Batticaloa District, Sri Lanka

Kalkudah Beach House

Price per night from$273.01

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (inclusive of taxes and fees) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (USD273.01), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Kalkudah Beach House Photos

Style

Palm Sundays

Setting

Coconut coast

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Skirting golden sands on Sri Lanka’s secluded east coast, Kalkudah Beach House is as life-affirming as a swig of coconut water. With just five rooms spread between two houses, this intimate estate feels like a private residence — albeit one that touts a clutch of sea-spying suites, shady verandas and a palm-studded croquet lawn. So few fellow guests means serenity is virtually guaranteed, whether you’re lolling by the pool, playing pétanque in the gardens or sampling barbecued Kalkudah crab on the beach.

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Facilities

Photos Kalkudah Beach House facilities

Need to know

Rooms

Five, including four suites.

Check–Out

Noon, and check-in is at 2pm. Both are flexible, on request and subject to availability.

More details

Rates include à la carte breakfast, afternoon tea, and pre-dinner drinks and canapés.

Also

With the exception of the Kalkudah Suite, all the rooms are on the ground floor, and all public areas are accessible. The hotel is also one of the very few stays in Sri Lanka to have a wheelchair-accessible pool.

At the hotel

Beach, paid laundry service and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: free bottled water, climate control, bathrobes and local bath products.

Our favourite rooms

Kalkudah’s rooms are split between the three-room Main House and the two-room Palm Villa. In the Main House, rooms have a more historic feel, with Dutch arched windows, stone or hardwood floors and wall-mounted brass lamps; go for a Beachfront Suite, each of which has an old-world-style veranda. Suites in the Palm Villa cut a sleeker and more modern figure, with vast picture windows facing the golden sands.

Poolside

There’s a 22-metre pool in the gardens, overlooking the palm-shrouded lawns and the beach beyond. There’s a separate shallow section for children and the main pool is wheelchair accessible, with a gently sloping ramp and handrail leading into the water.

Packing tips

A copy of A Passage North by award-winning Tamil writer Anuk Arudpragasam, a powerful account of Sri Lanka’s modern history.

Also

There are no TVs, but you won’t miss them thanks to a glut of lo-fi pursuits including books, board games, snooker, croquet and pétanque.

Pet‐friendly

Unfortunately, Kalkudah Beach House doesn’t accommodate pets. See more pet-friendly hotels in Batticaloa District.

Children

The hotel is well-suited to families: booking both rooms in the Palm Villa or all three in the Main House gives you exclusive use of their respective living and dining areas. Extra beds can be added for a charge and there’s a kids’ menu in the restaurant.

Sustainability efforts

The hotel runs on solar power, has an on-site water filtration system and participates in a beach-cleaning initiative. The restaurant sources its meat, fish, fruit and vegetables from suppliers in the immediate area.

Food and Drink

Photos Kalkudah Beach House food and drink

Top Table

You can’t beat the romance of a candlelit table on the beach.

Dress Code

Elegant, coast-inspired ensembles of cerulean blue and coconut white.

Hotel restaurant

One of the many boons of Kalkudah’s diminutive size is the flexible approach to dining. There’s a long, communal table in the pool pavilion, but you can also have your meals in the dining area of your residence, beneath the palms in the garden, or by the water’s edge. Sri Lankan chef Sumudu Kadawatha has cultivated a ‘zero kilometre’ approach to menus, striking up partnerships with farmers and fishermen on the doorstep — the latter deliver their daily catch to the beach in front of the hotel. Kalkudah Bay crab, red snapper and aromatic Sri Lankan curries are mainstays, but there’s a delicious line in Western comfort food too (try the slow-cooked black pork ragu). Don’t miss the chef’s beach barbecue, a showcase of Kalkudah’s bountiful waters.

Hotel bar

There’s no bar as such, but local beers, arak, whiskies and wines (both new- and old-world) can be served wherever you like. From 5pm to 6pm each evening, a selection of free drinks and canapés are set out for the hotel’s sundowner hour.

Room service

Available between 7.30am and 9.30pm.

Location

Photos Kalkudah Beach House location
Address
Kalkudah Beach House
Kalkudah
Kalkudah
30410
Sri Lanka

Kalkudah Beach House is on a coconut estate on Sri Lanka’s untouristy east coast, around 35 kilometres north of Batticaloa.

Planes

Most flights touch down at Bandaranaike International Airport in Colombo, a six-hour drive from the hotel; private transfers can be arranged with 48 hours' notice. You can cut your travel time dramatically by taking the Cinnamon Air seaplane from Colombo to Pasikudah-Batticaloa, which takes around 90 minutes. Once you’re on dry land, it’s a 45-minute drive to Kalkudah Beach House.

Automobiles

Driving in Sri Lanka can be a bit bewildering if you’re used to smooth tarmac and a strict highway code. Unless you’re determined to make the drive yourself, you’re better off hiring a professional to navigate the island’s roads. If you do bring a car, there’s free parking at the hotel.

Worth getting out of bed for

Kalkudah’s grounds are gloriously secluded, making lazy days here a joy. Pad between the nigh-deserted beach and pool, sip Ceylon teas on the shady veranda, and play croquet or pétanque on the lawns. Beyond the hotel, there’s much to pique your interest — and sense of adventure. Nearby bays are teeming with marine life, making this coastline a prime destination for snorkelling and wreck diving (a favourite spot is the WW2-era SS British Sergeant, now home to schools of kaleidoscopically coloured fish). The hotel can also arrange whale and dolphin watching off the coast of Trincomalee, guided tours of the Unesco-protected ancient city of Polonnaruwa, and surfing sessions at Sri Lankan hotspot Arugam Bay.

Local restaurants

You’re unlikely to find much in the area that will rival the food at the hotel. One local spot that is worthy — and within walking distance — is Hideaway Restaurant. You'll find plenty of Tamil and Sinhalese dishes on the menu, often cheffed up with French flair. It’s an equally enticing spot for sundowners — take a pew in the thatch-roofed lounge and order an Earl Grey Hills, made with rum, earl grey tea, lemon juice and kithul, a treacle-like palm sap with a slightly smoky caramel flavour.

Reviews

Photos Kalkudah Beach House reviews

Anonymous review

By Mr & Mrs Smith

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 beachfront estate in Batticaloa and unpacked their cinnamon from the local village, a full account of their coastal break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Kalkudah Beach House in Sri Lanka…

For years, Sri Lanka’s east coast has flown under the radar, forgotten in favour of the well-trodden southwest. And that, fellow traveller, is a good thing indeed. For if it wasn’t, Kalkudah Beach House might not have the pacifying powers that it does.

Ensconced within a coastal coconut palm plantation, this five-room retreat has no neighbours and lays claim to a pristine beach you won’t have to share, save perhaps for the fishermen who come ashore to deliver their catch into the hands of the chef. Slow living is gospel here. A day might start with a sunrise dip and Ceylon tea, hit a high point during whale watching beyond the reef, then take a controlled descent into dusky bliss, brought on by rum cocktails and red snapper sizzled over coals. In fact, such is the serenity of this hushed, happy grove that it almost feels like we’re spilling a secret by telling you about it…

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Price per night from $273.01

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