Mr & Mrs Smith

Paradise Road The Villa Bentota

Bentota, Sri Lanka

Mangrove-scattered sands cloak Paradise Road The Villa Bentota in a rusticity that’s fabulously at odds with its orderly garden surrounds. Dating back to the 19th-century, this gorgeous Bentota boutique hotel was renovated first by iconic Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa, and more recently by design guru Shanth Fernando, who transformed it into the south-west coast’s most sensational seaside retreat.

Need to know

• Rooms 15, including seven suites.
• Rates Double rooms from $180.00, excluding tax at 24.2 per cent.
  Prices have been converted from the hotel's local currency ($180), via XE.com, using today's exchange rate.
• More details Rates include full English or Sri Lankan breakfast (à la carte breakfast costs extra).
• Facilities Massage room, shop, gallery, gardens, free WiFi in public areas. In rooms: flatscreen TV with cable, minibar, Spa Ceylon Ayurveda for Paradise Road toiletries.
• Poolside A slender lap pool with parasol-topped terrace stretches across the garden to a shady sea-view pavilion; a smaller, shallower lawn-edged pool languishes in a frangipani-flecked inner courtyard.
• Check-out 12pm, but flexible subject to availability. Late check-outs up to midnight cost US$125. Check-in, 2pm. Free early check-in, subject to availability.
• Children Baby cots are complimentary, and kids up to five can share senior Smiths beds for free. Extra beds for the over-fives cost US$31 a child a night including breakfast. More...
• Also Smoking is allowed in outside areas only.

Food and drink at Paradise Road The Villa Bentota

• Hotel restaurant Rattan chairs and tables serenely set the scene in the airy Villa Café, a pillared pavilion which serves up local and international fare from an open kitchen with a wood-fired pizza oven. Try the Sri Lankan black pork curry, the crab and coconut risotto or meet your chocolate nemesis.
• Dress code Demure: as long as you’re not in bikinis or board shorts, chic comfort beats super-styled any day.
• Top table Make a beeline for the raised garden pavilions that peek seawards through the palms; there are only three so get there early.
• Last orders Around 10.30pm for food orders as Villa Café closes at 11pm, or a little later for drinks.
• Room service The complete restaurant menu is available in-room from 8am to 11pm.
• Hotel bar Swig delectable cocktails including passion fruit margaritas and fiery tamarind-chilli martinis from cushioned cane sofas, which spill out onto a cobbled, lawn-fringed terrace.

Also worth knowing

• Weddings This property is suitable for weddings. More...

Paradise Road The Villa Bentota Mohotti Walauwa 138/18 - 138/22 Galle Road, Bentota