Musken

Hi,

We will spend 10 days in Sri Lanka in April, staying at Galla and Wella. Wanted to concentrate on these two hotels only and rather make sure to see and do as much as possible from these two bases. I have received the activities lists from the two hotels and there are lots to choose from - temples, whale safari, tea plantation visits, the fort, cooking classes, elephant safari etc. etc.

I have noticed that a number of you have stayed at these two resorts lately, so I would be very happy to hear what you recommend in terms of activites.

Also interested in non-Aman-organised activities like visiting the fish market from Galla as I just read about.

Thanks!

cruisr

I did a site inspection in November and was not impressed with Galla at all. It is a colonial style hotel inside the "fort" next door to a church. Pool area was meh. Spa looked nice. Dining area was ok.

From here one can visit the Stilt fishermen. I had a private car/driver booked thru A & K and he told me that these fisherman get a call from the tour buses and they jump up on their stilts for the pics. You can visit the numerous turtle sanctuaries, walk the walls of the fort and visit the tsunami museum.

I would spend no more than 2 days there but I like a hotel with beautiful grounds and pool area and scenic view, non of which is at Galla.

Musken

Thanks. Hotels and number of nights are booked and will not change. I am looking for advice in terms of which activities to choose, preferably from someone who has experienced them. I note that fishermen on stilts might not be authentic but still a nice photo opportunity.

cruisr

Sorry, I am having problems with FT today. Sorry, I was just giving you info on what I did in case they offer those activities. I am currently on a flight but I do believe I have info on their activities at my home. I'm pretty sure that was in the info they gave me.

Yes, stilt fishermen are a great photo op worth all of five minutes . If Udawala (elephant sanctuary) is on the list do that. It is approx. 3 hours each way. I passed on it (have done two days in Thailand with elephants) but my A & K guide said it was very good.

The people in Sri Lanka were wonderful and the countryside is beautiful. Beware the Full Moon Holiday. It's every month and everything shuts down and no alcohol is served.

Pausanias

I spent two days in Galle only a week ago and posted a pic from the fishing market on another thread (where are you going next?). You will definitely not need any kind of guide in Galle - the town is tiny, easily walkable and there's not that much to see except absorb the general ambience. It's nice early morning when no one's about and late afternoon when local people surge on to the ramparts for a stroll. There are some interesting churches, a few museums and some striking colonial architecture. There are also lots of tourist tat shops because the town fills up with day-trippers from the nearby coastal resorts. We did find it hassle-free - hardly anyone came up to us to sell us anything. The men at the fish market were welcoming and didn't mind me sticking my camera up their noses.

We deliberately didn't stay at Amangalla because of reasons cited above though we did dine there and found it way overpriced and just not good enough in terms of service and quality of cuisine. It seemed completely empty, too, a huge barn of a place, devoid of atmosphere.

I'd avoid the stilt fishermen - our driver who met us at the seaplane took us there and it seemed the worst type of tourist trap. As pathetic as some of the poor dogs that roam the streets.

Travelling within the island is extremely slow and tiring because of the style of driving. I would say that the elephants and tea plantations are much too far as a day-trip unless you take the Cinnamon Air seaplane. Whale-watching at Mirissa is apparently quite good in season - I think the whales move on in April.

We didn't go along the Amanwella stretch of coast as it was in the wrong direction for us - we choose two resorts along the west coast to ease us back to Colombo.

Musken

Thanks a lot. Did not mean to sound like I did not appreciate your comments, they just felt like not answering my questions about activities, rather focusing on hotel which we have decided about - knowing that there might be some drawbacks. The elephant sancturay is closer to Amanwella and we will most likely visit it from there, so thanks for that. Regarding full moon I have read that turtles are more active during this period, so I guess we can concentrate on them that day rather than on other things which are closed.

Musken

Thanks. It was your fish market photo which made me start this thread. We have half board included in our package, so will dine at Galla. Hope it will be better than what you experienced. If you have tips regarding other places to dine, that would be apprciated.

Pausanias

Musken - We stayed at the Galle Fort Hotel, about five minutes down Church Street from Amangalla. We thought this hotel had masses of charm and character, beautiful public rooms and an utterly charming rear terrace for dining. We had two meals there and thought the quality above that of Amangalla and half the price. The GFH is not a luxury hotel and it has drawbacks but once we were able to change our room to the Grand Apartment we were very happy there.

There is another hotel next door, called Fort Bazaar which is owned by the people who run Wallawwa near Colombo. Fort Bazaar is currently No.1 hotel on TripAdvisor. However, they lack a liquor license for non-residents and have been refused permission to build a pool. We spoke to the developer of another hotel, opposite the Fort Bazaar and Galle Fort, and he said no hotel will be able to build a pool in future. His hotel, to be called the Hermitage, has a very large site and has bags of space for a pool.

Here's a pic of the Galle Fort Hotel -

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/up70mm/32817610940/in/photostream" title="Sri Lanka"><img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2900/32817610940_bbfbb5874b_b.jpg" width="1024" height="683" alt="Sri Lanka"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

DSI

I liked the cultural triangle and Yala national park.

From Amanwella you can take a leopard safari. In our original itinerary we were going to go to Amanwella and Galla, but instead decided to stay at Chena Huts and Ani Villas. In our old itinerary we had a trip to Yala national park scheduled. It's about a 2 hour drive in each direction but we absolutely loved the safari, and of course we stayed there. And according to the guide we had the best leopard sightings he's ever seen, so we did get lucky. Yala is a bit of a zoo, though, with lots of people....

The cultural triangle is possible if you catch a Cinnamon Air flight from Galla.

Larkin

We really had a spectacular whale watching day when we stayed at Amangalle. They took us out in a beautiful private boat ( beautiful wood) with very comfortable and nicely doone exterior and interior spaces. They prepared a fantastic lunch that we enjoyed on board, and we got really close to the whales. One of our best whale watching trips ever with all the lovely Aman touches. We were there around New Years so I'm not sure if you will be there during the season, but if so it is a worthwhile experience.

They also arranged for us to have a tour of the town in what I can only call a Sri Lankan version of a Thai Tuk tuk. We went to the fush market and all the sites. It coukd have been done on your own, but we enjoyed having a knowledable local take us around as we had lots of questions he was able to answer. It was also a lot of fun.

Another thing we did while there was go to a beach one day. It was associated with a smaller hotel and had a nice set up with a nice lunch. It was fun, but I did not think it was something I would do again.

We actually loved Amangalle. I don't find the food to be the best necessarily in many if the Amans, but they did prepare a wonderful private dinner in the garden for us one night with delicious authentic Sri Lanka tasting menu - many items were not on the menu. The chef spent a lot of time talking to us to create the menu and it was great. We did eat meals at a couple of other restaurants as well. There are choices in Galle and you can get around easily!

BTW, we loved Room 8 which was recommended by behuman on this site. It could be a little noisy during the day when school gets out ( although we were only on the room once at this time), but we did not have any problems in the evening and I'm a very light sleeper!

A4K

We really liked Galla and Galle in general.

I am surprised at negative feedback on it. It isn't the best Aman, but it is very unique and the staff are pretty good.

You can do a Tea Plantation tour from Galle and if you have never been to Sri Lanka I would definitely look into doing that.

Aman (and I am sure other companies) also does a Geoffrey Bawa tour which we thought was really interesting if you are interested in architecture and design.

Musken

Thanks! Will definitely go to one of the national parks. Not sure to go for the leopard park (is it likely to see leopards?) or the elephant park, yet.

Musken

Thanks, Larkin! I remember you liked Amangalla, so I hope we will have the same experience. Will ask for room number 8.

We would love to see whales as we have never had the experience. I have read that the season is until the beginning of April. We will be there mid April, so I am not sure if we can still see any, but will check. The boat sounds wonderful!

Tuk tuk to markets is a must for us as we are market lovers! We will have lots of beach time at Amanwella, so no need to us to go to a beach at Amangalla, but good to know. Maybe we will just go there for lunch one day and enjoy a little nap at the beach afterwards.

Larkin

I did not reply to activites on Amanwella as we spent most of our time there at the beach and body surfing. When we were there the body surfing was really good and we thought the beach lovely.
I think I recall you can visit a tea plantation but we had spent time before this at Tea Trails (which by the way we loved, loved!) so were really just looking to relax. I think there were also some jungle/safari type activities but since we had done a lot of that sort of stuff in other countries we just relaxed.
In regard to location of the rooms, we were in an ocean suite down toward the beach. There are some right near the lobby and restaurants not very private, and ours had a nice view that was not blocked much by trees, but was also more private as it was down towards the beach. I was very specific with them in what I requested and they delivered. I wish I could remember the suite number but I don't. Also things may have changed since we were there in terms of vegetation growth etc but at the time we loved our suite location , view and privacy.
Have a great trip!

zigzag

I would tell you to see anything and everything Geoffrey Bawa created in Sri Lanka. Not far from Amangalla is Lunuganga, http://www.geoffreybawa.com/
which is a great introduction to his work. If you like this kind of thing there are wonderful public buildings(school) along the way to Amanwella and some homes that you can visit that he built. Also a few hotels along the coast have been built using his designs.