Villa SPACE

For the first time I can rate a hotel with all 5 grades! It is such a stylish and luxurious hotel where every detail is a history like in a museum. The food is excellent, every day there is a new menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There is a very cozy lounge where you can sit, have a drink, listen to the music or read a book. A very nice lady Julia is working in the hotel. She organised a comfortable transfer for me, arranged a very late dinner as my flight was delayed, and she was always very welcoming, friendly to all the guests though the hotel was full and she seemed to be busy all the time. Nevertheless she devoted time to every guest! This was so nice of her! Planning to come back to this lovely and peaceful place again!

We had booked villa space as our final part of a two week trip hoping to wind down for our final four nights before heading home. The photos and descriptions on booking.com would suggest that we would be staying in a luxury hotel with an up and running restaurant and bar, yoga lessons in a serene location. Unfortunately this was not the case, the restaurant offered a small menu of which you were required to order all meals a day in advance (breakfast was $16 - we hadnt paid more than $5 during our time in Sri Lanka) there was a small drinks menu, I requested the top two drinks they couldnt make them. There was a yoga studio but no yoga instructor or classes which is misleading from the information on booking and social media. The interiors are nice, with nice furniture etc. but the rooms are windowless and there isnt the ability to open the shutters so no natural light in the room. The description includes terrace this is a shared terrace open to all guests so no privacy if you want to have the doors open. There is an outside shower connected to the bathroom which is very nice to look at but it means that bugs etc can get in the bathroom. This also means that the acoustic soundproofing for the room is rubbish - we were kept up until 5am by a party happening in the bay as the sound travels in to the room through the bathroom. Part of the Villa rules state that we cant play our own music as there is a carefully curated playlist for the vibe of the villa - this playlist was trance music played until the early hours by the owners/ staff. Finally the location - Unawatuna wasnt what we expected, quite trashy. The Villa is located about a 5 minute walk from the beach up a steep hill (tuk tuks cant go all the way due to the incline) followed but steep steps - was fine for us but may be worth considering this might not be suitable for everyone.