Kotiyagala Luxury Villas

Excellent property with allot of potential for the future as well. Location and amnesties are good. Would have stayed longer if not for other commitments. lol forward for another stay. Rooms are comfortable and the closest I have been to nature with luxury

Incredible place nestled among the jungle facing the ocean. Unforgettable memories. Located in one of the best National wildlife sanctuary in Asia. Staff is wonderful and very helpful. The food is amazing. Once in a life time experience.

I booked Kotiyagala as a special, three night experience for my daughter and me. We were already travelling to Sri Lanka for a yoga retreat and decided we wanted to go early and take in the Yala Forest. Kotiyagala was not my first choice but that was booked so I decided to take a risk. The photos looked amazing but I was worried that it is newly opened and no reviews. We arrived around 9pm after a 5 hour car journey from Colombo airport. Kotiyagala arranged the transfer and we paid about $250 for that. We were greeted by Ishan, with whom I had been communicating prior to our arrival. The entrance is very basic and I did have my doubts as soon as I saw that. Quite a few stairs to climb from the drop off point and there is no lift. Ishan showed us to the villa, we dropped our bags and went immediately to the restaurant for food. We were the only guests. Ruwanka is the food and beverage manager and he could not have been more welcoming. We could have had any food we wanted. We had a lovely meal and nice wine and were asked what we would like for breakfast and we took straight to bed. Our villa was on the front, facing the sea. A spectacular view. The villa itself is disappointing and is certainly not finished to a luxury standard. It needs to be properly finished. The air conditioning units are visible and ruin the aesthetic. The joinery is atrocious – the doors do not like up rendering the air con useless as there are gaps. The bathroom is completely open with windows on all sides and whilst the blinds are electric they are made of very cheap material, much like the lining of the bedroom curtains. The wardrobes are covered in velvet and the internal shelves are very feeble so much so that the safe has caused the shelf to sag. The tiling in the bathroom is substandard with holes everywhere and missing grout. There’s grout, screw holes, poor paintwork everywhere. It’s as if everyone got fed up at the end of the job and gave up. We had ants everywhere too. On day one we were taken out on an afternoon safari with Johan. We were provided with snacks and water and it was a wonderful experience to be out in the forest which is spectacularly beautiful. We saw crocodiles, langers, a variety of birds too. Finally we spotted a Leopard – incredible. The following day we went for a dawn safari in the hope of seeing elephants and we were not disappointed. A dawn safari is special and to me preferable to dusk. We came across a male and then a further opportunity to see two males close together and even a rutting! It was incredible. We returned to the resort and Ruwanka had arranged for us to eat outdoors on the deck – he moved a table out as there is no outdoor seating yet! We had a fine Sri Lanka banquet including their own Arrack. I made mention of the fact there is no music in the resort! Ishan put on a load of Irish music which was hilarious but I think the point was missed! The night sky is something else here as you can see all of the constella