We stayed in Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo, for two nights, and rather than choose one of the large luxury chain hotels around the historic fort, we opted for a 12-bedroom boutique hotel. The Uga Residence was slightly further out of the city centre but was still in a good location.
The rooms are dotted around a relatively large and enticing swimming pool with loungers around it. Our room was huge, with a sitting area containing a three-piece suite, coffee table, TV, tea and coffee making facilities with milk in the fridge, an espresso machine, fruit and wardrobe with safe.
The bedroom had a large comfortable bed, desk, bedside lamps and English plug points. There was a small, enclosed terrace with a couple of wooden chairs, coffee table and a tree, but we were advised to keep the doors closed due to mosquitoes. Although we never opened them, we did have mosquitoes in the room as there was a large gap in the patio doors.
The bathroom was huge, with a walk-in shower virtually the size of the bathroom – this meant you couldn’t stay under the shower and reach for the containers of environmentally packed toiletries. There were two double sinks, loo and lots of luxury towels but surprisingly cheap looking and feeling loo paper.
The Rare Bar and Restaurant was located in a pleasant courtyard near the pool with both indoor and outdoor seating and it appeared to attract lots of non-resident guests.
At breakfast we were handed the substantial a la carte menu and were told we could choose whatever we wanted. For simplicity, we opted for the same: green tea, orange juice, a platter of fresh fruit to share and then scrambled eggs served with feta and avocado. However, what we got was very good buttery set scrambled eggs on a piece of lightly toasted French bread, accompanied by mushrooms, two hash browns, a grilled tomato and spinach. It was very good, but it took a long time to arrive and, just as we were about giving up on getting the fruit and were about to leave, the platter arrived. It was all a slightly bizarre and lengthy experience, particularly when it was very quiet.
Bearing this in mind, and the proximity to Park Street Mews with several international restaurants, we chose not to have dinner at the hotel.
Unfortunately our stay was short, and we wanted to maximise our sightseeing and so we never got to use the pool, the library or gym. However, if you want somewhere with bags of character rather than a large chain, I’d definitely recommend the hotel.
