7 hotels
The great hotels of Sri Lanka
7 luxury hotels in Sri Lanka are documented in this guide, ordered by international renown. The oldest, Galle Face Hotel, opened in 1864; the most recent, Shangri-La Colombo, in 2017. For large events, Galle Face Hotel receives up to 1000 guests. Each page gives the history, the key figures and a direct line to the events team.
Amangalla
Inside the ramparts of Galle Fort, the 1684 Dutch buildings that became the New Oriental Hotel in 1865 now hold Aman's 28-room Amangalla.
28 rooms
Ceylon Tea Trails
Five restored tea planters' bungalows above Castlereagh Reservoir near Hatton, each run with its own butler and resident chef.
Amanwella
Kerry Hill's 30 plunge-pool suites in a coconut grove above a crescent beach at Tangalle, with a 47-metre pool running towards the sand.
30 rooms
Cape Weligama
A 60-metre crescent pool at the edge of a 36-metre cliff above Weligama Bay, built by the Dilmah tea family in 2014.
39 rooms
Wild Coast Tented Lodge
Canvas cocoons shaped like Yala's granite boulders, set between the park's leopard country and a beach on Sri Lanka's south-east coast.
Shangri-La Colombo
On the former army headquarters site beside Galle Face Green, Shangri-La Colombo opened in November 2017 with 541 rooms and Sri Lanka's largest ballroom.
541 rooms
Galle Face Hotel
Prince Philip's first car, a 1935 Standard Nine he bought as a naval cadet in Ceylon, is parked inside the hotel where he once stayed.
Events up to 1000