Hibiscus Beach Hotel

5 readers found this review helpful

I booked this holiday as a surprise for my husband as it was our 10th wedding anniversary in July. Weather wise July is probably not the best time to visit Sri Lanka as it is nearing the end of the rainy season so the weather can be a bit unpredictable. This didn't really bother us, although, there were landslides at one point when we were returning from a 3 day trip (written about in another review) that we had booked via our rep, Channa.
When we arrived at Colombo airport we were met by the Cosmos rep who organised a taxi to take us to our hotel. The Hibiscus is a nice, friendly, family run hotel in Kalutara. It's pretty basic but I really liked the lobby, which was like a big sitting room with a t.v. and loads of comfortable settees and chairs. The hotel was really quiet during our stay (at one point there were only 6 of us!) and, for that reason, we were sometimes given a set menu for breakfast and dinner instead of the usual buffet. The food was extremely good. The buffet would comprise of a variety of salad dishes and several cooked dishes such as spaghetti bolognese, curries, fried potatoes, buttered veg and a good selection of desserts, my favourite being the steamed sponge.
The hotel also had a little shop which sold tourist goods and clothes. I bought some clothes and painted masks from the shop and the prices in there were much better than some of the tourist shops we were taken to on our trips.
We loved the hotel but weren't that impressed by the area or Kalutara, itself. The beach outside the hotel is pretty dirty and, if you walk barefoot you will be scrubbing the oil off your feet for the rest of the holiday. The hotel is about 3km away from the town centre of Kalutara. Unfortunately for me I took a bad reaction to anti-malaria tablets I'd been taking (Avloclor) and ended up at the hospital in Kalutara. It was the first and only time we went to the town and, although there are many interesting shops and eateries (known as 'hotels' locally), it is not the friendliest of places. There is a lot of poverty, which I expected, and the shops have locals who stand outside and follow you in and speak on your behalf, and they are very hard to get rid of. When we got to the town (by Tuk Tuk) we went to a chemist to see if they could prescribe something for me and a man, who resembled a labourer, came from behind the counter and told me he was the pharmacist and asked me what I wanted. I explained my symptoms, which were similar to pneumonia (at the time we didn't know they were caused by the anti-malaria tablets) and he insisted I go to the hospital nearby. He followed me there, with my husband and the Tuk Tuk driver and even when I was seen by the doctor he never left my side. It cost about £2 to see the doctor, who prescribed painkillers, and then we were huckled back to the pharmacy to get the prescription, which cost £6.00, supposedly for 6 painkillers!
The 'pharmacist' then followed us to the Tuk Tuk and asked for a tip for a pint of beer. This was the only dodgy incident we experienced but it did annoy me intensely. I don't mind giving to poor people but he wasn't exactly poor.
As for the Hibiscus hotel, if it could be transported to another part of Sri Lanka I would definitely go back. The staff couldn't do enough for us and, on the night of our wedding anniversary they organised a lovely cake for us. The rooms were lovely and clean, the double bed was huge and every night hibiscus flowers were scattered in lovely patterns over the bed sheets. I would highly recommend the hotel but would warn tourists to avoid the town of Kalutara.