Wallawwa

Buttery beaches, turquoise seas and coconut-fuelled food... By the time we set course for Wallawwa, we’ve already spent a week exploring Sri Lanka's west coast and have fallen in love with the country. We’ve also stayed in some sublime hotels so this boutique abode, our final stop before heading home to Delhi, has a lot to live up to.

‘When are we going to get there?’ screams Master Smith, the batteries in his portable DVD player having long ago given up. A few hours into the car journey, a tropical storm – the kind usually reserved for Hollywood movies – erupts. The stop-start traffic becomes even more staccato as we inch our way through Colombo, eventually turning off the main highway onto increasingly slimmer roads and past ever smaller villages. By this time we no longer care about being impressed; we just want to arrive.

‘Hooray’, shout the two mini Smiths, as our car turns into a lush, gravel-lined path that curves through The Jungle Book-type greenery. We step onto an elegant veranda overlooking a tropical garden peppered with loungers and ruby-red umbrellas. Fortunately, given everyone's frayed nerves, there's no formal check-in, and after a welcoming freshly squeezed fruit juice we're shown to our room.

'Wallawwa', we discover as we're led along a colonnaded walkway, means 'colonial house', and this 18th-century, single-storey manor once belonged to the head chieftain of Galle. Today, the hotel boasts 14 rooms that sit on opposite sides of a central pond filled with lotus flowers and dozens of frogs. Our Garden Suite is elegantly furnished with a king-size four-poster bed framed by white curtains that double as mosquito nets. A window seat with views onto the private outdoor terrace later transforms into an extra bed. The bright, terrazzo-lined bathroom is enormous, with soaring ceilings, twin basins and a rain shower. What we're all most excited about, however, are the in-room games: Jenga, Uno and a Rubik's Cube, which Mr Smith instantly sets about trying to solve.

There's a distinct Balinese feel to this old Sri Lankan bungalow, thanks to its chic, dark wood furniture, tropical-patterned upholstery and soothing water features. It's also wonderfully relaxed; the staff all wear shorts and polo shirts and are seemingly oblivious to the two small children tearing around the property. Could it be that we've finally found a stylish boutique hotel that really does cater for families? One look at the guestbook (and the numerous happy comments from kids) confirms it.

Chef Gayan heads up the kitchen at Wallawwa, and his food has a stellar reputation. For dinner, Mr Smith opts for the black pork curry and I choose the grilled mahi mahi followed by an incredible mango crumble with vanilla custard. This mouth-watering dinner sets the tone for the remainder of our stay and over the next 48 hours we proceed to eat our own body weight in food.

Breakfast the following morning consists of fruit, eggs Benedict, pancakes and granola with buffalo curd. The kids later enjoy beautifully fried fish and chunky hand-cut chips from the children’s menu, and we indulge in high tea, a Mad Hatter-inspired two-tiered platter of sandwiches, scones, biscuits, banana bread and flapjacks. Our second dinner is equally extravagant, thanks to a spread of rich local curries followed by home-made cardamom and wasabi ice-cream. Bliss.

Trips to Colombo city, the beaches and fish markets at Negombo and the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage are all within easy reach if you’re based at Wallawwa. The previous day's journey still fresh in our minds, however, we decide to stay put and make the most of what the hotel has to offer.

Child-friendly distractions abound, from cricket bats and croquet mallets, to a computer in the library, board games, and a beautiful swimming pool tucked away in a shady corner of the garden. We would have spent all day here lounging but for the over-zealous mosquitoes, which were our only grumble. Mr Smith and I take it in turns to mind the kids while the other slips into the Z Spa; I enjoy the wonderfully restorative Z Signature Massage and Mr Smith goes for a Balinese deep-tissue massage. There's even a 'Kid'Z Massage' for children aged between two and 17, but the Smith juniors are too busy searching for cannonball flowers in the Kipling-esque gardens to lie still for the requisite 20 minutes.

Wallawwa's location just 20 minutes from Colombo's International Airport makes it a popular start and end point to Sri Lankan holidays. Our flight departs horribly early the following morning but we leave infinitely more relaxed than when we arrived, not to mention a couple of kilos heavier.