The Beach Hotel

A highly recommended hotel/holiday experience. Key tip - don't book half or full board from the UK - its so cheap to eat 'a la carte' that it is much, much cheaper to pay locally by far. a evening meal for 2 adults and a child, including drinks is about £10-£12 and about £8 - 10 for lunch. Also, rooms 106 - 109 are the best for pool access, views of the gardens and out to sea - ideal for those with kids as direct ground floor access. Rooms 102 - 105 a bit close to the kids pool for privacy. Good stuff: staff that responded positvely to every request - more so if you take the time to get to know them. Good, large room that was well appointed and sufficiently stylish and had all necessary features. Towels were plentiful, flowers on the bed, lovely products in the bathroom, comfy, very large beds. Good aircon, although a bit noisy. Best of all, no sun bed hogs. Fab views, great pool, lovely people, even the beach sellers. Good kids club run by Suganti who is great. Babysitting easy and very reliable - done by the kids club people. £2.50 per hour. Free swimming lessons if you ask (but do tip). The food was of a very good standard, with 3 menus (you need to ask to see the pool menu which they don't show you); the 2 weeks we were there we found a wide enough variety. Good buffets, high standard not the usual. Good 'entertainment' on several evenings. Well appointed gym. The posh 'Black Coral' 'restaurant is worth a try (about £28 for 2 including good wine, £18 without). Service a bit over attentive. Find George, the 'Sands' restaurant manager and make friends - he's wonderful, can't do enough to help and always has a good story. They love kids and will cook meals off menu if you ask. Bad stuff: rubbish internet connection; no nightime atmosphere; no bars nearby; no English libary books. Poor quality DVD player; no BBC News 24 or CNN, or SKY. Slightly offhand General Manager. But that said, the staff, facilities and service are excellent.

What a fantastic stay! Me and my husband stayed at the beach for the first week of our honeymoon, and enjoyed every minute! The hotel is of a high standard, with excellent service, the rooms are beautiful, and the bathroom which overlooks the ocean is quite amazing. The bedroom was decorated with flowers and chocolates every night, and the food in the restaurant was 5*. We only went on one trip which was the elephant orphanage(fantastic) - dont forget your mosquito spray that day! and incorporated Kandy and tea farm etc. One tip that we werent made aware of.. when you go on trip take lots of small change as everybody expects to be tipped and we were caught short and had to give out larger amounts!! Overall brilliant stay, not much to do in Negombo, but we were there to relax anyway. 5* all the way!!

We stayed at The Beach for our first night in Sri Lanka, to rest from our flight before starting our tour of the country. The hotel is beautiful, the rooms are large with a fantastic bathroom and view of the beach and sea. The only complaint for the room was the strength of the air conditioning which, no matter how we increased the temperature, we would still feel quite cold in there. The beach looks very nice, but at the time we were there (late June) the sea was not very welcoming. Food is good, and reasonable prices, and service is excellent - included a reception by the hotel's manager with a presentation on the island's natural diversity. Negombo, as a place, is not very nice, but it is a great hotel to rest before or after touring the island.

We were guests in this hotel in July 2007, my brother had flown in from Australia to surprise my mother and had booked a suite which was absolutely superb. The staff are so friendly and make you so welcome. Everything is clean and well presented. Food is excellent and service unsurpassable. Well worth a visit and would definitely book and stay here on return to sri lanka.

Excellent, good reception, gave us some complementary drinks which went down well after a long trip. Very close to the airport, so good for an overnight stay before a tour. The service was excellent and the rooms were a good size. We had an excellent view of the beach. The beach area and the pool area was also excellent. The only let down was the food, there seemed to be plenty of choice but it wasn't clear what there was and what was available to us. Half the staff kept telling us there was a private function while the other half told us we could have to buffet. We just ate from the buffet anyway! Was alright. Would definitely go back

I come very often to Srilanka for business but this is the first time I stayed at "The Beach" in Negombo and I know it will not be the last. My wife also joined me this time and she also loved the hotel. We stayed in room 104 but all the rooms are quite big with spacious bathrooms, sattelite television (cnn , bbc etc) and above all very comfortable beds ! All rooms have a sea/pool view. The environment is an ambient one especially at night when you can have candle light dinner under the stars. Oh and if you ever come here, make sure to ask for George down at the pool restaurant. He'll sort you out whatever you need. He's probably the most reliable person in the hotel. The staff in general are very polite, reasonably quick service and very efficient at their work. The most important thing that I liked about this hotel is its gym. I'm very fussy when it comes to training and I can confidently say that this hotel has excellent gym facilities. The two treadmills are brand new lifefitness machines and the gym is also equiped with dumbells and an incline/horizontal bench press and two ab machines. My wife on the other hand enjoyed quite a few massages at the spa which has both normal and ayurvedic treatments. The beach is situated opposite the long slender swimming pool and is extremely pleasant to stroll on during high noon when the sun goes down. A variety of games are available on the beach such as soccer, beach volley etc. At night it is REALLY WORTH getting a torch and strolling the beach to see the crabs emerge from their holes. Honestly I've never seen bigger crabs and there are literally thousands of them !! Overall I would recommend this hotel to anybody travelling or spending a few days in Colombo. Negombo is only 15 minutes away from Colombo airport. Its a great place just to get away and relax whether you are travelling for business or pleasure.

just got back from negombo, been 3wks all inc. and what a peaceful and relaxing hol. we had. The hotel granted is abit outdated, but everyone is so friendly and helpful, also the people who were there at the same time as us was a good crowd and help to make our holiday a good one. It was alot different to what i expected. The hotel was in a good location , right on the beach and handy to get into colombo. The food was excellant, the cheifs were very good if you didnt fancy anything they would cook what you wanted, no problem. We visited the elephant orphanage, which was brill. We went for the day with Akash, and he was very good. We also recommend Roy for the boat ride down the canal, which is very interesting. The only downfall we had was the full moon festival, and the beach bar being closed a full week. We hadnt been told about it, and i think Kuoni who we booked with should have informed us. Its a shame more tourists dont go because it is aloveley place and we will def. go again, and to brownsbeach.

We stayed at the beach for 3 nights during may and were very impressed with the hotel. I think the best thing about this hotel is that it is great value for money. The food and accomodation are very good and at a very reasonable cost. The rooms are spacious, comfortable and well looked after. The beds are very large and comfortable, and the bathrooms have enormous bath tubs (so enticing even had a bath despite heat!) and the large rainfall showers are wonderful. The spa was very reasonably priced and offered a full range of treatments. My only concern was that this was the only spa I have ever visited where they did not ask you any questions re your medical history and well being - in spas worldwide this is something I have always been asked and although I had no cause for concern myself others could. The menu in restaurants was veried and extensive. My only gripe would be that I thought the service was a little too overbearing at times. There are occassions on holidays when you simply want to be left alone, and we were somewhat pestered re attending the welcome drinks and dinner in the al la carte restaurant was an impossible event at which to have a conversation as we seemed to be interupted constantly. This is not to say that everyone was not very pleasant and helpful and eager to please, but sometimes they just needed to know when to tone it down a bit. All in all an excellent experience - would visit again and recommend.

Located at the far end of the 'strip' of tourist hotels in Negombo, The Beach occupies a better location than most. The decor of the hotel is contemporary, and modern, with some nice open seating areas where you can sit and relax. Rooms are very well appointed, with a great shower! Noisey: Originally assigned a room near some staff areas, the housekeeping staff start very early, and doors would start banging (very loudly) from 5am. We were moved to the other end of the hotel which was fine. Service at the hotel is sub-standard for the star rating, and does need some work. Twice I ordered from room service with meals on both occasions taking over 1 hour to be delivered to the room (despite being quoted 20 minutes). The second order arrived incomplete; I did receive a sincere apology from the manager for this though. When taking meals in the restaurant/bar area by the pool, service was very inconsistent. Some days you could be ignored and have to go and find someone to order from, and other days you could experience very attentive service. The breakfast is of a high-standard, and this is probably the best service you'll receive, as it seemed to be the same staff covering breakfast each morning. In all, a nice, well-appointed hotel which just needs to tighten-up it's service as a 4* hotel.

This was one of five hotels we stayed at in Sri Lanka as part of our Honeymoon. We stayed here on both our first and last night's. First imprssions were excellent. A bottle of champagne and room upgrade we most welcome after the night flight and short journey from the airport. We tried the Black Coral restaurant which was excellent - although the wine was a little overpriced. We were sorry to leave the next morning, but looked forward to returning later a few days later. Our second visit lasted no more than eight hours, but the staff were on hand to ensure we were up and ready for 4am. A packed breakfast was a nice touch! Out of the five hotels we stayed in during our time in Sri Lanka this was in the top two! Definately recommend this hotel to start and finish a tour of the island - although another night's stay at the end would have been welcomed!