Safari Palace Wasgamuwa

This was a great place to stay! Excellent staff, breakfast was delicious, it was right next to an open field with a large rock exposure that was fun to climb on. The rooms were well kept and had AC units. The only reason for giving this place 4 stars is because our AC unit did not work and the room was not well sealed, so we had a few lizards and bugs get into the room. Each bed did have a mosquito cover though so that was definitely a plus.

Great, ethical, respectful of the animals. The facilities are very clean, the driver's animal spotting skills were on point, maybe better than the park's guide's. Next time we will get the full day trip as it felt.

We have a long list of things that went wrong at this place! First we booked through the owner, that seemed to go okay. But when we arrived nobody knew we were coming. So they gave away our room to another family that was staying there. They didn’t know we booked a safari and they were not prepared that we didn’t like an Sri Lankan breakfast at 0600h to go on safari. After a long time waiting, for the room, for our passport, for toilet paper, for the conformation that everything is arranged as we booked it, we went to sleep. At 2400h I went down to stop the extremely loud karaoke of the large family that was staying at the hotel, because we had to get up at 0530h. Nobody from the hotel was there to stop the music, although they have a no loud noise sign after 2200h... The bedroom upstairs are very noisy, we can literally hear our neighbors. There were some sheets, but we didn’t want to sleep on or underneath them. The second night there was no water, so no shower after safari, no flushing the toilets and again no staff to fix it. The bathroom wasn’t that clean and had an open connection to the outside, which attracts a lot of bugs. The staff spoke no or very little English, which is okay if everything is arranged as you would like to see it, but if not then it becomes a problem... Then the worst part of our stay, the safari! We got a driver of whom we think he had some bad eyesight or something else that was wrong with him. He spoke no English and really not one word! So we couldn’t communicate that we went to fast, that he didn’t stop where there was an animal, that we didn’t want to see every peacock in the park... And so on... That car stopped working twice, we started at least 45 minutes late and we were waiting for our lunch outside the park for 45 minutes... The driver thought that he was driving a rally through the park, therefore almost killed a pretty big lizard (we had to warn him, while the animal was in clear sight in the middle of the road) and failed to see a water buffaloe at the 3 meters from the car. Complaining to the owners is very difficult, because they are not there. They don’t want to talk to us on the phone and especially will not admit that there is anything wrong at all... He said the responsibility for the bad driver is not his, then whose is it?????? We didn’t arrange him, the hotel did and he was driving in their car... The owner eventually knocked off a 1000 rupees of the safari, but that costed us a half an hour negotiating... We didn’t want to pay at all for it, because comparing to other park this really ... ... (words that we can’t use in reviews). What they did do: The local staff kept smiling and tried to fix everything at hotel that went wrong, if they could be found, we admired their efforts! The provide a good WiFi service. We can name more things that are not okay, but I think it’s clear that we will never stay there again and that we are very unhappy about this place! Go somewhere else!

Very beautiful place to visit wild elephants in Sri Lanka

Near to Wasgamuwa national park. Friendly staff. Thay have Safari jeeps also.