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 (USD322.32), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
It’s fitting that immensely eco-friendly Sri Lankan stay Jetwing Vil Uyana is a sanctuary for slow lorises, because on arrival you’ll be as wide-eyed as these rare cuties as you take in the biodiverse terrain (from marshland to lake to forest), embrace close animal encounters (even wild elephants peep in from time to time), and admire Sigriya’s soaring rock fortress in the background. You might serenely shut your eyes for Balinese spa spoiling, but you’ll be awake and alert for cave-temple trips, night safaris and getting tips on how to show the Earth more love through this nurturing nature reserve.
Noon. Earliest check-in, 2pm. Both are flexible, subject to a charge (US$90 for checking in from 8am to 2pm or checking out until 7pm).
Prices
Double rooms from £304.56 ($380), including tax at 18 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional service charge of 10% per room per night on check-in.
More details
Rates don’t include breakfast (US$15 a guest).
Also
Unfortunately the layout of the resort makes it unsuitable for guests with reduced mobility.
At the hotel
Tropical grounds, farm, gym, library with books about Sri Lankan history and architecture, boutique, bikes to borrow for free, charged laundry service, board games, and free WiFi. In rooms: butler and local mobile phone for making contact, TV and DVD player, tea- and coffee-making kit, minibar, bottled water, sarongs and hats, slippers, umbrella, torch, ceiling fan and air-conditioning, and custom bath products. All except the Garden Dwellings have a plunge (or swimmable) pool and Bose sound-system, too.
Our favourite rooms
Your preferred room depends which element you feel most connected to. Each thatch-topped traditionally styled dwelling has a pinch-me view, but the biodiversity here means scenes that are leafy and lacustrine by turn, or beds facing the marshes or paddy fields. The Forest Dwelling has the largest private pool, the Water Dwelling has a stilted overwater balcony, and the Garden Dwelling doesn’t have a pool or sound-system if swimming and playlists are essential to your relaxation routine. And, if you don’t mind a langur monkey swinging into your open-air shower, you’ll have the most animal encounters in the Paddy Dwellings.
Poolside
The infinity pool sits behind the main building overlooking the lake, with loungers by the sides and very leafy views. It’s peaceful, yet bustling with nature, be it nosy peacocks, gliding brahminy kites, maybe even the – friendly – part-resident croc going for a swim (in the lake, not the pool).
Spa
Island Spa (open 8am to 8pm), which is indeed surrounded by a lily-strewn lake, brings in Balinese therapists to impart their homeland’s healing practices, alongside coconutty Sri Lankan body scrubs, Ayurvedic massages, shiatsu, Himalayan salt exfoliation, and spa mani-pedis. It’s set in walkway-connected overwater pavilions, and there’s a steam room, cold-water plunge pool, and Jacuzzi for further unwinding. A gym – with motivating lake views – is open for workouts from 6am to 8pm, and yoga classes can be arranged on request.
Packing tips
Bring binoculars for snooping on shyer creatures, and maybe higher-grade photo equipment than a phone for some hang-on-the-wall holiday snaps. Leave space for spices (grown by a local family), hand-rolled organic tea, home-grown rice, sarongs, stone figurines, and more from the on-site boutique.
Also
If you’re unsure of the correct way to wear the sarong in your dwelling – don’t worry, there’s an instruction leaflet. Or you could ask your butler, who you can call any time on the local mobile phone provided.
Children
Calm, well-behaved older kids are welcome here. There are no dedicated facilities, but they'll enjoy the rambling grounds, family barbecues, spa treatments for smalls, and wild encounters.
Sustainability efforts
This 28-acre private nature reserve is – whisper it – man-made, but you wouldn’t guess. Each of its five habitats teems with life, from rare slow lorises to shy fishing cats to the odd croc, who – aside from native fish species introduced into the lake – have moved in of their own accord. Having this on your doorstep makes for remarkable communions with nature; some creatures may even come right up to your balcony. And these are ongoing efforts, with tree plantings, in-depth research and a Community Wildlife Education Centre and Library built in a local monastery. To ensure harmonious space-sharing, environmental architect Sunela Jayawardena was called in to design the hotel’s pavilions. Their openness cuts back on the need for artificial lighting and ventilation, thatch roofs and clay walls insulate guest-dwellings, and those built over the lake are passively cooled. Water is collected from rainfall and waste is treated on-site, the hotel’s sister property provides glass water bottles from its own plant, and a farm sustains the kitchen. And, alongside buying spices from local suppliers, Jetwing’s Youth Development Project provides free training in hospitality and more to disadvantaged children across the island.
A treehouse alcove soundtracked by birdsong, a candlelit picnic on pouffes in the paddy fields, a barbecue on garden lawns, dining à deux in an open-air spa pavilion: Jetwing’s five ecosystems each have their own kind of magic for private meals.
Dress Code
The restaurant’s murals and frescoes will inspire you to dress in luminous gold hues with splashes of sizzling Sri Lankan colour.
Hotel restaurant
Jetwing Vil Uyana’s fine-dining spot Apsara is set in an open vaulted pavilion with a floor-to-ceiling mural depicting an elephant battle, painted by a local artist; but there are lake views (and a glimpse of Sigiriya Fortress) to look at too. Delicately plated dishes are a mix of western, Asian and authentic Sri Lankan flavours, made using homegrown produce or ingredients sourced very close by – think lots of fresh fish and coconutty sweet treats. And, it might look exceedingly grand with its thatched pavilion resting on sturdy red pillars, but Sulang is a more laidback café for light eats and snacks. If you’re taken with the exotic flavours on show here, you can either try the farm lunch experience, where you’ll pick fruits and vegetables to eat in a typical village dwelling on the on-site farm, or learn more each Saturday evening, when executive chef Mahesh invites a local villager down to share some culinary know-how during a live cooking session as you eat.
Hotel bar
Rather than tags and neon scribbles, the Graffiti Bar has a more historic kind of wall decor, with frescoes inspired by those at Sigiriya. It’s intimate, candlelit and set beside a pond adorned with floating blue lotus flowers, so it’s also something of a romantic when it comes to spirit sipping, cocktails in coconuts and arak tastings. Abstainers can try the many high-end Sri Lankan teas on offer (the good stuff that usually gets exported), from cinnamon chai to butterfly pea to a natural tea-bag that looks a lot different from a Tetley. And, to keep nights flowing smoothly, the hotel has a stocked-to-the-rafters wine cellar decorated with repurposed antique railway sleepers, where special meals for two can be held on request.
Last orders
At Apsara, breakfast is from 6.30am to 10.30am, lunch from 12.30pm to 3pm and dine from 7.30pm to 10.30pm. Graffiti Bar stops pouring at 11pm.
Jetwing Vil Uyana sits in Sri Lanka’s radiantly green hinterland, surrounded by lakes and tropical lushness, just a 15-minute drive from Sigiriya’s towering Lion rock fortress.
Planes
International travellers will need to land at Colombo’s Bandaranaike International Airport, and then either book the four-hour transfer to the hotel (US$145 each way) or take a half-hour flight to Sigiriya Airport (a 10-minute drive away) with Cinnamon Air.
Trains
Habarana is the nearest station (a half-hour drive), which has connections to Colombo. Transfers can be arranged for US$30 one-way.
Automobiles
Driving in Sri Lanka is possible, but not hassle-free – you’ll need to verify your licence before arrival, stick to the left side of the road, avoid driving at night, and carry ID. It’s easier and not overly expensive to hire a local driver, so you can sit back and enjoy the scenery. But, if you bring hire wheels, there’s a secure carpark on-site. For pootling about the property there's a fleet of golf buggies you can call on when needed.
Other
Make an entrance and touch down on the hotel’s helipad.
Worth getting out of bed for
Set inland, at the heart of Sri Lanka’s cultural triangle, Jetwing Vil Uyana has five distinct habitats to explore, each alive with tropical flora and fauna: emerald gardens, marshland, paddies, lakes and bamboo forest. Borrow one of the hotel’s bikes for a whip round, or wander the more leisurely 1.5-kilometre nature trail to spy crimson rose butterflies, soporific fishing cats, brahminy kites, langur monkeys, and maybe even the odd crocodile or elephant. Perhaps even wilder is the soaring ‘Lion Rock Fortress’ of Sigiriya, a Unesco-protected site from the fifth century, set atop a nearly 200-metre granite pillar; to get a better view climb up neighbouring rock and former monks’ residence Pidurangala, which also has Sri Lanka’s oldest brick Buddha statue tucked into it. They’re not the only high art around here, with Dambulla Rock Temple close by; this sanctuary has been built into an outcrop 160 metres up, and is littered with historic Buddha statues and lined with around 1,500 murals. And, more ancient wonders lie further afield, with dagaba shrines and one of the world’s longest surviving trees at Anuradhapura, and the ruins of an 11th-century Kandyan kingdom at Polonnaruwa. Kandy, a city settled in the 4th century, has a temple dedicated to the Buddha’s tooth alongside floating sacred sites and lush botanical gardens. These ancestral feats of architecture and engineering are matched in spectacle by the wildlife; at Minneriya National Park, ‘the gathering’ sees hundreds of elephants congregate between June and September; dolphins and whales frolic off the eastern coast between March and September; and leopards thrive at Wilpattu National Park to the northwest. On property, Rangirigama Lake is home to around 120 bird species, making the skies a natural theatre, with the resident naturalist as your narrator; and on the loris night trail, you’ll gently trek into the forest to seek out the shy wide-eyed creatures, rarely found elsewhere on the island.
Local restaurants
There are few other eateries in the near vicinity, but you could try the Viewing Gallery (named for its leafy scenery) or Chinese restaurant Lu Lin at sister stay Jetwing Lake (a 30-minute drive away), with its temptingly steamy dumpling baskets and elevated far-Eastern fare.
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 sustainable superstar of a hotel in Sigiriya after falling utterly in love with slow lorises, a full account of their what-a-wonderful-world break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Jetwing Vil Uyana in Sri Lanka…
You almost expect Sri Lankan sanctuary Jetwing Vil Uyana to be narrated by David Attenborough, as langur monkeys nose in on you showering, elephants thump over to the on-site stream for a drink, peacocks swan in on cocktail hour, and at night even the shy slow lorises show themselves on walks through their protected patch of land. This impressive conservation project took a swathe of slash-and-burn paddy field and turned it into five distinct ecosystems, from marshland to lake to forest, and gradually native plants sprang back up and animals moved on in. Then the owners decided to show humans the same care with sustainably built thatch dwellings in scenic settings (each with its own butler), fine Sri Lankan dining, and an overwater spa with blissful Balinese therapies. With Sigiriya Rock Fortress close enough to see in the background, other soaring temples and ancient towns nearby, you’re immersed in the country’s cultural landscape too, but you’ll still be eager to return to the wildlife-roamed one on your doorstep.
