MAHAGEDARA WELLNESS RETREAT $72 ($̶8̶7̶) - Updated 2019 Prices & Cottage Reviews - Sigiriya, Sri Lanka

About

4.5

Excellent

41 reviews

Location

Cleanliness

Service

Value

Certificate of Excellence

Treat yourself to an unfathomable wellness experience carefully crafted to give you the best of nature, wildlife & ultimate personal experience including Ayurveda spa, detox treatments, relaxing & pampering and consciousness access through yoga, meditation and fitness exercises which connects your mind, body and soul

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Property amenities

Free parking

Free High Speed Internet (WiFi)

Pool

Fitness Center with Gym / Workout Room

Free breakfast

Bicycle rental

Hiking

Babysitting

Free internet

Wifi

Internet

Outdoor pool

Restaurant

Breakfast in the room

Special diet menus

Pets Allowed ( Dog / Pet Friendly )

Airport transportation

Car hire

Fax / photocopying

Spa

Hammam

Hot spring bath

Massage

Newspaper

Non-smoking hotel

Shared kitchen

Express check-in / check-out

Private check-in / check-out

Dry cleaning

Laundry service

Ironing service

Room features

Air conditioning

Housekeeping

Room types

Suites

Family rooms

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Good to know

HOTEL CLASS

HOTEL STYLE

Romantic

Quaint

Location

Full view

Contact

No. 100 Gedigaswalana, Sigiriya 21120 Sri Lanka

Getting there

Sigiriya Air Force Base Airport3 miSee all flights

Polgolla Reservoir Airport47 miSee all flights

Rental CarsSee all Sigiriya rental cars

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Nearby restaurants

Ran rasa Seafood Restaurant

Sigiriya wew Thawulla Restaurant

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Magic Food Restaurant Habarana

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Nearby attractions

Pidurangala Rock

2,297 reviews

2.4 miPoints of Interest & Landmarks

Dhilip De Alwis

41 reviews

3.1 miNature & Wildlife Areas

Hurulu Eco Park

321 reviews

4.3 miNature & Wildlife Areas

Sigiriya The Ancient Rock Fortress

35 reviews

3 miAncient Ruins

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41Reviews0Q+A3Room tips

+1

Traumatic Experience

It’s taken me almost a year to write this review, to find the right words to describe this stay and to get past the horrible experience I had here. The property is a wellness retreat, and definitely appeals most to people who want to be in nature and unplug. It had a decent (although very cold) pool and the food they served was authentic Sri Lankan cuisine. They offer massages (though that was a very weird experience where they had you get fully naked and they spent a lot of time massaging my face which I didn’t like). On the surface, it is a lush property, with pretty greenery, but there are some extremely fundamental issues. I didn’t choose this hotel but it was part of a prearranged itinerary for a group trip I went on (along with my boyfriend). We were greeted with fresh coconuts with metal straws. That was a lovely welcome, but then it was all extremely and promptly downhill from there. When we arrived at the front desk, my boyfriend and I asked for a room with one bed we could share instead of a room with two beds. They told us we could have the “family room” which was “in nature.” They boasted about how the room was right by the rice paddies and that we might be able to see wild peacocks (which we never did). They also said it was “the only room there with an outdoor shower.” Let me tell you about this... To be clear, that’s not true...it’s just the only room there with ONLY an outdoor shower. There was at least one other room someone else on our tour stayed in that had both an inside and outside shower. Shower is a loose term for it too... it was basically an unkempt jagged half-circle stone, filled with dirt and twigs that barely drained with a hose up top. There was also no privacy in that outside shower/backyard area. We could see other guests and other people on our tour confirmed that they could see us showering. I got bitten up by bugs while in the shower. We had to shower in the room of another person on our trip out of sheer desperation. (Their room was fine by the way! A huge indoor shower, tons of AC and light). Our AC also wasn’t working. It would shut off every 10 minutes. It was unbearable at night. I woke up constantly sweating and overheating. Putting aside the awful shower situation and the broken AC, our room was INFESTED with bugs. Look, I understand that we are in the jungle and I expect a few bugs...but this was unheard of. There were lizards, spiders, mosquitos, beetles, and an entire colony of ants crawling everywhere. It was disgusting. I could barely sleep at night for fear of it. Whenever I needed to go to the bathroom at night I had to wake my boyfriend to take me because I was terrified. The worst part about the bugs — after seeing them I spoke to the manager and told him about the issue. I asked if they had any bug nets we could use to at least protect the bed, to which he replied “oh no there are no bugs here.” I said “no there are definitely bugs.” He said, “well there are no mosquitos.” I said, “no there are, I have bites all over my body.” To which he had THE NERVE to say “well, it’s their home too.” I’m sorry, but are the bugs paying to stay here???! (Literally the second I stepped outside my room I was attacked by mosquitos and bug spray didn’t help). I said we really needed to switch rooms and he said of course, no problem, he would give us the best room in the place to make up for the trouble....but it wouldn’t be ready until the following day, so we would have to spend that first night in the original room. He said he would come spray to try and get rid of the bugs, which they did. The bugs didn’t leave. The next morning we followed up to ask about the new room and he said they were still getting it ready. That night, we went to him again to follow up and he said...I’m sorry, there’s no other room. It’s under construction and isn’t suitable for people. Then why promise us the night before?? Why lie that morning?! The room we had wasn’t suitable either. We had to stay there for 3 nights and honestly it was traumatic. I still shudder when I think of it. The room was dark and like a prison cell. It didn’t have real windows - a small window without glass (you had to open the wooden doors, to let any light in, which also let more bugs in). To get from the main area/dining area to any of your rooms (or from one room to another) it’s recommended to call for an escort to guide the way. If you choose to go on your own, you must have a strong flashlight. The paths are pitch black dark and treacherous. We almost fell into the rice paddies several times. It’s very hard to navigate the property which made us feel trapped on our G-D awful room. Maybe our experience would have been different in another room, but that room was NOT OK to have guests stay in and the manager handled it terribly. I urge people to think twice, or thrice, before staying here.…

Date of stay: November 2018

Cleanliness

Service

Sleep Quality

Beautifully designed retreat in the jungle

If you want to go somewhere that is slightly off the beaten track for some peace and quiet, some fabulous massages and delicious food then Mahagedara is a must. The accomodation is in luxury huts all individually designed. Each hut has a large double bed with ensuite shower rooms and some huts have their own outside shower, or outside tub, and one of the huts has an outside bed for those who want to experience a night in the jungle! Each of the huts is designed to feel totally secluded even though they are all 2-3 minutes walk from the main eating area. The staff are all extremely friendly and the food delicious Sri Lankan food using much of their own home grown produce. We spent 3 days as a group of 8 and did a mixture of relaxing with some treatments, yoga in the morning before breakfast and then a trip to climb Lion's Rock. Lakmali the owner has clearly a passion for making this place a sanctuary and also 10% of proceeds go towards building a school for the local children who at the moment have to walk several kilometres a day to get to school. If you have your own transport then Mahagedara is ideal. Without transport it is a little out of the way. Lakmali can only accept payment by cash at the moment as she is still waiting to get credit card facilities so that is worth checking before you arrive. All in all a really lovely place and we wish Lakmali all the best for the future…

Date of stay: July 2019

Cleanliness

Service

Sleep Quality

Room Tip: If you like the idea of sleeping outside, request that hut

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Dear Juilet, Thank you for taking your time to write a lovely review.

Amazing location inside the jungle

Location is amazing. You are directly into the wild jungle and you can spot a lot of different animals like monkeys, birds, elephant, lemure if you are lucky. Staff is very kind and they will explain you everething about the place and their traditional food. Food is produced directly by them at their properties, no chemical products are added and all is traditional. Amazing place if you love nature, wild and traditional food. If you are close to sigirya rock or pidurangala and you need a place to stay I highly recommend you to spend at least one night here.

Date of stay: April 2019Trip type: Traveled as a couple

Dear Guests, Thank you very much for taking the time to write a review. We really appreciate it. We are so glad you had a wondeful time with us.

It was a bit difficult to find but we called and they explained the way to our driver. Our bungalow was really comfortable. The food was delicious and really different from what we had during the rest of our trip. Nuwan was super friendly, played with our daughter and helped us to organise our day trips (safari, Polonnaruwa, etc). Thanks again for everything!!!

Date of stay: February 2019Trip type: Traveled with family

Dear Guests, Thank you so much for your lovely comments. We loved having you here specially your beautiful daughter although I think her favourite was Nuwan. Thank you for taking the time to write a review for us.

Being pampered in the jungle

We did the 5-day (actually 3 2/3s days since the first day only includes dinner and the last day only breakfast), 4-night Ayurveda program, a blissful experience. Just being at Mahagedara is extremely relaxing but the customized spa treatments (massages, steam baths, sound healing therapy, etc.) included in the package pushed our relaxation to a new high, along with the yoga and meditation. All was not bliss, however. During our 4 weeks in Sri Lanka we had (miraculously?) managed to avoid mosquitoes, but they now caught up with us (in spite of wearing protective clothes and using copious amounts of Incognito). We had dozens of bites, and, what made it worse, was that there was really no place to escape the bugs. The lack of natural light in our room (windows but no glass or screens, meaning that the shutters had to be closed) made it uncomfortable to stay there during the day or evening. All the public areas were open, so no respite. Apparently, we arrived just after the rice harvest, which meant the bugs were worse than usual. There is supposedly a management program in place, but it didn’t seem to be working! I found that, in addition, there was no comfortable furniture or seating area, save in the reception room. The chairs in front of our cabana were straight-backed, the deck loungers had wooden slats but no cushions, and the dining room chairs were straight-backed and made out of tree stumps. There were two hammocks but the one I tried was too much in the sun. But the pluses make it an extraordinary place. The location is perfect for visiting Sigiriya, the food is excellent, but the staff are truly exceptional—wonderful people, who really go out of their way for you. I felt totally pampered!…

Date of stay: March 2019

Value

Cleanliness

Service

Trip type: Traveled as a couple

Dear Marlene, Thank you for taking the time to write a review. We are happy that you had a great time here. We are fortunate that we do not have too many mosquitos compare to the rest of the country but we are sorry that you had this problem. We offer our guests organic citronella oil that usually works. As our rooms are made in the traditional style of a Sri Lankan house we have used woods for doors and windows, we now plan to put mosquito nets over these so our guests can relax in the rooms with the windows open. The rooms are build to block the natural light so our guests can have a good night sleep. In keeping with natural rustic theme, we have rustic chairs in the restuarant and rooms but we do also have 'normal dining chairs'. We have many hammocks which we place in the places the guests requests, this is why there was only two tied. Thank you again for taking the time to write a review.