The Spice Trail

Very nice boutique hotel in a super convenient location with spacious chalets. Nice welcome and very professional staff. Chalet was luxurious and food was excellent. Equipped with a small pool and it was overall a very nice stay with my family.

The Spice Trail is by far the best accommodation in Arugam Bay. I am really satisfied by its services and friendly staff. We spend couple of days in Arugam Bay and staying at Spice Trail was the best choice we could made. I recommend Spice Tail to anyone who wants to have a more than decent stay in Arugam Bay.

This was the second most expensive hotel we stayed in out of 7 in Sri Lanka and in our opinion this was not value for money and the only one we would not recommend to friends or return to. The selling point of the hotel is the location with it being right on the main strip. The rooms are very large and the air conditioning is good but other than that they're very basic and really dark! The bed was comfy but the sheets were old and felt and looked a bit dirty. The bathroom was functional but dated. We had ants crawling all over the bedside table and this hotel was the only place I got bitten while I slept despite the mosquito net. The pool area is nice but having to dodge the bird poo while sat on the sun lounger or in the pool was not enjoyable and something we haven't experienced anywhere else ever. The lunch menu was basic, took a long time to be made and was very small. We went for the chicken and chips as we were in a rush before a safari and it was Happy Meal size. Luckily we didn't bother with the breakfast included option and just paid for breakfast one morning which was really poor. There were much better options just outside of the hotel that are much much cheaper. Each evening when we came back from dinner out there was a frog in our room and all over the front door which was very annoying. We also found the hotel staff the most unfriendly and unhelpful compared with everywhere else we stayed. Be aware the hotel is all sand and the staff don't help with bags. Not necessarily a problem but we were in room 1 and were woken up by the call to prayers at 5am ish as it was just so loud and took us by surprise. Overall we were really disappointed with this hotel. Should have stayed at the hostel we originally booked which was less than half the price!