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 (USD195.89), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
Whatever your nationality, it’s impossible not to feel at home in Ishq Colombo, a villa-slash-boutique hotel with four supersize rooms around a courtyard, immaculate gardens with not a leaf out of place and an array of collectibles gathered over a lifetime from every corner of the globe. The house was designed by a disciple of acclaimed Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa, and there’s no short box-room straw here. Anyone who tires easily will find a sanctuary at Ishq, since there’s a seat every few steps, from sofas to day-beds in windows to limited-edition Ceylon-ebony antiques, which is just as well because there’s lots to look at admiringly while you put your feet up.
Smith Extra
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A bottle of wine. GoldSmiths will also receive one four-course Sri Lankan supper
Double rooms from £172.55 ($215), including tax at 10 per cent.
More details
Rates usually include breakfast.
Also
The house is unfortunately not easily accessible for guests with mobility issues.
At the hotel
Free WiFi throughout, library. In rooms: air-conditioning, Bose sound-system, smart TV, safe, and bathrobes.
Our favourite rooms
There’s no bad choice among Ishq Colombo’s four rooms, but if square-footage matters, you may want to select the frankly humongous Master Suite One, which has a living room that puts the average hotel-room ‘sitting area’ to shame and a four-poster bed – it’s also a sound option for anyone who tends to fill several suitcases, since it has its own wardrobe-lined dressing area, too. If proximity to the pool is your game, go for the Pool Suite, the only suite on the ground floor which also has easy access to the pool in the courtyard. And if you favour a roof terrace (or have some serious letter-writing/digital-nomading to do), the second Master Suite upstairs is the room with a view, desk and outdoor space for you.
Poolside
The villa is set around a riad-referencing courtyard, with a pool at its centre. Every room is positioned to overlook it and one has direct access.
Spa
Ishq Colombo has yet another place to sit around in – a small spa, with a Jacuzzi, steam room and, naturally, some enticing seating.
Packing tips
Leave the reading material behind – there’s bound to be something of interest amid the rare books and first editions in the owners’ library, which opens out onto the courtyard, making it a dream place to while away an afternoon.
Also
Ishq means ‘love’ in Arabic and this villa is certainly a passion project. If you don’t want to disturb the harmony with rows over the music, you’ll be pleased to hear that each room has an individually controlled Bose speaker.
Children
All but one of the bedrooms have space for an extra bed.
Sustainability efforts
The villa has solar panels and LED bulbs, and single-use plastics are outlawed. Ishq Colombo also uses all-natural, locally made bath products by the aptly named Green Pearl Ceylon.
The seating options at Ishq are too many to number, but things don’t get much grander than the long dining table, beneath a dazzling (literally) oblong chandelier and with some casual antique Iranian calligraphy behind it.
Dress Code
Boho, batik and your own souvenir kaftans will feel right at home here – and you’ll have full run of the place, so there are no rules.
Hotel restaurant
Breakfast is included daily and there’s a casual spot to enjoy it (a table for six, plus a patio to lounge around on afterwards), with a far fancier banquet-level room for later meals. The chef can whip up à la carte options for lunch; and dinners are designed to your preference.
Hotel bar
A mixologist is primed to mix your favourite drink throughout the day.
Last orders
This relaxed home on loan doesn’t deal in formality, but roughly speaking, catering is available between 7am and 10pm.
Ishq Colombo is in a quiet, leafy corner of Sri Lanka’s far more hectic capital.
Planes
The city’s main international airport is around a 45-minute drive away. The hotel team can arrange transfers from about US$100 one-way for up to six guests. If you’re travelling onwards in Sri Lanka, Ratmalana airport is a similar distance away and the tiny Diyawanna Oya is 20 minutes from the villa.
Trains
Colombo’s Fort Railway Station is a 20-minute drive away from Ishq.
Automobiles
There’s a garage at the property where guests can park for free. You’ll be within walking distance of the centre of Colombo though, so a car won’t be essential.
Worth getting out of bed for
You’ll want to devote some time to drifting around Ishq Colombo, discovering its many trinkets and charms, which include but are not limited to a Jacuzzi and steam room in an airy, conservatory-like space, a library filled to the literal rafters with first editions, gardens that the owner has tended to for a decade and a half, and multiple places to sit, read and snooze. You’ll be able to see Colombo from the roof terrace and when you’re eventually ready to venture out, you can go armed with your renewed interiors inspo and head straight to Paradise Road, a concept store appropriately housed in the former offices of Geoffrey Bawa. Or if you prefer your trinkets to be wearable, you can go in search of jewellery at Pettah Market. Other highlights in the capital city include Galle Face Green, the Buddhist temple Gangaramaya and Independence Square.
Local restaurants
Antiques pilgrims can find sustenance at the Gallery Café on Alfred House Road next door. And if you find yourself in need of sushi near Galle Face Green, Nihonbashi is the authentic Japanese restaurant to help. And for the flavours of every corner of South-East Asia, Monsoon is the satay-, rendang- and laksa-dispensing joint for you.
Local cafés
If you’ve been admiring the vintage photographs of old Ceylon lining the villa’s walls, you can see the sporting edition at the Cricket Club Cafe on Flower Road.
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 homey hotel in Sri Lanka and unpacked their own textiles and trinkets, a full account of their city break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Ishq in Colombo…
In the words of Ishq Colombo’s namesake detective, there’s always just one more thing to discover in a characterful corner of this holiday home on loan, whether you happen upon the pillars salvaged from an abandoned mansion in India, a set of old temple doors, a Kashmiri carpet or the Iranian calligraphy behind the dining table (we could go on). Each of the four suites has ample space, soaring ceilings and most have their own sitting room, too – guests booking one-room occupancy can take their pick of the lot. Whichever gets your shotgunned vote, you won’t be disappointed. The house’s designer Channa Daswatte is a protégé of the acclaimed Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa and many of his principles are alive and well at Ishq, whether in the drawing room, with its gallery level ready for a jazz-band serenade, the indoor-outdoor living, the abundant greenery or the vines creeping around the property. There’s a casual corner for breakfasts, which are included every day, and a state-banquet-ready dining room for more formal occasions (or just that night’s dinner). A mixologist and a chef are on hand to prepare drinks, à la carte lunches and bespoke suppers. In fact, there are so many one more things to browse, you’d be forgiven for barely venturing into Colombo. The city is just outside but you’d hardly know it from the birdsong-soundtracked, lovingly tended gardens. Explore, dream, discover – but hurry back home.
