A truly amazing place to stay! Waterland was our choice of stay for our first two nights in Srilanka. We chose it due its proximity to the airport. This is the perfect retreat for those looking to get some rest and recover before or after travels in srilanka. The staff are so attentive, really kind and always have a smile on their face. The room itself is stunning. We stayed in the elephant villa and would throughly reccomend it, it faces the river and is so calming to wake up to. The bed is large and the AC kept us cool. The private pool and loungers are also great, providing a great way to soak up the sun and relax privately. We enjoyed a river safari boat tour which was excellent, saw plenty of water monitors (large lizards) and land monitors. We also saw some beautiful birds along the way. Its really scenic! We enjoyed having the option to have lunch/dinner on our private terrace too. Breakfast and lunch were our favourites in terms of taste, we thought dinner was fine. I read some reviews commenting on bugs etc, but we expected this coming to srilanka that some insects sneaking into rooms is totally unavoidable. Waterland do an excellent job of trying to keep them out. There are mosquito nets, mosquito zap machines, signs saying to shut the patio doors and signs saying not to eat inside the room. So this is very reasonable and so when we did see some ants, a tiny spider or 2, it was expected as waterland is in the heart of nature. Don't let the small insects put you off! We took some drone footage of the area and it's truly stunning! Very picturesque. We plan to visit waterland on our next stay in srilanka and I have advised my family who travel often into the country to always make this their first stop from now on!

Lunch and breakfast were great but dinner was only fine. Perhaps this is because we are vegetarian, maybe the meat options are better. I would suggest improving the flavours and options for dinner to match the standards of breakfast and lunch! The price for dinner is more too, and as the breakfast/was tastier, my suggestion would be to up the flavours in the dinners. Another suggestion is that whilst we loved the boat tour, we read that it was 1 hour and a half. When in fact it was 1 hour and 5 mins. This isn't a big deal but it's good to manage expectations.

it's clean and huge with greenery and backwater surrounding.

there is no mirror in the villa, for our 3 days stay we booked a peacock villa, the villa doesn't have a mirror and also no phone or intercom to contact the staff in case if any emergency or room service, everytime you have to walk in to the reception or kitchen area. the staff has been well trained to say no for every request.

The place is perfect, but near 2 rivers with a lot of motor boats, so noise from thise and also some air polutiom. The sunset is amazing; therevwas no neer or wine at the restaurant, but the staff helped us get a tuktuk and we were going to buy it in the city.

The air polution from the boats and their noise; but maybe it was only that day!

Service attitude of staff.

Not as clean as we expect. We could not communicate with the hote to infor a very late arrivall as there was onky one person on staff and he did not pickup the phone.

We stayed in the Peacock Villa. Everything was perfect, spacious rooms beautifully decorated with a private plunge pool. We loved that we could dine privately on our terrace and enjoyed all of our meals here.The staff were all friendly and efficient and so welcoming.

Super find…lovely room…clean and spacious. very comfortable. delicious food and excellent service..we were only sorry we couldn’t stay longer.

no complaints at all….it was so lovely.

nicely located, 30min from the airport so good to stay there on day of arrival or the night before leaving. in proximity to the river in a quiet neighborhood! staff is friendly and helpful and food is delicious! rooms are nicely decorated especially the elephant room and peacock room!

prices are a excessive for Sri Lanka especially for the food and other services like safaris. we went into a river safari but unfortunately the guide did not speak English so he was simply pointing and we were guessing… we wanted to do a massage but they told us that we should have booked the day before (and we didn’t know!) then told us they were on leave…

Amazing place with a helpful team..Manager Rangana is the best!!! Peacock wonderful villa for chilling.

Everything was perfect..

The surrondings were nice. Shower was great. Boat ride.

Limited options for food that needed to be confirmed ahead of time. Location was a bit far from the center- tuk tuk needed to get to the food and shop areas.

Amazing villas with private pools. Really spacious too with terrace and living rooms. The breakfast was delicious. Friendly and helpful staff.

The property is a bit isolated and you will need to call tuk tuks to get into town.

A beautiful modern Villa with private pool, large comfy bed, private outside dining area, amazing bathroom with rain shower and lovely toiletries, fresh coffee and a fridge for fresh milk. Good Wi-Fi.

The room was too light from the mosquito trap which affected our sleep.

very comfortable room, spacious toilet, with rain shower dropping Water from ceiling, the bungalow was built and Decorated as imprison of Sri Larkin traditional way, rustic Asian style, happy & very satisfied ,reception manger “rahoul”, helped me out through my staying

2 times power supply were cutting off, very shortly they resumed back the power

Everything! We stayed in the peacock villa. It was incredibly comfortable and homely. The view of the river was spectacular and we especially loved the private pool. We had dinner on our terrace both nights, overlooking the river. The food (breakfast, lunch and dinner) was all exceptional with an authentic Sri Lankan taste. The staff in particular made our stay especially enjoyable. They were always available to help and did everything with a smile. Lahiru and Hasaranda (sorry not sure how to spell it) really looked after our every need during our stay. It was my birthday and they made everything feel so special- they decorated the villa with happy birthday decorations and even sang happy birthday with a cake for me! The owner Mark was also incredibly welcoming and lovely. I would come back in a heartbeat. Claire

Everything was perfect

Warm welcome with a delicious drink. Spacious room and bathroom. Soft towels, also pool towels. Comfortable beds. Very friendly and helpful staff. The food in the restaurant is delicious. I can recommend the spa. We were offered a late check-out without extra charge. Perfect place to relax a few days.

Nothing to mention. Just a suggestion to encourage guests to have dinner in the hotel every day, it would help to extend the offer a bit (dishes are quite similar every day)

Private pool and the calm environment . The studio villa has been designed with utmost care to make guests feel relaxed and have a peaceful stay.

Nothing

The place was very good unless the incident of stealing which destroyed our stay in the hotel

We got stolen inside our room, someone we don't know whether from hotel staff or outside the hotel entered our room and steal our personal staff and important things Also many insects and wall geckos we found everyday inside the room

I'm writing this review on the final day of what has been one of our most enjoyable vacations to date. The staff at Waterland, literally cannot do enough for you. Everything they do and say, is done so with the intention of providing you with a memorable experience. I think it's also important to note that they put just as much stock in the free activities as they do in the paid. As an example, Lahiru would often remind us that there are free bicycles to take whenever we like (we cycled to the beach) free pool table, books, games etc and only once did he say, oh we also do a paid boat tour if you want to see some of the wildlife and canals, which we did and loved it! The rooms themselves seem absolutly beautiful though we were only stayed in the deluxe 2 bed so i can't speak to the contents of the others. However the pool, the underwater lighting, the beatifully polished marble finish, the giant beds, the freshly ground morning coffee, the table football and the ridiculously sized bathrooms were just some of the villa's highlights. I know talking about money is a little vulgar in a review but the value on offer here is actually mindblowing to me. We have paid considerbly more for similar experiences and those did not include food. Speaking of which, the amount of flavour the chef and their team squeeze into their servings is equally surprising. The coconut and lemongrass soup is honestly one of the tastest dishes we've ever eaten. My wife could not get enough of the fruit salads and I personally couldn't get enough of the delicious french toast for breakfast! I'd also like to mention how unique and relaxing their Spa is, it's literally floating on the river! You lay there, being gently rocked by the natural current! Please bear in mind that I'm writing this in the middle of the on-going Sri Lankan econimic crisis and we actually almost cancelled from what we'd seen in the media!

In an actual first, I ran out of space to list all the great points from this place. I just wanted to mention finally that the staff did so much for us while we were here, even setting up a floating heart of candles in our pool. Please give it a look :D The wifi isn't great (i don't think they can physucally do anything about that) but just pick up a sim card from the airport. It costs very little and you get loads of data. You literally just pop the sim in and you're good to go, no registering or messing about with anything. The signal is 4g and you won't have any issues streaming / browsing socials etc.

lovely private room with attached pool looking out onto the river

would like a fuller menu to make us stay put in the hotel had to get a tuc tuc to the beach road but did find a really nice place

Private pool, ambience and decor

such a wonderful place to chill & relax! the food was delicious. congrats to the chef! the staff was so welcoming, smiling and helpful. and the view… ❤️❤️❤️ thanks a lot!!!

nothing.

We checked in late afternoon and the entire staff were very helpful and managed to book us a last minute river boat tour and accommodated us for a late dinner. The entire dinner was exceptional. What a unique peaceful place a short drive from the airport. Will definitely stay again on future trips truly a hidden gem.

Beautiful villa with private pool, great location directly at the water, very tasty dinner and breakfast, and really kind and welcoming hotel personnel. Perfect location for a first stay after a long flight.

Self contained villa and pool

The place is very professional and clean And super good ❤️

Nothing

The staff was amazing and so friendly, loved the cooking class we did with the head chef. The room was beautiful and the location is very peaceful. I would highly recommend

there was nothing that i did not like

we stayed in the elephant villa with our own little pool and a fantastic view on the river. Everything was great and the food was delicious and very nicely presented.