Great Accomodation on Southern Beaches

I guess there are a few of us first timers planning trips in December!

I will be in Sri Lanka for almost three weeks however at least ten days will be on the beach. I live in Pakistan and just really need some rest and relaxation not to mention some bikini time. We are looking to spilt out beach time between 2 locations and sometimes go more midrange and othertimes very budget.

1. What are the pros and cons of unawatuna, mirrisa and tangalle? Will unawatuna be a zoo at christmas time?

2. Since another couple with a bigger budget might be joining my boyfriend and me for 5 days on the beach, we are looking for a midrange place right on the beach in unawatuna or tangalle. We really prefer an apartment or adjoing rooms but my searches have come up empty handed. Our apartment budget is 120 US dollars per a day. Any suggestions? A nice high end place next to a budget place would work.

3. For our solo time we are looking for a nice budget bungalow ( less than 12 dollars in one of these southern beaches particularly marrisa. Any recommendations from travelers who have visted post tsunami?

Thanks a lot for your sugestions

Oh? I forgot to add that I was considering The Villa in unawatuna run by Roger. If anyone stayed there and can share their experience I would be grateful.

Hi,
Not sure if what I can suggest , fits in with your needs but here goes.
The difference between Unawatuna, Mirissa and Tangelle.?.
Unawatuna is the bigger, busier place. I've never been there at Christmas but assume that it's gonna be pretty busy. Lots of people, lots of noise. Beach is Ok and reef sheltered .
Mirissa.. Beautiful beach, not reef sheltered on the main beach but in peak period will be great for swimming. Not too much accomodation but enough .. Quite a few people gonna be there but with the accomodation limitations and the size of the beach, you'll be able to find a quiet area for yourself or join in as you want.
Tangalle,, or at least, the tangalle area. I think , the best beaches on the south coast. I allways make time to stay a while at Nilwella, thats about halfway between tangalle and Dikwella. Not many visitors out there, so you have huge areas of a beautiful, pristine beach to yourselves. Maybe sharing with a few local kids.
Places to stay ?
Unawatuna,, I stayed there a couple of months agao and although it's not right on the beach, I was very impressed with the " Flower Garden " hotel. Just set back in the lane. Good pool, excellent food and restaurant, accomodation is in individual cabanas set in a nice garden.
Flower garden Hotel, Wella Dewalawa Road, Unawatuna.....Tel; _94-(0)-2225286 www.hotelflowergarden.com<BR><BR> Mirissa... The Paradise Beach Club, is about central on the beach .Small pool, excellent cabanas set in a good garden, They run it operating a hald board system. Last I heard it was just under 3000 rupees a day for a double cabana, including breakfasts and dinner, which I reckoned to be a good deal as it cavers two people. Paradise beach Club, Tel; 94-(0)-41-2250380
Couple of cheaper guest houses there, right on the beach, Ocean Moon, Tel; +94-(0)-41-2252328
and Girigala Village, Tel; 94-(0)-41-2250496
Nilwella,
My favorite guest house. Set at the end of a tiny lane, right on the beach. No trafic, no close neighbours, so quiet and peaceful. Beautiful beach, pristine silver sand, backed by coconut groves. Guest house restaurant, set in the garden, over looking the beach, is open sided bamboo type place serving fantastic food. Rooms are all with individual verandah or balcony looking out over the beach, all ensuite, etc. Few places in visiting distance, the islands tallest Budha,, the Blow Hole,,, The turtle preservation beach at Rekawa, and the town/small city of Matara close enough for shopping trips on the local bus.

Hope thats helped,
Rod.

I've been in unawatuna and Mirissa. I prefered Unawatuna. But I don't know about the christmasperiod, when I was there, there were only 3 other tourists in Mirissa I think. And of course Unawatuna had some more tourists, but still very quiet.
The beach in Mirissa was not that nice to my opinion (very close to the busy main road, there was lot's of litter), but it's only have an hour by bus from Mirissa to Unawatuna, so if you don't like mirissa, you can always hop on the bus and move on to unawatuna.

I regret not having checked out Tangalle. Sounds nice too.

There's the dementure setting in again,
In my last post I listed info on the places I mentioned, except the guesthouse at Nilwella,
So,,,
The Kadolana Beach Resort, Bandara Watta, Kemagoda, Nilwella,,,Dikwella. Tel; +94-(0)-41-2256140
Better click the " send reply " button before I forget that as well.
Rod.

Thanks so much Rod B. I saw all your other posts and was so impressed. Thanks for the response. I have been looking at renting a fairly affordable house near Tangalle with my friends. However, I also want to check out the some other places and your recommendations are really helpful.

Do you think it is possible to call the Kadolana Beach Resort to make a reservation several weeks in advance. About how much are their rooms?

In fact, you inspired me to write on the Pakistan treads to get good thorntree karma.

Hi,
an American, living in Pakistan, with a French name, I'm confused .?.
Still never mind, If you'd like to get a better idea of the Kadolana, email me on, > R_Boakes@hotmail.com < and I'll reply with a few pics attached.
For the possibility of renting a villa, I can't help except to suggest that you look at the site > www.infolanka.com < on there, there's a classified section and often adverts for places to let around the island. THere's plenty of agents but they add a big commission to the price.
Rod.

Hi

I have booked at the Palace Mirissa Hotel in December.
I think it is owned by the same people that run the Paradise Club that is mentioned above.

Just got two questions really.
Firstly, is anyone familiar with the Palace Mirissa Hotel ? and if so any views on what it is like as a place to stay ?

Secondly, I was a bit put off by this comment above:
"The beach in Mirissa was not that nice to my opinion (very close to the busy main road, there was lot's of litter)"
I had heard, on here and elsewhere, that Mirissa was a nicer beach than Unawatuna, but this seems to suggest that it might not be. Any thoughts on what the beach is like in general at Mirissa ?

Thanks

Hi, I prefer the beach at Mirissa to the one at Unawatuna,.
Unawatuna beach can be very narrow in places and not the cleanest. Plus, where ever you get on the Unawatuna beach, there's buildings behind you,, I want a few palm trees to lay under.
, The beach at Mirissa does run beside the road but only for a short stretch toward the eastern end. Most of it is no where near the road. The section of beach from the Paradise Beach club to the headland, whereon sits the Palace Hotel, is about 400 to 500 metres from the main road.
As Sil said, it's a short ish, bus ride between the two so easy to book check out both.
I havn't seen the Palace at close quarters, It's a long walk up the hill after a day on the beach but thats probably compensated by the views from the top.
Rod.

well I said 'in my opinion'. Maybe you have a different one....
But I was a bit disappointed in Mirissa, it was not realy what I expected. Maybe the bad wheater, the beachboys that kept bothering us, a crazy german, seefood that got my travelpartner sick also had something to do with it. Didn't like the vibe when i was there. But hey, I only stayed one night and moved on. Maybe I should have given it a better chance.

Hello,

I have been to Mirissa and Tangalle twice and loved both.

I was in Mirissa for new year 07 and it was busier than when I was last there (August 2004) but was still really pretty and had a laid back, friendly atmosphere. I didn't think the beach was any more littered than any other beach I have been on (it helps if tourists don't leave fag butts on the beach please!) and the road is only near the beach right at the end - and it's really not the busiest road in the world anyway.

The first time we stayed, we were at Paradise Club and had a bungalow in a lovely garden with views of the sea. It suffered severe damage in the tsunami though and hadn't been properly rebuilt by last Dec although it may now be open.

Last time, we were at the newly-opened The Palace. It has a beautiful setting and our bungalow had the most gorgeous view out to sea (nothing between our balcony and the sea view). I still dream of that view. The pool and the gardens were lovely too. However, there were a number of problems with the service so I would check that these are ironed out before you stay there.

1. The evening food wasn't amazing and rather than do some nice simple curries or seafood well they did more complicated food badly. One of our friends who lives in Sri Lanka was a vegetarian and had real problems getting them to feed him something nice. That's pretty weird in Sri Lanka as many people are vegetarians.

2. The restaurant didn't have any tables outside on the veranda/garden bit, even though the setting is beautiful and all you want to do is sit outside and look out to sea amongst the fireflies. The interior of the restaurant was far too brightly lit, they didn't open all the doors onto the veranda area (where everyone wanted to eat), and they always had the TV blaring - not very atmospheric for holidaymakers. We were told consistently by the management and staff that 'we weren't allowed' to have tables outside. The manager was militant about this. We insisted on having tables outside and caused a mutiny amongst the guests who had submitted to their insistence that they 'had to' sit inside. In all the time I have been in Sri Lanka I never once been forced to eat inside - in fact most hotels and guesthouses are set up so you can eat outside, even the ones up in the hill country.

3. They had problems with their licensing and each person told us something different about this. For example, there was no cocktail menu at the bar (most beachside mid-range hotels have great cocktails based on local ingredients) and the barman told me that this was because they didn't have a license yet. When I asked the manager he said it was because the barman didn't know how to make cocktails. At dinner, there was a wine menu but this was all a bit cloak and dagger and the wine was stashed up near the hotel gates - again this was apparently because they didn't have their license yet but the manager said the staff couldn't be trusted with the alcohol. So this meant that if you wanted some wine, your poor waiter had to make a massive uphill trip for you. We ended up doing it for him.

4. They didn't offer a laundry service and the manager directed us to the local laundrette instead!

Basically it's a lovely setting but has terrible management - but that may have changed by now. We ended up tipping the staff massively as their manager was so horrible to us and to them so we felt sorry for anyone that worked there. I've stayed in tiny family guesthouses and very smart boutique hotels in Sri Lanka and always received great service and a warm welcome. At the Palace the manager really made us feel like we were there on sufferance.

Anyway, far too much info! There are also lots of nice simple guesthouses on the beach that you could check out too.

In Tangalle, I've stayed at Ganesh Garden which is fantastically good value in a wonderful isolated setting with great staff (No more than $12 dollars for double room with bath and balcony). Food was good too. Would recommend it highly although the beach isn't great for swimming as it is quite dangerous.

I've also stayed at Palm Paradise Cabanas at the other end of Tangalle. This is a very efficient and pretty place, but the small private beach was a bit claustrophobic after the expanse near Ganesh. From here, you can walk round to Silent Beach (I think that's the name) which is a beautiful big beach with fantastic sunsets. The only hotel there is an Aman hotel, so very expensive, but you can still use the beach even directly in front of the swanky hotel (very tastefully done, blends into the trees etc) or walk on further past the hotel.

I would check out the following websites for villa and hotels:
www.i-escape.com<BR>www.boutiquesrilanka.com<BR>wwww.reddottours.com<BR><BR>Have a great trip. It's a beautiful place.

e

thanks for all those replies
very helpful indeed

hopefully they will have sorted out those issues mentioned at the Palace. I can't find any reviews anywhere so looks like we'll have to chance it...

thanks again

Well, maybe you can contact the Palace. Obvioulsy? one cannot ask does the management stink but you could ask about the license and the eating outside. If they are positive print the email and bring it with you.