely.

We had booked our honeymoon through Kuoni, they said that they had many complaints about this hotel and that our complaint was the final straw, and that they would not be sending any of their customers there again. i just hope this is true!!

Stopped for two nights as part of our tour of Sri Lanka to take in Kandy and the elephant orphanage at Pinnewala.

We were allocated a riverside room in the annex which was quite large and functional but in need of a refurb as was the hotel itself. The food was pretty standard buffet fare with both European and Local dishes for dinner and breakfast. On our last day breakfast was a la carte and was unexpectedly very good. They do have a large pool and a games room (full size snooker table) behind the bar and a spa. Like most of the residents we were only passing through so didn’t have enough time to partake of the facilities

We did the trip to Pinnewala, which was one of the highlights of our tour and should not be missed although most of the action revolves around the river in the morning and afternoon bathing sessions where you can sit in the comfort of one of the restaurants and just watch the elephants relaxing, bathing and doing what elephants do for as long as you like. They parade back to the orphanage for a couple of hours between bathing sessions where you can also visit. We were lucky and also had a go feeding the baby elephants.

Kandy was also a bit more of a vibrant city but the hotel is too far out to make trips into town viable. We visited the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic which is worth a visit and also took in the cultural show next door. We also visited one of the tea factories locally which again is quite interesting and if nothing else you get a decent cup of tea.

The view of the river from the room always provided something different from the cloud of fruit bats at dusk flying within touching distance and multiplied by their reflection in the water to the odd dead animal floating past after a rain storm.

Not recommended for a long holiday but OK for a short overnight stay.