Kottawatta Village

Hotel offers safari trips and books your private safari trip with assigned driver. We went on the morning safari trip with Thranga and we absolutely loved it! Thranga is a great driver and the best guide - we got to see elephants, crocodiles, mongooses, jackals and many beautiful birds including the hawk eagle. It was a great experience and we would definitely recommend booking Thranga as your guide!

DO NOT BOOK! Rats kept us up all night being noisy and ate through our belongings. The number to call for help doesn’t work in the early hours, so we had to walk 10 minutes in the pitch black dark to the security in the middle of the night and they just looked at us like it was normal. We found rat poo in the room as well as our chewed belongings. We didn’t sleep so we spoke to the manager in the morning and showed her our destroyed belongings. Her response was “yeah, we sometimes have rats because of the trees”. We got no apology and she wasn’t surprised at all. We had to argue to get a refund and she wouldn’t refund us everything only the base room price. On top of it all, it wasn’t even the room we were meant to stay in as when we arrived they had given our room away. Not a good experience with the customer service at all and we have lost belongings from them being destroyed as well. Another note is the outside bathroom is a nice idea but when it’s torrential rain it’s not great to be rained on whilst going to the toilet.

I am very disappointed about this hotel, I am a tour guide, I also came to this hotel with my expat friends, we booked the same rooms, but they ignored me, no hospitality, many bed bugs 🥵🤬🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤬🤬🤬🤯🤯🤬

We loved this resort - the deluxe tent was wonderful, the outdoor shower and bathroom were a real treat, the dinner buffet was decent and in a nice location, and the staff were wonderful. We ordered a cappuccino at breakfast and even though it was not spectacular, the staff member who made it for us put so much effort into it (we watched him make it on their fancy machine) that his effort alone made us smile and love the resort even more. This stop was added to our trip kinda at the last minute but it turned into a highlight because the safari we did was wonderful and because this resort turned out to be such an unexpectedly pleasant experience because of the deluxe tent and the staff. Highly recommended.

We stayed here for 2 nights in a standard tent and our stay was extremely impressive for the budget-friendly price. Balcony, private bathroom, washroom amenities, mosquito net and fan. We did a morning half day safari and Sahan was our driver and guide. It was reasonably priced and a great experience! We had the whole jeep to ourselves and Sahan not only showed us elephants but a whole array of magical wildlife at Udawalawe. We had a lovely breakfast and the half day was the perfect amount of time. Thanks to Sahan!! The restaurant was also great at Kottawatta Village buffet style breakfast and a la carte lunch and dinner (we had one buffet dinner that was also very good (4000lkr per person). Great pools as well to cool down!

We have just left Kottawatta Village after 2 amazing days/nights. We did the 1/2 day (afternoon) Udawalawe Safari - our driver, Tharanga was brilliant (his knowledge and expertise were exceptional) we saw so much wildlife and so many elephants, including a mother and baby I could not recommend this highly enough. We also did the short "feeding time" at the Elephant Transit Center which was definitely worthwhile (we checked out at 10 did the 10.30 "show" and were back for our 11.30 taxi The hotel itself is beautiful, set in beautiful grounds. We had a pool view luxury tent, which was lovely, very clean comfortable bed, and the open air bathroom is a nice feature. We enjoyed using the balcony, when we were there it was as if we were the only ones in the gardens it was so peaceful. We didn't see the other rooms, but I think for the difference in price the luxury tent is worth it We booked on a 1/2 board basis, again I would recommend this as there aren't many (maybe any) other options locally. The restaurant is really nice, and there are a few nice spots to enjoy a beer/cocktail after a busy day. We really enjoyed the food, especially on our second night when we chose more local options. The staff are lovely, and so helpful arranging us a taxi, and the tuktuk to the Transit Center, and suggesting timings for the different things we wanted to do.