If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (USD212.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
A storied villa, spruced up to Unesco-approved standards, at the heart of Sri Lanka’s time-capsule coastal town: Galle Fort Hotel is a boutique stay for the history books. Spacious suites are dotted with rare Dutch antiques, wallpapers have been hand-painted by local artists and a grand verandah skirts the frangipani-scented pool – it’s been a few centuries since this was a gem merchant’s mansion, but there’s still plenty of old-world treasure here. Between the colonnades and colonial curios, though, homegrown Sri Lankan culture stays front and centre, with heritage Sri Lankan dining and a bar where a revival of the country’s signature spirit arrack is in full swing.
Smith Extra
Get this when you book through us:
A free cocktail each, plus a cocktail mixing demonstration
12pm, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 2pm.
Prices
Double rooms from £221.54 ($277), including tax at 30.5 per cent.
More details
Rates at Galle Fort Hotel include breakfast, a fortifying feast of Sri Lankan specialities, cooked Western favourites and a classic Continental spread.
Also
Unfortunately, the hotel is not wheelchair accessible.
At the hotel
Swimming pool, courtyard garden, free WiFi throughout. In rooms: Spa Ceylon bath products, air-conditioning, ceiling fan, coffee and tea-making facilities, and free bottled water.
Our favourite rooms
Each room harks back to a different era of Galle’s swashbuckling past, with a careful curation of hand-picked antiques and original art. For bibliophiles, the Library Suite is a no-brainer – the imposing coffee table is stacked with rare tomes, plus there’s a super-comfy sofa for curling up in companionable silence with your chosen volumes.
If you’re bringing friends or family in tow, the Admiral Cheng Ho Suite has two king-size beds (though expect a pillow fight over the astonishing carved Chinese four-poster). It’s worth noting that the suite’s spiral staircase means it’s less suited to very little ones. For two princess-worthy four-poster beds, plus plenty of living (or larking-about) space, book the Grand Apartment Room and Grand Apartment Suite together.
Poolside
Shaded by palms and fragrant frangipani trees, the turquoise pool is the focal point of the quiet courtyard garden.
Packing tips
Cobblestone streets call for comfy kicks, but fill that suitcase sparingly – you’ll need ample space for the inevitable piles of spices and Ceylon tea you’ll pick up.
Also
If these walls could talk, they’d have the lowdown on the fort’s long history. Like all the old town walls, they’re made of coral and shells from the ballast of trading ships. The team's careful work on them won a Unesco Award for Heritage Conservation.
Children
Little Smiths over six are welcome. An extra bed can be added to the Library Suite for US$30 a night for each child.
On balmy evenings, a candlelit alfresco supper out on the verandah is hard to beat.
Dress Code
Let your surroundings set the tone – something time-tested and effortlessly stylish.
Hotel restaurant
There’s an air of a colonial dignitary’s dining room about the hotel’s restaurant, a mahogany-table-and-cane-back-chair affair spiced up by displays of antique china plates and raksha masks. Speaking of spice, the menu champions traditional Sri Lankan cuisine and super-fresh, locally sourced ingredients. Expect cockle-warming curries, vibrant bowls of noodles and straight-from-the-surf seafood.
Hotel bar
Ropewalk bar’s raison d’être is simple – put arrack, Sri Lanka’s rum-like spirit made from coconut flowers, back on the map. Head mixologist Nabeel’s inventive cocktail menu makes nifty use of locally grown aromatics and, of course, artisanal arrack. Try an arrack sour infused with lemongrass and ginger, or play teacher’s pet and opt for Nabeel’s personal favourite, a decadent blend of arrack, tropical fruits, treacle and masala tea. And don’t worry, tequila traditionalists – they make a mean margarita here, too.
Last orders
Breakfast is served from 7.00 to 9.30am. Otherwise, Ropewalk restaurant’s main menu is served all day, so roll up whenever your stomach starts to rumble.
Room service
If stirring from your suite sounds a bit too much like hard work, dishes from the restaurant’s main menu can be delivered straight to your door from 6am until midnight.
Galle Fort Hotel is set within the old walls of Galle, an atmospheric 17th-century fort town on Sri Lanka’s southern coast.
Planes
Colombo’s Bandaranaike Airport is the nearest international hub. From there, it’s a two-and-a-half-hour drive – the hotel can hook you up with transfers for US$116 each way.
Trains
Galle Railway Station is just a 10-minute drive away, and the hotel can arrange transfers for around US$1.50 each way. Handily, you can hop on a train direct from Colombo’s Fort Station.
Automobiles
You’re unlikely to need your own wheels – the fort’s higgledy lanes and historic walls were made for walking, and the hotel will happily suss out transport for you to get you all across Sri Lanka.
Worth getting out of bed for
Get your culture fix in before breakfast by exploring your suite’s array of original art and antiques. Steamy afternoons are best spent in the courtyard garden, vacillating between a sunlounger and the palm- and frangipano-flanked pool. An evening at Galle Fort Hotel’s bar is practically an educational endeavour, with so many historical artefacts to admire – plus, you’ll leave well-versed in Sri Lanka’s signature spirit, arrack. Or take your nightcap out on the verandah for some late-night people-watching. Kickstart your sightseeing with a walk along the old town walls. The full circuit should take under two hours – en route, you’ll be treated to panoramic ocean views, and tick off must-see landmarks like the historic clock tower and ramparts that have seen some serious derring-do over the centuries. Loop back around come evening, when locals and tourists alike kick back on the western wall to catch the sunset over the sea. Also on your heritage hit-list: the Dutch Reformed Church, with its electric-blue ceiling and eerie tombstone carvings, and the Maritime Archaeology Museum, an old spice warehouse now home to a millennia-spanning array of locally unearthed artefacts. Prettily whitewashed and palm-framed, the town’s 19th-century lighthouse makes for a striking photo op. The pint-sized Lighthouse Beach is worth a stroll while you’re there, but for wide golden sands and inviting surf head 20 minutes along the coast to Unawatuna Beach.
Local restaurants
For a seafood feast, make a beeline for Bastille. Specialities include juicy garlic prawns, snapper pan-fried with chilli and citrus, and a crab curry so scrumptious it’s got something of a cult following.Set foot in Amangalla’s Dining Room and you could be forgiven for thinking you’d stepped straight off a P&O steamer, circa 1870. Elegant chandeliers, white tablecloths and antique silverware form a suitably swish setting for the menu of elevated Sri Lankan and European classics.
Local cafés
Royal Dutch Cafe’s owner Fazal has a rep for serving the best tea in town – and spinning the best yarns. Stop in for a cup of his famous masala chai or settle in for a home-cooked curry lunch as he spills the tea on the fort’s colourful past.
Local bars
You needn’t stray far from your suite for a top-notch tipple – the hotel’s own Ropewalk bar is one of the coolest spots in town. Fresh mango bellinis only enhance the view from Amangalla’s rooftop bar, where cocktail hour coincides with a spectacular sunset over the old town and the ocean beyond. And the historic Old Dutch Hospital has been given a new lease of life, courtesy of the host of laid-back, local-favourite hangouts that now call it home.
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this heritage hotel in Galle and unpacked their artisanal arrack and hand-woven accessories, a full account of their cultured coastal break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Galle Fort Hotel in Sri Lanka…
If we describe Galle Fort Hotel as museum-worthy, don’t get us wrong – this is no stuffy sanctum of dust-gathering curios and ‘do not touch’ signs. The hotel’s been an important part of Galle Fort’s history for hundreds of years, and preserving that’s a serious business – a Unesco nod for the team’s conservation efforts is testament to that. But fortunately for us, the philosophy here is ‘if you’ve got it, flaunt it’. A hands-on history lesson here might start with some sun-catching out on the original verandah, followed by a dip in the frangipani-shaded pool. After a peruse of the antique collection, how does a G&T under the grand Palladian archway sound? By sundown, you’ll be pulling your PJs from the colonial-era cabinet and snuggling down into your ornate four-poster bed like you’ve been doing it all your life.
Plus, a healthy respect for the past doesn’t mean innovation’s off the menu. At the Ropewalk bar, innovative cocktails inject new life into heritage spirit arrack. The restaurant puts a modern spin on traditional Sri Lankan fare, and murals hand-painted by local artists pay tribute to the town’s bohemian present. Sure, it’s been a few centuries since its first life as a gem merchant’s mansion, but there’s still plenty of treasure to be found at Galle Fort Hotel.
