Kani Lanka Resort & Spa

While staying at the Kani Lanka in Oct/November we had a great time. I had read reports of it being poor food and and the staff being over enthusiastic, well I can only express my feelings about the place. I thought it was a fantastic place, right on the edge of the sea and the lagoon at the back. We met a couple just after the reception meeting who wanted to explore the island and we decided to see the beach boys and ask what they could offer. We decided to go on a 4 day, 3 night trip with Sunimal (look-alike of Omar Sharif), Michel and the driver Nimal. We never expected it to be so good, we never stopped laughing from setting off to coming back. They so appreciated us involving them on an evening, and they were really good fun. I could only recommend them at any time. If you want a trip I could recommend you phone Sunimal on: [--] - you would not be disappointed. He took us to his house to meet his family and it was very humbling. What lovely people. He also took us to a local restaurant (Red Lobster), where the prawns were larger than I have ever seen them, and all 4 of us had 10 prawns each and it was about £2.00 each with a large salad, rice and fruit afterwards, all swilled down with a bottle of beer. What value! All in all a brilliant time and well worth the trip around Sri Lanka with Sunimal. If you do go with him and Michel, please give him my regards. - Toni and Kev.

We chose this hotel as the agent claimed it was a 4 star plus experience equal to none-unfortunately this was incorrect. The hotel was clean, the room we were assigned upon arrival was quickly changed to allow a 'honeymooning couple' the twin ocean/lagoon views-strange I thought you had to be married to be on honeymoon- as my wife and I were celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary we felt rather annoyed that the hotel could act in such a manner. I truly believe thehotel has the potential to perform well beyond 4star level, however, the food was very poor, both in terms of choice and quality. The whole 'all-inclusive tariff' is a confusing mess, which in many cases left guests feeling they had been conned. And lastly the services are not as advertised! The spa facility is brilliant, however guests either thought it very cheap or extremely expensive, there must be a middle ground;that said if i was in a position to employ spa staff i know where i would go headhunting! Our room was kept spotless throughout our stay, the room boy Chavindra was an absolute gem-as the wife said 'the sort of lad you could pick up, put in your pocket and take home'. If you do visit and find the food is still poor then entrust yourself to the beachboys not that i agree with santakippax about who to use-sorry paul had to use that! You will be shown a million and one letters of reference, mine has an army address so use that young fella, if you need to ask why him then ask the dippy one and her daughter, some people make a lot of money from the tours some people work hard to make you happy in the hope you will add a tip at the end of the day-personally i will give to those who are actively helping themselves were possible! We booked intot the red lobstercafe just up the road from the resort for prawns! at approx £2 a head now i love my seafood and i could not finish the feast put in front of us. I whole heartedly recommend the place-do not judge it by appearances:) Please note that whoever gets the booking has to 'wait on' so you might want to save a little thank you'! We had fantastic trips out using the same lad, and he even went back to one place to battle on our behalf when it became apparent we had been overcharged. You may of course choose to use the hotel reps, they charge twice as much and you see only half as much so those that are clever enough will realise there is only one way to see the island. When travelling be prepared for long journeys timewise even though the physical distance may not be that far. The hotel facilities are sadly lacking and it truly is a shame as there is so much potential, which when combined with the brilliant staff would leave you hard pressed to fault it, however as said by others there is a bias toward certain groups and this more than anything else leads to my overall rating, I believe in everyone being treated the same regardless of race,creed religion or colour, so maybe my dad got someit right! if you are expecting a four star plus you will be disappointed, if you want a good three star plus then go and enjoy, but make best use of the facilities, get to know the beachlads and decide who to trust and don't go over a Sri Lankan Bank Holiday it gets too noisy and the food gets so hot you would not believe. Sri Lanka is a fascinating place worthy of exploration and admiration-if you travel down the southwest coast road and dont feel humbled then you arent human, go, see, learn-above alll else enjoy the place and the people they are brilliant- the hotel will get better:) Oh and you migh meet some strange folk such as santakippax and the dippyones- alright duck:)

I stayed here with a friend for 3 nights following our Sri Lanka tour. The hotel was a disappointment, as it sounded so fantastic on their website. PLUS: The rooms are lovely. You can tell they've been recently refurbished. Ours overlooked the river, but we could still hear the waves. There are some "garden" rooms which are probably the least nice ones in terms of views. Make sure you get the river (Miridiya) or sea view (Karadiya) ones. Having a DVD player in the room is also fab. There is a DVD library, but as we already knew about the DVD player we brought our own Region 2 DVDs (which played ok). The rain shower is lovely! The pool is the cleanest outdoor pool I've seen in my life! Absolutely wonderful - I have a thing about dead bugs in the water, but this was immaculate. The spa was lovely and well worth a visit. Soooo calming. We had a special massage and coconut milk wrap for something like $50, which - compared to UK prices - was really good value. MINUS: - The staff still have to get the hang of what service means! You should've heard us trying to get a bottle opener for our water. "No, no, we HAVE the water bottles, we need a bottle opener, so we can open the water bottles. No, I SAID, we HAVE the water bottles here, we don't need more water, just something to open them with..." etc. Serious language problems. Of course we're in Sri Lanka and I don't expect everybody to speak my language, but in a four star hotel aimed primarily at an international clientele, the reception staff's English should meet a certain standard...! We also experienced numerous interruptions when trying to chill out in the room: roomboy knocks, brings towels. 20 mins later, someone else knocks to bring toilet rolls. Half an hour later someone knocks to bring us something we didn't order. Etc. And we were on all inclusive, yet had to ask about three times to be given information about what exactly our all inclusive meant! I think it was in the afternoon of our final day we finally managed to get a sheet with information off them (and half an hour later another member of stafff came along and knocked on the door to give us another copy of the same sheet...). - FOOD: Tourists are probably partly to blame for this, but 2 of the 3 buffet dinners we had there had no Sri Lankan options at all. I know there are some people who go abroad but expect to eat like they're at home - fish and chips, sauerkraut and sausages, chorizo and tortilla. But some of us actually want to experience the food of the country we visit, and to not even offer a small choice of Sri Lankan cuisine in their buffet selection is pretty poor, and we were extremely disappointed. - ALL INCLUSIVE: Beware. There are many things not included. The only beer included was the local bottled beer (Lion's) and it was, well, awful. Wine was not included in the all inclusive deal at all. So we ended up just having lots of cocktail, which is ok, but honestly, I really missed a nice glass of wine, but I refused to pay extra for that after already paying a fair whack for the All Inclusive deal. All Inclusive also doesn't include the option of dinner at the Saffron Cafe (I think - it was on the ground floor and looked lovely), and it doesn't include a lot of the "beach specials", e.g. cocktails on the beach by candle light. And finally: - BEACH TOUTS: Having been to Sri Lanka before, I was familiar with the plague that are the beach touts. But in previous hotels, the hotel compound was protected by hedges and plants, so they could only "get you" as soon as you stepped outside the compound. Not here. You're sat in the outdoors cafe bar within the hotel compound, happily clutching your piñacolada, when a few yards away from you a group of touts lean over the wall, incessantly shouting "Hello, Miss, Miss, hello, Miss, hello...". If only I'd had a rotten tomato to throw at them. And beware: they don't understand the words "No, I'm NOT interested". I know the hotel has no power to stop them terrorising the beach, but they certainly should a) discourage them when they bother guests over the wall and b) do something to ensure more privacy for the guests. Will I go back to the Kani Lanka? No way. Will I go back to Sri Lanka? Definitely!

Very nice location and a well appointed hotel. However, the suite we booked absolutely stank and it took 4 days to get moved to another room. The problem was with water in the air-con and it was blowing mould into the room. Service was appalling, lots of new untrained staff, we could sit through a whole meal unable to get anything to drink. One night we turned back the sheets to get into to bed and found someone had bled on them. We took up these and many other issues with the hotel and our Kuoni rep. To be fair the hotel manager was very apologetic and did make a big effort to improve things, although it should not have taken five days to get someone to act. Kuoni however have continued to disappoint. We asked to move to another hotel and they said we would have to pay hundreds of pounds more and since coming back to the UK they have not properly acknowledged that there was a problem and have failed to make a proper and sincere apology. The first five days of our honeymoon were horrible with my wife in tears everyday. Sri Lanka is a great place to visit and I have been before to a cheaper hotel and had a good stay. The Kani Lanka has great potential but needs a while to sort itself out and get it service levels up to an acceptable level.

We stayed at the Kani Lanka during the final part of a trip around Sri Lanka. While we completely fell in love with the country, we both felt really disappointed by the standard of this resort. Having stayed in some truly amazing places, Kani Lanka seemed to fall very short of the mark. The main gripe we had was the standard of the restaurant. Sri Lankan cuisine is bountiful and delicious - so Kani Lanka's woeful western 'theme' night buffets in a restaurant that had all the atmosphere of an over-lit prison canteen was a huge disappointment. The poorly trained waiters jumped on you as soon as you entered the room and proceeded to follow you around as you checked out the silver buffet trays. I reckon I could have worked out the 'mushrooms' (tinned) and 'olives' (tinned) myself, without the need for three waiters telling me at the Italian theme night. Similarly my boyfriend STILL didn't want any more coffee, even after being asked my every one of the 8 waiters in succession! I can't believe tourists actually want glutinous lasagne and slimy sausages when rice & curry and fresh seafood are so readily available everywhere else. The musty nature of the sheets have been discussed in other reviews and this was a real problem. Having stayed in several other places on this holiday where sheets were spotlessly clean and smelt fresh, I can't accept the humidity argument - we had our air conditioning on all the time and the sheets still smelt strange. Springs also stuck into our backs from the mattress, so all in all, Kani Lanka could only be awarded a gold star for sleeping if you are a narcoleptic. The beach is OK, but nothing beats the shores further South. Staying by the pool is nice if you like making friends with other Brits or Germans. But if you prefer a romantic holiday without hearing loud Brits whinging about Sri Lanka then stay clear of the KL resort. For an amazing mix of culture and beaches the country is a stunning destination. My advice - get back on the Galle road and head further South to Galle or Tangalle. It's a long flight to Sri Lanka, so why travel for 11 hours to go to a lacklustre resort you could easily find in Tenerife?

We stayed at the Resort for two weeks from the 26th September 2006. Hopefully our findings will help others considering Sri Lanka and this complex. We offer a couple of headings for clarity. Flight - Manchester Check in at Manchester was poor - there must have been a queue of 300-400 passengers, with only 2 desks open. The flight is approx 11 hours, but we flew with First Choice and found their planes, and on board service to be first class. The seat back entertainment screens were good, and we paid the £5 upgrade to access fairly new release movies and more interactive games, i.e. "who wants to be a millionaire!". The head rests had a 'wrap around' part, that at least held your head to stop it lolling about as you attempted to sleep. Sri Lanka Overall, we would say it met our expectations. Hot, humid, with great diversity between rich and poor. For example, massive Asia Bank skyscrapers in Colombo, but when you look down there are crumbling pavements. The remnants of old English Colonialism are everywhere, and if that's your thing, you'll find this interesting. Roads are a nightmare, and although Sri Lankans drive on the left (well most of the time!), travelling by road is a 'hair raising' experience - who needs other white knuckle rides!! Kalutara Most of Sri Lanka’s towns look the same - long rows of shops, built from concrete blocks, and tumbling out onto the road. Dusty, mainly rather than dirty. Kalutara is like this - not much in the way of 'tourist' type shops, but a few are there if you feel the need. There is a regular street market selling food stuffs - the fish stall is a massive 'olfactory' experience! The Buddhist Temple there is well worth a look - you will need to pay a 'guide' (about £5 each). There is a supermarket, which is good and sells fairly well know brands - Pringles anyone! It’s a short Tuk Tuk ride from the complex (about £3). We didn't get hassled walking through the town, as you would in Egypt - in fact when we were there, it was hard to spot any other western faces. Kani Lanka Resorts and Spa First impressions were good. Tranquil entrance, with water either side of the walkway, with a water wall feature at the end. Smooth booking process at reception and your cases are taken care of almost immediately. Bar and Restaurants have the right level of sophistication without appearing 'stuffy'. We found the Rep from First Choice to be very good. Although the welcome meeting did include his rather longish CV on how he got where he was - we all thought this reflected how proud he was of his job. He was a 'local' boy made good - sort of thing! The trips were not as expensive as other places we had been - for example a two day trip to Kandy, including overnight hotel and food was about £65. He was attentive and resolved any minor issue promptly. Rooms Many previous comments mention 'damp sheets'. I think you have to remember this is a tropical country with high humidity, so rather than damp, I think the humidity make the sheets feel/smell dampish. For example without the air conditioning on, the marble floor in the room became 'moist', again due to the high humidity. We basically keep the air conditioning unit working most of the time, and our sheets were OK. The mini bar drinks are more expensive than the bar, but then they are anywhere. The TV and DVD were good (although we'd seen most of the DVD library films). Most channels are a mixture of American sitcoms, movies and sport. With National Geographic thrown in. Bathroom was good, with the promised 'rain-drop' shower. Hot water was present except for one evening when the staff admitted a pump had failed, but was soon repaired. Room service was equally good if you need this. We ordered Burger and Chips (yes I know!) one afternoon which took about 15 minutes to arrive, and cost approx £2.50 each - and was excellent, i.e. made from steak. The room boys were usually good and attentive, but needed some prompting with small things, such as providing clean coffee cups, or re-arranging the bed throw - Hardly major issues, but they do like their tips, and in that case, we felt they should at least present the room like it was when we first arrived. They will come up to you to ask if everything with the room is OK, and prompt you when they are leaving for days off - so you may like to tip! Food/Drink Many previous comments mention that the food was cold. We didn't find this. Food is displayed in silver tureens with two gel flame canisters underneath - so food was usually warm to hot - but not piping hot. Many nights they had a 'stir fry' event, and then, obviously the food was hot, hot, hot. We felt you could eat a different meal for the 14 nights we where there. And if you are so inclined you could have chicken curry for breakfast! Evening meal was soup or salad, then a main course, buffet style, with a range of hot or cold desserts, i.e. gateaux, etc. A bottle of wine was about £12 for an Australian Red. Bottle of Lion Beer about £1.20. Bottled water is o sale for about 75p for a small bottle. You sign for everything which is good, and better, to ensure nothing goes missing!! We went half bored and drank every night, but not to excess and our bill was about £100 each at the end of 2 weeks. Remember at certain Buddhist festivals, the time of the full moon especially, no alcohol is served or should be drunk in public! Entertainment No entertainment as such. You had a local trio who played guitar and sang (traditional Mexican songs!!, Spanish songs!! - while you had dinner). The Resort did arrange cocktail nights on the beach with a log/driftwood fire - cocktails were about £3.50 each. Once a week they held a gala dinner around the pool next to the beach. This was £10 for 7 courses and was excellent. Mostly, evenings were sitting in the bar, chatting to other guests, if you like, though there was plenty of space to sit on your own if that’s your thing also. Pool/Beach The pool was excellent for swimming. Not deep enough for diving, but great to cool down. A pool side bar provided drinks and food for those on half board deals. The pool boys looked after you well, and each day reserved your sun loungers in the same spot if you like, with fresh towels - so no beating the Germans to the sun loungers here! Again these lads wanted tipping, which was fine, given the service they provided. The beach is sandy, but not powder fine, but OK. The sea in Sept is rough and swimming strictly speaking is dangerous, although the pool boys would change into bathers and escort the brave into the sea. Apparently Nov to Jan is best as the sea calms down. Spa Do try the spa! It’s a bit pricey at $65 (for some reason the prices are in dollars - so approx £45) for a 60 minute massage. But well worth this and professionally done in a relaxing and therapeutic setting. Beach Boys These are "entrepreneurs" who call to you from the boundaries of the resort - the beach being one of these. Its fun, but a hard sell of excursions, and Tuk Tuk trips. Try not to say, “We’ll see you tomorrow”, in the hope they will forget, they won't! If you don't want to use them, then say that, and basically you'll be fairly well left alone. We compared their prices with the Rep and found little difference - so we travelled with Hemtours - which First Choice used. However other guests using the beach boys had a great time, and took trips, i.e. deep sea fishing, that the Rep didn't appear to sell. As said before in other reviews, they are safe, and reliable - but remember, they are trying to earn a decent living, and therefore expect a hard sell and being taken en route to gem factories or wood carving workshops - for their 10%! Excursions We went to Kandy, taking in the Pinnewela Elephant orphanage, Kandy and the Temple of the Tooth, the Tea plantations and Niwella Eliya or 'little England' named so, due to the number of the homes of the old English plantation owners. This cost us £65 with an overnight stay at Kandy in the Citadel Hotel – which was excellent with views over the river. The rep told us this was better done as a 3 day tour, but we did it in 2 days and now wish we had paid that bit extra and had the extra time in kandy. We went on to Galle and visited a Turtle hatchery, took a glass bottomed boat trip and the climbed over the old fort at Galle. Good way to see the county and note the devastation of the Tsunami. For souvenirs, remember to barter - we found the prices in the Resort shop to be as good as anywhere. In Kandy we were nearly sold a traditional mask for £50, being told this was a good price. A good job the same mask in Gale was £10 hand carved and painted, so please be ware! Phew! In summing up, a great relaxing holiday, with very low key entertainment - it’s not “18-30” but you probably didn't want that!! We felt 14 days was the limit. We also felt we wouldn't come back - not that we disliked any aspect of Sri Lanka, but it’s a smallish island, and there are so many other places to see in the world. If you choose Sri Lanka, and this resort, we're sure you'll enjoy it as much as we did!

We only stayed at Kani Lanka for the last 3 nights of a 13 night visit to Sri Lanka. It was ok, but not anywhere near as nice as most of the other hotels we had stayed at during our tour. The sea was too rough to swim while we were there (end of September) but the pool was clean and a good size - we werent there on a weekend so didnt encounter the crowding problem. The views were very beautiful. We liked the beachside bar and that was the only place we felt the service was friendly and personal (although still slow ;-). The all inclusive deal is a bit of a pain - there are only so many pina coladas you can drink, and not including diet coke and house wine was a pain - and the beer on the all inclusive deal was a brand I've not seen elsewhere in sri lanka and wasnt especially nice. It took us several goes to get them to give us the all inclusive listing, our rep (Kuoni) was very cross about it and complained, and when it was finally brought to our room it gave out different info to the lists available on request in the bars. The room boy was no more demanding in terms of tipping than anywhere else we encountered on our tour, but he did keep popping back, once with a new bath mat, once with new loo rolls, again to turn down the beds, etc and I thought there must be a less intrusive way of doing it! No idea if this is normal as we were out during the day in most of the other hotel stays. It was clean, it felt safe, we didnt have anything nicked, there was one day the water pressure was very low so showering was difficult. The restaurant was over-airconditioned and the food disappointing. I didnt notice it being cold, but it had very little sri lankan food, the western style food was unimpressive, and the fruit wasnt as nice as it had been in otehr places. The service int he restaurant was weird, lots of waiters but only a couple who know what they were doing, and one time I walked in the restuarant "senior" was telling one of the waiters off, not a good practice imho. I wouldnt have wanted to stay there more than a couple of nights, and wouldnt go there again given how many other wonderful hotels there are.

We stayed for 2 weeks at the hotel which was of a very high standard The hotel rooms were spacious and clean and tidy, they were cleaned every day The staff and waiters were very helpful and nice and their understanding of english and spoken english was very good One of the trips we went on was to the elephant orphanage in pinnuwela which we highly reccomend Our guide for the day trip was one of the boys from the beach who was called mark We found to be wholly reliable and trustworthy and his driver was very experienced The tour operators tried to put us off going with them but after the tsunami they are trying to rebuild their lives and are just trying to make a living like the rest of us We felt very safe on our day trip

We stayed in the Kani Lanka resort in September for a friends wedding. After a long 3 and 1/2 hour drive from the airport we arrived at the resort. We had been travelling all night, so the fruit cocktails on arrival were very welcomed. As we were shown to our room, we were taken through the hotel, which was very pleasing to the eye, with the river on one side and the sea on the other. We had upgraded to a junior suite, which was very nice and roomy with a big spacious bathroom and a bath that you could sit in and look out at the ocean. Our room boy came and introduced himself as Lenor and said he would help us with anything we needed for our stay. I was really pleased and my first impressions were good. That night when it came to going to bed, I noticed our sheets were very damp and smelt really musty, so I didn't have a good nights sleep, I put it down to the room probably being vacant for some while and just kept the air con on all day. The second night came and by this time the sheets were again very damp and fusty even though the air con was on all day and I asked for the sheets to be changed - The sheets were changed and they still smelt fusty. On the third day it was a saturday and we noticed a lot of activity going on and a lot more people coming into the hotel, at the time we didn't realise what was going on, but we soon found out it was the locals coming to the resort for the weekend. They over took the pool with other holiday makers having to get out of the pool, the restaurant and thought nothing of making loads of noise in the corridoors at 2am! Although there was not much evening entertainment, when there was, it was ok. Because there was a large group of us we sat up until the early morning hours every night, talking and drinking. The next day was the wedding day and it was perfect, the hotel did a good job of this, including dancing boys and elephants, the weather was hot and the bride and groom looked fantastic. By the third day the food was repetative and I have to agree with other people on this forum, it was cold, my husband had to ask on a couple of occasions to heat the food up. There were chefs that cooked fresh every night and this was nice, but again can become repetative. Be warned, everybody wants a tip! Room boy, beach boy, where ever you go. I understand the area is poor and it was hit by the sunami and its very apparant as soon as you step outside your resort, but after a few days the tipping got on my nerves! Our room boy, became a pain. He would knock only once and then enter, wether we told him too or not and he had a habit of persistently telling us when his day off would be and that he would not be around when we left. It was almost to the point of being hounded, as he stopped me 5 times on his last day to ask where my husband was so he could get his tip! We tried a couple of water sports and the gym and the guys there were great - you need to do the cannoing if possible, so you can see the river and the people who live nearby, Although they did not have much, the kids were so happy and just by us waving too them and saying hello - it made their day - and it made us feel quite humble. We also had a spa treatment which was lovely. Be careful on the all inclusive. There are many things which are not included -wine being one of them! No spirits unless local, coke is ok but diet coke is not included and if you want an afternoon snack, be sure you ask in plenty of time, as people we were with asked 4.45pm for some food and they were told they couldn't have it as the AI finished at 5pm! When it came to settling our bill, there were things on there we did not have and sometimes we were charged different prices for a fanta! We also charged our spa treatment to our room and they had used a different exchange rate to the one that they were advertising and the rate they had used the same day to change money for us. Although there was issues we still had a nice time, the hotel is situated in an idealic location, the wedding was perfect and we had great company!

We stayed at the Kani Lanka for the second week of our honeymoon, and thought it was a great place to relax and chill out. We have the suite room which was fantastic and really well equipped. The food was good and we had plenty of choice, although I would agree some of it was not as hot as it perhaps should have been (best to go at the beginning of the sitting!). The hotel facilities were great, we used the gym, library, DVD hire, the watersports (if the weather had been a bit better!) and the spa (which was o.k but very expensive for what you got). Overall I would recommend it but I wouldnt want to stay there for more than a week, I would imagine it could get quite monotonous , unless you do lots of day trips, the town of Kalutra is not really anything special, and theres not much else to do / see near by. Would recommend the day trip south to Galle and the turtle conservation project.