Call me if if you wanna go anywhere tomorrow, but once people check in Vil Uyana, they never want go out.
That’s what our driver said as he dropped us in front of the discreet entrance, on a dirt road in the middle of Sri Lanka’s cultural triangle. Indeed, it takes courage to leave this place. The hotel is built on a 23 acres man-made wetland that hosts 25 detached houses., which means space, privacy and a very privileged environment.
Some of the houses are on stilts, but ours was on solid ground and accessible through a small path.
The house was hidden in the vegetation and had a big outdoor area with a table, a couch, big cushions and….a private pool. That pool was just my favourite ever, maybe it’s the soft stone, maybe it’s the lush surroundings, but I could have spent the entire day there.
The ground floor of the house is devoted to the semi-open-air spacious bathroom. There’s a large shower, a concrete bath and even a small pond there (with the occasional frog). The hotel also provides sun hats and sarongs to get you in the local vibe…
The common areas aren’t too shabby either, the restaurant’s setting is pretty impressive, with very high ceilings, a 360 view of the area and a giant painted wall. They serve fresh local food and make very good bread (an important detail for us French!).
They can also organise a private dinner in this nice little hut, that’s if you’re braver than me when it comes to insects+nightime.
The library was definitely one of my favorite spots, opened on both sides and with a great selection of books on Sri Lanka, it was the perfect place to hang out, catch a little breeze and/or have a glass of wine (our French genes acting out again I guess).
They say there are 80 species of birds, 17 species of mammals, 36 species of butterflies and 21 species of amphibians on the hotel site, which means there’s always something to observe! There was a peacock hanging out in front of our house everyday at the same hour, behaving like he owned the place. We also had two varans sunbathing by our pool every morning, turns out they were harmless, but we didn’t know that, which meant a mix of fear and excitement upon discovering them for the first time. There’s even a crocodile in the main pond. The hotel’s naturalist encouraged us to report any crocodile sightings since it’s apparently…a very good thing!
We looked hard, yet the biggest thing we saw was a 1,8 meters water moniker. I guess that was plenty for us Parisians.
_______________ Vil Uyana is a Jetwing hotel, which is one the main actors of tourism in Sri Lanka. The hotel is in Sri Lanka’s cultural triangle which means easy access to archeological sites like Sigiriya and Polonnaruwa.
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