Negombo, Sri Lanka

Uga Riva

Price per night from$137.40

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 (USD137.40), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Uga Riva Photos

Style

Palm-hugged manor house

Setting

Halcyon historic estate

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A hushed, historic manor just half an hour from Colombo’s airport, Uga Riva makes a balance-restoring bookend for your Sri Lankan adventure. Spacious rooms, personalised service and a palm-fringed pool form a potent post-travel tonic. After a turn about the tropical gardens and a candlelit alfresco supper, you can say so long to real-world stresses. If you’re ending your trip here, prepare to push your flight back – ensconced in the Sri Lankan sweet life, one more night is a seductive prospect.

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A bottle of house wine

Facilities

Photos Uga Riva facilities

Need to know

Rooms

Seven, including one suite.

Check–Out

11am. Check-in is at 2pm, but both are flexible, subject to availability and an extra fee.

More details

Rates at Uga Riva include an à la carte breakfast with a range of classic Continental, American and Sri Lankan dishes.

Also

Unfortunately, Uga Riva is not suitable for guests with mobility needs.

At the hotel

Pool, gardens, yoga deck, paid laundry service and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: smart TV, air-conditioning, ceiling fan, Nespresso coffee machine, Ceylon tea-making kit, minibar, free bottled water, hairdryer, bathrobes and slippers.

Our favourite rooms

You’ll feel extra stately snuggling up in the Superior Room’s four-poster bed. Swing for the Premier Suite, and you’ll have a private, garden-gazing verandah.

Poolside

The adults-only pool is set amid the serene greenery of the garden. There’s a handful of sunloungers, and staff are on hand with ice water and towels, making it an alluring spot on sunny days. And at suppertime, you can ask for a candlelit table to be placed poolside. The pool is open daily from 7am to 9pm.

Packing tips

Plan to put your feet up – this is a place for face masks and your full to-be-read list.

Also

Finding your Zen here is as simple as flopping down in the garden or watching fish zigzag about the ornamental pond. But for an extra wellbeing boost, a plan is afoot for guided yoga sessions on the covered deck in the garden.

Children

All ages are welcome, but the peaceful atmosphere will suit older children best. An extra bed can be added to the Superior Room, on request and at an additional cost.

Sustainability efforts

Uga Riva has a no single-use plastic policy, using glass water bottles and plastic-free bath products, and the kitchen sources most of its produce from the local region.

Food and Drink

Photos Uga Riva food and drink

Top Table

Close your eyes and point in the gardens and you’ll land on an Edenic spot for supper, but if you’re seeking shade, ask for a table to be set up on the verandah.

Dress Code

Laidback linens – but nothing that won’t survive a stray splash of dhal.

Hotel restaurant

Uga Riva doesn’t have a formal restaurant. Instead, order whenever you feel peckish from an all-day menu packed with locally sourced produce. Options include light bites like salads and sandwiches, fragrant stir fries and a range of authentic Negombo curries. Breakfast could be eggs benedict, Ceylonese-spiced shakshuka or a basket of fresh-baked treats, but it’s worth ordering ahead for a traditional Sri Lankan spread of hoppers, pol roti, milk rice and herbal congee served alongside your choice of curry. And if you have an early start, just ask for breakfast to be packed up for the road.

Hotel bar

There’s no bar, but the hotel has a curated selection of wines, beers and spirits, and the near mind-reading staff will make sure you stay topped up, whatever palm-shaded spot you’ve settled in.

Last orders

Breakfast can be served whenever you fancy, and the all-day menu is available round the clock.

Room service

For extra-private dining, dishes can be delivered to your room at any time.

Location

Photos Uga Riva location
Address
Uga Riva
64/1 Thoppuwa Road
Negombo
11500
Sri Lanka

Uga Riva is set amid five acres of lush gardens, on a historic coconut palm estate in Negombo.

Planes

It’s just a half-hour drive from Colombo’s Bandaranaike International Airport. The hotel can arrange private transfers at additional cost on request.

Trains

Negombo Railway Station is a 20-minute drive away. The Colombo Commuter line links Negombo with Colombo and other towns in the region. The hotel can arrange transfers from the station on request.

Automobiles

Driving in Sri Lanka can be a little hair-raising for non-locals. Uga Riva is well-placed for the start or end of a Sri Lanka road trip, but hiring a driver may be a more relaxing option. If you do bring your own wheels, there’s private parking at the hotel.

Worth getting out of bed for

Chances are, you’ll want to take a stay in this secluded spot as a pre- or post-travel time-out. If you do fancy an adventure, try a boat trip on Negombo Lagoon, where monkeys feast on fruit in the mangrove forest. Further afield in Colombo, cultural highlights include the National Museum, packed with artefacts from Sri Lanka’s ancient past, and the gilded Gangaramaya and Seema Malaka temples.

Local restaurants

In this secluded spot, the nearby culinary scene is a little sparse. There’s an all-day menu at the hotel and the chefs are happy to cater to your cravings, so you’re unlikely to dine elsewhere.

Reviews

Photos Uga Riva 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 serene hotel in Sri Lanka with their new-found roti obsession and restored sense of serenity, a full account of their adventure-starting stay will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Uga Riva in Negombo…

Skip the soulless airport hotels – Uga Riva makes an alternative, altogether more soothing start for a Sri Lankan trip. Gandhi sojourned here in 1927, and the manor’s lost none of its knack for hospitality since then. A sigh of relief might slip out unbidden as you turn into the tropical estate. Nursing an arrack and lime poolside, you’ll notice your shoulders have lowered to their normal level. By dinnertime, you’re tucking into a home-cooked dhal and long-haul weariness is but a memory.

It’s an ideal springboard for setting off north to the Cultural Triangle, east to Kandy, or south to Galle, but makes a meditative final stop, too – so long as you’re strong-willed enough to actually, you know, leave. Scroll through holiday snaps over hot cups of Ceylon tea, doze off in a pin-drop quiet room, then wake for bird-sung yoga and still-warm pastries packed for the road – we can think of worse send-offs.

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Price per night from $137.40

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