Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Brothers Palitha and Bandula Rathnayaka are both certified forest guides, so staying here
makes it easy to maximise your time. The six rooms at their home are fairly basic, but
there's good home-cooking and a lovely private garden. Day trips to the Sinharaja Forest
Reserve cost Rs 4000 per person and include transport, guiding and lunch (but exclude
park entrance fees).
Trips are also open to nonguests. If you give the brothers a week's notice, they can ar-
range overnight stays in forest bungalows. The same family also have some smarter cot-
tages a short way up the road that sleep four (US$90 to $100 including breakfast).
Rainforest Lodge
HOTEL
( 041-492 0444;
www.rainforestlodge-srilanka.de
;incl breakfast, s €25-49, d €44-61; )
Located in perfect isolation in a tea plantation a few minutes' walk from the road, Rain-
forest Lodge has sparkling and spacious rooms with high-quality bathrooms. The views in-
clude a green trifecta of rainforest, rice paddies and tea gardens, and good food is served.
Forest trips cost Rs 4500 for one person or Rs 6500 for two people, including food,
transport and guiding fees.
The Rainforest
BOUTIQUE HOTEL
( Colombo 011-558 8714;
www.rainforest-ecolodge.org
;s/d incl breakfast US$170/205)
Seventeen and a half rather tortuous kilometres north of Deniyaya, and at the very top of a
mountain, is this luxury hideaway, which might well be the remotest hotel in Sri Lanka.
Highly original rooms with stupendous views have been created out of metal shipping
containers and recycled railway sleepers. It is tucked away in a jungle-hemmed valley.
Water comes from nearby springs and is solar heated. There's also an impressive recyc-
ling scheme. It sits right on the edge of Sinharaja reserve; good forest tours are available.
Kudawa
Rock View Motel
HOTEL
( 045-567 7990;
www.rockviewmotel.com
;Weddagala;s/d incl breakfast Rs 4750/6500)
