Grand Udawalawe Safari Resort

Ok hotel. Don’t recommend the food for lunch

It’s a bit difficult to rate this hotel. The room was spacious and clean and had well functionning AC, fridge, WIFI and kettle. The beds were comfortable with plenty of pillows. The bathroom was clean, however with an old fashion plastic shower curtain. The water pressure was OK but the problem was the drain. It was almost totally clogged so you couldn’t take a long shower without flooding the bathroom. Another problem was the door - which was almost impossible to lock. We had to try 5-6 times every time we were leaving the room. The pool area is nice, and so is the reception area. What is a shame is the bar. The place itself is nice, but it was just open during dinnertime. I find it very strange that this kind of hotel don’t open the bar in the afternoon or early evening. Bad for business also as we would gladly have spent money on drink before dinner. We had dinner included as well as breakfast. The first evening there was a buffet which was good, the second evening there were too few customers so they gave us A la carte which was tasty. Same with the breakfast - buffet one day, a la carte the next. So all in all we enjoyed the food. My only complaint is the service during breakfast - when youcome they ask tea or coffee, but they never came back to ask you if you wanted a refill (they could easily have left the kettle on the table). When I asked for some more, the waitress disappeared and after 10 min we simply left as we were finished with the food. There is also a small spa which I tried. Very nice and professional.

Our third stop on our week-long tour of Sri Lanka and just by reading the reviews we kind of knew this hotel wouldn’t be quite as good as the Jetwing hotels that we had come from. Saying that, it is a good 3 star (Sri Lankan) hotel and we really enjoyed our stay here. It was only for one night but I could have stayed a few more nights quite easily. What knocks the Grand Safari Resort down a bit is that it’s set up to cater for larger groups and coach loads of tourists. It was obvious that lots of people come & go very quickly, and generally, some areas of the hotel are a little weathered and could do with some maintenance & decoration. Although it seemed quiet all around the hotel, when it came to the breakfast and evening meals the restaurant was like ‘feeding time at the zoo’ with bums on all seats & queues for the buffet. The food was again 3 star, not a huge choice, not as fresh as we’d just experienced, but there was no way you would go hungry. On to the good bits; the front office staff were all fantastic and check in was very quick. We were shown to our room and greeted with monkeys on the balcony. The air-con was ever-so-slightly a little noisy but the room itself was lovely and very clean indeed. We then enjoyed a wander around the hotel grounds, and this is where the hotel really earns some points. It’s like a mini jungle paradise with monkeys and lots of birds in the trees; there are streams all around where tortoises laze on the banks and small ponds in the gardens where pretty flowers grow. I then went for an evening swim and had the pool all to myself which was magical. We also sampled a few cocktails in the small but lovely bar area. Location wise, the Udawalawe Grand Safari Resort can’t be beat for the Elephant Transit Home which is literally 3 minutes down the road (we highly recommend a visit during feeding time) and the Udawalawe National Park entrance which is only 5 minutes away. Check out was just as nice as the check in where the manager came to say goodbye and wish us a lovely rest of our holiday. Apologise for not remembering any names. Lastly, and not the hotel’s fault at all, HUGE thanks to the husband & wife who decided to have a full-blown raging argument about 11pm near our room. If I wasn’t so tired I would have got out of bed and refereed your fight.