Galle Heritage Villa is a beautiful place to stay at in the Galle Fort – this massive house of sorts is by the same guys who brought us Jetwing Lighthouse. The interior is very homely, wooden paneling in most everything, and it’s a spacious, open villa perfect for ‘comfort’ holidays.
The Place
Like we said before, it’s a big, roomy house of sorts, with very old styling details like lattice above the doors and cane furniture. There’s a massive central living room that opens to a little garden at the end, and upstairs you get a veranda that’s perfect for relaxing early morning. The villa isn’t totally private though (what a dream it would be if it was), there are six rooms so you might bump into other guests in the hall every now and then.
Rooms & Rates
I don’t say this often but when I was here, it was very, very hard to get myself out of bed. The beds here are some of the comfiest and fluffiest I’ve ever been on. The rooms are quite big, with soothing minimal colours and the same old wood theme.
If you get a double room for two like we did, bed & breakfast, it will cost you about Rs. 6500 each. Normally hotel rates are around Rs. 12K for a double so we think this is a pretty decent deal considering it’s a lovely cosy villa, not just a hotel – that too in the tour-friendly location of the fort. The same costs $300 for foreigners, however.
The bathrooms are massive too and they get points for this. I don’t know about you but I love huge bathrooms. There’s a long gap in the upper wall between the bedroom and the bathroom though, so if someone says something in the room you hear it loud and clear in the shower which can creep you out if you’re there with friends or family. Or maybe that’s just me.
Food & Service
This is a bed & breakfast kind of place. But if you want regular meals, they also arrange that for you at the Jetwing Lighthouse, and that’ll cost about 3K more. The breakfast is crazy if you order Sri Lankan – the English breakfast includes toast, eggs and sausages, and the Sri Lankan includes an overwhelming combo of kiribath, string hoppers, chicken, fish, parippu, pol sambol, potatoes, potato hodhi, and noodles too just for kicks. It’s great that this mad feast is included in the overall cost. Go for the strings and hodhi.
Service was wonderful when we were there – there’s just a handful of staff, and they were very attentive to us and other guests. Chamin was the one we talked to most of the time and he was quite polite and thoughtful.
Conclusion
Galle Heritage Villa makes a pleasant stay in the fort, and it’s a good fix if you’re looking to de-stress in a very comfy, quiet environment. Also it’s surprisingly not pricey like we expected, considering the location, standard of service and the posh feel of this old-fashioned mini manor.
