A recently renovated 17th Century Dutch Villa in the Unesco World Heritage Site in southern Sri Lanka; a perfect base for visiting beaches, temples, wildlife parks, tea plantations, spas, ayurvedic treatment and some of the friendliest staff and best food in Sri Lanka. [more info]
One of Geoffrey Bawa's earliest and most famous works of architecture. This hotel has been designed to match the genuine beauty of its surroundings; the Lighthouse is a combination of luxury hotel and majestic spa. The most distinctive upon entering the hotel is a sculptured metal balustrade enclosing a spiral staircase, which ascends to the roof top. It depicts a tale of the Dutch invaders, featuring the Sinhala king playing his flute and life-size horsemen in battle.
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Sri Lanka's cosmopolitan, multicultural past figures richly in the history of this latest property, Tamarind Hill on the outskirt of Galle - a city whose strongly Dutch character belies its history as an ancient global entre pot, a meeting-place for Arabs, Chinese, Greeks, Persians and South Indians and identified by Victorian scholars with the Biblical port of Tarshish.
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