Cool live music every night in the lobby. They played water and regular volleyball every day. The territory is well guarded, traders and intruders were not allowed on the territory. Large "super" pool.
PS When we saw that we are waiting for a transfer to the plane - fed for free in the restaurant. Everything is great!
The rooms are cleaned daily, there is a mini bar but for a fee, the food is good, a lot of desserts. I have a sweet tooth! We did not order all inclusive, so as not to get fat, we took three meals a day, without alcohol.
Impressions are good, the tan is excellent! Rest calm, relax! Bad: crows cawing, there are really a lot of them on the territory of the hotel, small ants and mosquitoes in the room. On the territory of hungry skinny cats and dogs. It was a pity - fed! Have a good choice, pleasant impressions from the country, Health!
Better than many Egyptian and Turkish fours.
At the same time, you need to remember that you are going to a poor Asian country, and you should not expect a European level of comfort.
Without glamor and frills, but with taste and local flavor!
To be more specific. . .
Upon entering the hotel, you are greeted by a spacious lobby and hall overlooking a tropical garden, small lawns and partly the ocean, with small pools with fish, a hall without walls, under cover, coolness is provided by fans, which turned out to be very comfortable. Clean, furniture is new, not dirty.
As for the rooms, the hotel has three types of rooms: in the main building - deluxe and suites (more spacious), as well as small bungalows a few lines from the ocean.
We lived in the so-called deluxe. Of course, they have nothing to do with luxury, in the usual sense of the word, this is a standard, rather spacious room with a balcony, the furniture is not new, but not very “shabby”, the linen is clean, there is a refrigerator in the room, a safe, a tea set (kettle, cups , tea, coffee, cream, daily bottled water), TV, DVD player, fan and central air conditioning. The bathroom is normal, not very, but not very scary, the towels are clean.
At first we lived on the first (zero) floor, without a balcony, with access to the lawn from the room, the room smelled of dampness.
Then we were moved to the 3rd floor (2 - if you count "in English"), a better room and bathroom, overlooking the sea. Apparently the level of repair in different rooms is different...
The territory is quite large, very green and clean, right on the ocean, near the hotel there is a beach with a wide coastline, clean, with a convenient entrance. The remarks of other tourists that there is no beach as such are not entirely clear. The ocean is an extraordinary element and power. The waves are not high, but very addictive. We enjoyed jumping on the waves.
Food: we were satisfied! We had NV. Breakfasts are standard European, quite plentiful, but monotonous; dinners - varied, a large selection of dishes, both European cuisine and local (very spicy), Thai, Chinese, etc. , everything is quite tasty. There was always a choice of fruits (delicious pineapples, different varieties of bananas, papaya, guava, jack fruit, and some others, until I even found out what they are called : ), fresh juices were not served in the restaurant.
I recommend buying all-inclusive, because outside the hotel there is only one rundown / dirty cafe (we ate a couple of times, edible, did not get poisoned, but not much fun), you can also buy lunch or snacks at the hotel, but this is not a cheap pleasure.
The staff is helpful and friendly, except for the “receptionist” - they don’t really strain to help guests. They don’t speak Russian, everyone knows English. The main contingent of guests - the British, French, Germans, few Russians, we were the only ones from Ukraine, which, by the way, is very convenient when traveling on excursions - we get an individual tour.
The hotel is the only one on the coast, a 30-minute drive from the airport, planes sometimes fly overhead, but it's not annoying.
Outside the hotel there is a wilderness, a couple of stalls with sevens, there are no fruit stalls, you can only find coconuts.
Summing up, I can say that we were satisfied with the hotel and the rest in general.
Huh)) seems to have described everything ! !
The hotel is located in the west of the island, about 12 km from Nigombo town.
From the airport by car, the journey takes a little over an hour.
The distance is short, but the roads in the country are broken, so you can’t drive fast.
The hotel is located in a real jungle - there is practically nothing around the hotel - a couple of restaurants, souvenir shops and a river, greenery everywhere.
The territory is quite large, it is believed that the pool at the Dolphin is the largest on the entire island of Sri Lanka.
The depth of the large pool is from 30 cm, where children swim up to 2.4 meters. The hotel has 2 pools in total.
A very important nuance - there were enough sunbeds and rugs around the pool for everyone!
The coastline stretches along the entire hotel, the sea is restless for those who cannot swim it is better not to enter,
if you have minimal skills, then you get used to the nature of the sea and the water starts to play with you, as it were, throwing it to the sides.
The sea itself is cloudy in water glasses you can not see anything. Reminds the sea of Antalya and Pattaya.
The territory of the hotel is well-groomed palm trees, flowers, plants, a lot of greenery, colored fish swim in small ponds,
exotic birds fly, live squirrels run through the trees!
You can live in rooms in 3-storey buildings or hotel bungalow houses.
At first I was settled in such a room on the 2nd floor of the building facing the backyard.
It was hard to sleep at about 7 in the morning, the water pump in the backyard turned on and began to buzz.
after 2 days I gave money to the reception and moved to a bungalow located in the first row 20 meters from the sea.
I was with friends in the rooms of the building whose windows are facing the sea, there are no such problems.
Bungalows are built in chains of 5-6 rows from the sea.
All rooms are cleaned every day, have a TV, electric kettle, hair dryer, working sockets.
However, the rooms look boring in a spartan way, especially in the buildings.
This is probably the only negative of the hotel. Although I really liked the bungalow.
In 2010, the owners of the hotel began to slowly refurbish the old rooms, there are ready-made bungalows with a modern interior.
The food is good and plentiful, the food is really very diverse on the tables, both European and local cuisine are present.
Vacationers are about 20% British, 40% Germans and Austrians, 20% Poles, 15% French and Spaniards, about 5% Russians.
There were no Italians in the hotel, so it was quite quiet and calm.
There are all age categories from parents with children to youth.
The animation of the hotel tried: at 11:30 minigolf game, 12:00 water volleyball, 12:30 bocha,
not every day at 16:30 archery. At 22:00 evening performance.
The days passed quickly and interestingly enough. The staff is quite friendly.
The main plus of the hotel is the wonderful food and good local beer. The staff is responsive.
Summary: for the money you can find something much more interesting