We travelled in September to Sri Lanka with Mercury Direct.To be quite honest the deal was too good to turn down.£595 for two weeks All Inclusive.Now we do not usually go AI because we much prefer to sample the local restaurants and to get out in the evening but it was all part of the deal and we certainly had our moneys worth at the bar!
Because of its proximity to the airport and what I had read about travel times in Sri Lanka we chose Browns Beach hotel in Negombo.
I have added my review to this and another site.
We has pleasant flights with Emirates but still arrived very tired and did nothing except relax for two days.
The first thing I noticed was there was no beach life as such.No shacks no sunbeds on the beach just the beach sellers standing at the hotel boundary calling to guests to buy their rubbish.
I took a walk along the beach and have to say all the hotels were the same.Negombo beach is certainly not the nicest I have ever seen but I found it odd the Hotels were not making use of it.The sellers were certainly no more persistant than the ones we had seen in Goa.
There were some restaurants and bars outside the hotel but apart from the rodeo bar none of them were that busy and certainly there was a lack of atmosphere.I got the impression a lot of people stayed in the hotel of an evening.
Negombo is not really a tourist town more a working fishing town and we went on some tours of the town with tuk tuk drivers.Very interesting some of the sights were too.
We did a two day trip to Kandy which was interesting but tiring.Every trip in Sri Lanka seems to involve a long car or minibus journey and the roads are very poor.In Kandy we stayed in an amazing hotel The Amaya Hills which I will review if someone adds it to the list.
The Sri Lankan people are very friendly and on the whole seem very well educated.The hotel even had a training room where I saw staff being shown slide shows and working on training manuals.Would not see that in most Goan hotels.Almost everyone speaks English and will want to be your guide for a fee of course.
We spent our last few days lazing around the pool and visiting some local restaurants.
We really enjoyed our time in Sri Lanka and two weeks was nowhere near enough time to see the whole island.
I cannot pretend to be any sort of expert but I went thinking it woud be very like Goa and there are similarities but it is very different.
At least where we were no beach life to talk about and most things seemed to be based around the hotel.Sri Lanka seems to be way ahead of Goa in education and building standards possibly because of the British influence more gets done but I am not sure.
I am finding it really hard to put my finger on it but Sri Lanka seemed a bit more sterile and geared towards organised tours although I am sure lots do it on their own.
For example I could walk out of the hotel and apart from a bit of hassle from tuk tuk drivers the streets were dead.At least outside Browns beach it was.Of course the hotel strip was outside the town but I expected to get that Indian madness that Goa has.
These of course are just my crude observations and I am afraid I have not done a very good job of conveying my thoughts.
Sri Lanka is a lovely country but a week after we got back I hankered for Goa so much we booked a week in November because my OH had a weeks holiday owing something we would not normally do preferring a two week break.
Hope it at least makes some sort of sense.
Papa
Some food for thought for me 
I must have a look at that hotel. If we did go we would try a tour for a few days as well. Did you organise your trip locally?
Is Sri Lankan food similar to Goan? And are the prices similar?
Will add that hotel now
thanks for the report!
edit
hotel added. thanks for the reviews!
I must have a look at that hotel. If we did go we would try a tour for a few days as well. Did you organise your trip locally? Is Sri Lankan food similar to Goan? And are the prices similar?
Will add that hotel now
thanks for the report!
edit
hotel added. thanks for the reviews!
Fiona,
I would not hesitate to reccomend Browns Beach as a base providing you get a beach room.Lots of complaints from guests about standard rooms which I never saw but surely cannot be any worse than some of the Indian ones we have stayed in.
As for the food,as you may expect from a fishing town lots of fish choices but in the hotel of varying quality.As far as the hotel food went they clearly had a budget to meet per guest and I thought for that budget they did their best.
Different people have different standards and I would hate to sound as if I was over criticising what they managed to achieve.Buffet food will always be buffet food and on a couple of nights they really stepped up with live cooking stations our favourites being Mongolian night and Italian night.
Overall I think with what the chefs had to work with they did very well it just did not suit us all the time.
Our favourite local restaurant was lords and one night after dining with friends we had met at the hotel we managed to get six of us in a tuk tuk back to the hotel.Poor driver never knew what hit him.
As for our Kandy trip we used a local agent who was very proffesional and extremely knowledgable and half the price of the tour operator.For example for a 2 day trip including an overnight stay in the Amaya Hills hotel Mercury Direct wanted £200 for us both.The local agent did it for £115 and instead of a minibus with 4 other people we had a car and guide/driver.You can tailor the trip to your requirements.
The trips almost always do not include entrance fees to temples and of course a local guide who will be giving the driver a kickback on his fee which is not a fortune but can wear a bit thin after a while.The one thing we found was that there is always someone wanting to be your guide.Same the world over for tourists we are a cashpoint.
As for the food I found it very different and not really to my taste maybe I was being a bit fussy expecting it to be Indian but it was very different.The curries were much spicier than my normal taste and a lot of what I thought poor quality fish.
I missed the Indian tandoori oven and the naan breads but again my personal taste I think.
As for costs the tuk tuks were far more open to bartering than in goa with a local short journy being about 25p and a five minute ride back from the evenings restaurant being 50p.
Wine as in goa is expensive at about £20 a bottle for imported.Local large beer from £1-£1.50 main course £2-£3.Probably alcohol cheaper in Goa just.
All in all on a par with Goa but I would say that Goa has the edge in both price and now quality of food.Negombo is importing western style food and the quality is not there.Goa is getting much better at it.
We enjoyed Sri Lanka and will return once the southern airport is open giving closer access to the better beaches.
I will PM you the travel agent details if you would like them.
Papa
I would not hesitate to reccomend Browns Beach as a base providing you get a beach room.Lots of complaints from guests about standard rooms which I never saw but surely cannot be any worse than some of the Indian ones we have stayed in.
As for the food,as you may expect from a fishing town lots of fish choices but in the hotel of varying quality.As far as the hotel food went they clearly had a budget to meet per guest and I thought for that budget they did their best.
Different people have different standards and I would hate to sound as if I was over criticising what they managed to achieve.Buffet food will always be buffet food and on a couple of nights they really stepped up with live cooking stations our favourites being Mongolian night and Italian night.
Overall I think with what the chefs had to work with they did very well it just did not suit us all the time.
Our favourite local restaurant was lords and one night after dining with friends we had met at the hotel we managed to get six of us in a tuk tuk back to the hotel.Poor driver never knew what hit him.
As for our Kandy trip we used a local agent who was very proffesional and extremely knowledgable and half the price of the tour operator.For example for a 2 day trip including an overnight stay in the Amaya Hills hotel Mercury Direct wanted £200 for us both.The local agent did it for £115 and instead of a minibus with 4 other people we had a car and guide/driver.You can tailor the trip to your requirements.
The trips almost always do not include entrance fees to temples and of course a local guide who will be giving the driver a kickback on his fee which is not a fortune but can wear a bit thin after a while.The one thing we found was that there is always someone wanting to be your guide.Same the world over for tourists we are a cashpoint.
As for the food I found it very different and not really to my taste maybe I was being a bit fussy expecting it to be Indian but it was very different.The curries were much spicier than my normal taste and a lot of what I thought poor quality fish.
I missed the Indian tandoori oven and the naan breads but again my personal taste I think.
As for costs the tuk tuks were far more open to bartering than in goa with a local short journy being about 25p and a five minute ride back from the evenings restaurant being 50p.
Wine as in goa is expensive at about £20 a bottle for imported.Local large beer from £1-£1.50 main course £2-£3.Probably alcohol cheaper in Goa just.
All in all on a par with Goa but I would say that Goa has the edge in both price and now quality of food.Negombo is importing western style food and the quality is not there.Goa is getting much better at it.
We enjoyed Sri Lanka and will return once the southern airport is open giving closer access to the better beaches.
I will PM you the travel agent details if you would like them.
Papa
you can add the tour people's info here. It could be useful to a lot of folks. I know we saved a fortune in India by booking a local firm and also had the driver/guide to ourselves.
Have had a look at your review and the others on Browns Beach hotel and to be honest OH will take one look and decide he doesn't want to go there. Thats the problem we have found with Sri Lankan hotels, almost all seem to get more poor or so so reviews than good ones for some reason. If the new airport is due soon then we may just wait as well. Perhaps we will get there eventually!
Thanks again
Have had a look at your review and the others on Browns Beach hotel and to be honest OH will take one look and decide he doesn't want to go there. Thats the problem we have found with Sri Lankan hotels, almost all seem to get more poor or so so reviews than good ones for some reason. If the new airport is due soon then we may just wait as well. Perhaps we will get there eventually!
Thanks again
The travel agent we used was Fortuna tours and Travel turn left out of Browns Beach and about 100 metres across the road.
http://www.amazingsrilankaholidays.com/
Papa
http://www.amazingsrilankaholidays.com/
Papa
Fiona
One of the problems with Sri Lanka is that most of the good hotels are in the south and the 3-4hr drive from the airport can be a real hassle. I stayed in the Heritance hotel in Ahungalla, I would recommend it, it was called the Triton at the time and has been totally rebuilt/renoveted recently, I'm guessing it was damaged by the Tsunami. A friend recently stayed at The Fortress in Koggala and was really impressed (she stays at Shangri La's in the far east so can be hard to please).
When I went there a few years ago I was picked up for a 7 day tour on arrival at the airport so only had to do the airport run once as the tour ended at the beach hotel.
Many people think that because of the close proximity of the island to India it will be the same but it is very different, for a start it's a Budhist country though the Tamils in the north west are Hindus and I think on the whole like Pete says the majority may be better educated, certainly a gentler race.
There aren't many resorts as such so holidays are centered around the hotels and it's often hard to find restaurants of a decent standard away from the hotels unless you are in a major city such as Colombo or Kandy. The hotel I stayed in did have a two or three restaurants so you didn't have to always eat the buffet meals, though they were pretty good. Most hotels offer either half board or All Inclusive, a first for me but I quite enjoyed it for the few days I spent at the beach as there wasn't anywhere to eat away from the grounds of the hotel and apart from a gem shop (they are everywhere in Sri Lanka) there was nothing else in the village. Apart from locals wandering around trying to sell their wares on the beach any retail therapy was confined to the hotel.
Many people go to Sri Lanka just for a beach holiday and the beaches are lovely but it's such a shame to limit the visit to just the beach as the country is beautiful and really worth seeing and more areas should open up to visitors now that the war is finished.- I did a seven day tour then four days at the beach but there are many tour agencies offering any number of different combinations of tours and beach holidays. I think what Pete says about the country being geared towards tour groups is probably correct as I think due to the war taking place for so many years people have wanted the security of being in a group but things should change now. I would really like to return someday.
One of the problems with Sri Lanka is that most of the good hotels are in the south and the 3-4hr drive from the airport can be a real hassle. I stayed in the Heritance hotel in Ahungalla, I would recommend it, it was called the Triton at the time and has been totally rebuilt/renoveted recently, I'm guessing it was damaged by the Tsunami. A friend recently stayed at The Fortress in Koggala and was really impressed (she stays at Shangri La's in the far east so can be hard to please).
When I went there a few years ago I was picked up for a 7 day tour on arrival at the airport so only had to do the airport run once as the tour ended at the beach hotel.
Many people think that because of the close proximity of the island to India it will be the same but it is very different, for a start it's a Budhist country though the Tamils in the north west are Hindus and I think on the whole like Pete says the majority may be better educated, certainly a gentler race.
There aren't many resorts as such so holidays are centered around the hotels and it's often hard to find restaurants of a decent standard away from the hotels unless you are in a major city such as Colombo or Kandy. The hotel I stayed in did have a two or three restaurants so you didn't have to always eat the buffet meals, though they were pretty good. Most hotels offer either half board or All Inclusive, a first for me but I quite enjoyed it for the few days I spent at the beach as there wasn't anywhere to eat away from the grounds of the hotel and apart from a gem shop (they are everywhere in Sri Lanka) there was nothing else in the village. Apart from locals wandering around trying to sell their wares on the beach any retail therapy was confined to the hotel.
Many people go to Sri Lanka just for a beach holiday and the beaches are lovely but it's such a shame to limit the visit to just the beach as the country is beautiful and really worth seeing and more areas should open up to visitors now that the war is finished.- I did a seven day tour then four days at the beach but there are many tour agencies offering any number of different combinations of tours and beach holidays. I think what Pete says about the country being geared towards tour groups is probably correct as I think due to the war taking place for so many years people have wanted the security of being in a group but things should change now. I would really like to return someday.
Sri Lanka has had more than its fair share of troubles. Husband used to go to Sri Lanka in his merchant navy days and said it was a beautiful place then. We just keep looking and then changing our minds. Actually wondering if I should start looking at a tour and then a stopover else where for some R&R. Thanks Judith. I do think the only way I will get OH to a hotel on its own will be if its a really good one. Have done AI a few years back and decided that we didn't want to do that again- especially if there is nothing around it.
We went to Goa at the beginning of the year and hired out a moped for 2 weeks, we went to so many places and stayed at beach huts along route aswell. Is it like that in Sri Lanka or is it only guided tours that you can do. I would hate to stay in the same place for that amount of time!!!! We were actually thinking of getting married in Sri Lanka, but Im now thinking that Goa may be the better option, although I would stay down south this time not the north.
Any help would be helpful!!
Thanks
Any help would be helpful!!
Thanks
I'm not sure what the driving is like in Goa, but in Sri Lanka they drive like maniacs. We had a car and driver and it was scary enough - I definitely wouldn't have fancied doing it myself. It depends on how brave you are really...
I found Sri Lanka to have a very different feel than Goa.You can find your way around yourself but the distances involved and the conditions of the roads make it more sensible to go by public transport or use a car and driver.
Although we enjoyed our time there I prefer the vibe in Goa.
Papa
Although we enjoyed our time there I prefer the vibe in Goa.
Papa
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