6 Best Places To Stay In Unawatuna, Sri Lanka

Posted on January 29 2019

A comprehensive look at 6 of the best hotels that we found while we vacationed in Unawatuna. There’s an option for every budget here, and if nothing else, this is a great resource for amazing restaurants to visit while you’re in the area!

6 Best Places To Stay In Unawatuna | berrysweetlife.com

I am SO excited to share this post with you, we found such amazing hotels, and while we couldn’t stay at all of them, we did stay at 3 different places in Unawatuna, and a few others during our travels within Sri Lanka – I will share a separate post on those hotels and home-stays in Kandy and Ella soon!

I’m going to be rating the food from 1 – 5 stars for each hotel, but honestly, we didn’t have a bad meal the whole time we were in Sri Lanka, and we were there for a month, that’s a lot of meals. We were super impressed with the food.

Alrighty then, let’s jump right into our 6 Best Places To Stay In Unawatuna!

1. Tartaruga Hotel & Restaurant

Budget: Mid range
Pool: Yes
Sea views: Yes

Balcony: Yes
Food: 5 Stars

If you’re looking for a boutique hotel right on Unawatuna Beach, and you like to eat (of course you do), then this is the spot for you! We didn’t stay here but we had a good look at the rooms, and ate here more times than we can remember, the food was awesome! Even their chocolate brownie was amazing which I didn’t expect in Sri Lanka, but we came to realise that these people can COOK.

2. La Verandah Di Serena

Budget: Affordable
Pool: No
Sea views: Yes

Balcony: Yes
Food: 5 Stars

This is where we stayed for the last week of our holiday, and we loved it here! La Verandah is a small hotel RIGHT on the beach, you couldn’t get any closer if you tried, it has a real island vibe with swaying palm trees and a hammock in the outdoor dining area. Almost every room has 180° ocean views and a cute little balcony where I loved to start my day with a hot cup of Ceylon tea (couldn’t get enough!).

You will spot many sea turtles from your balcony as the water is crystal clear and beautiful, and you can swim with the turtles right in front of the hotel where the water is very calm. This was such a highlight.

They offer a Bed and Breakfast option, which we took, and their breakfasts did not disappoint. They include a fresh juice, coffee or tea, and then a choice of breakfasts – we always had the scrambled egg or oats (So YUM) with a fruit platter. We typically ate our other meals elsewhere because we were off adventuring, but we did have one dinner here, and chose the traditional curry and sambals for two, it was truly delicious!

The staff here are well-trained and extremely friendly and helpful.

3. Angel Beach

Budget: High end
Pool: Yes
Sea views: Yes

Balcony: Yes
Food: 3 Stars

This is where you want to be if you’re after a large hotel with all the bells and whistles and a sophisticated party vibe. That being said, it’s very family/child friendly at the same time. The pool area, bar and restaurant as well as most of the rooms overlook the ocean. They have a variety of comfy loungers and beds for sunbathing or catching some shade while you sip on a cool beverage and read a good book.

We ate here several times and enjoyed a pizza for lunch that was pretty good. We had two dinners here, both of which were nice, but we were less amazed by the food here than we were anywhere else. So that’s something to keep in mind, but it certainly wasn’t bad by any means, and the atmosphere kind of makes up for it!

4. Happy Beach

Budget: Affordable
Pool: No

Sea views: Yes
Balcony: Yes
Food: 4 Stars

We stayed here for one night and were very impressed with the sea views, the large room and bathroom. A more rustic vibe is what we got from Happy Beach and if you’re looking for somewhere that you can walk out your door and into the sea to swim with the turtles, then this one’s for you!

A BnB option is also available here, and the breakfast was delish.

The only thing that might be a negative is that there was no TV in our room.

5. Calamander

Budget: Mid range and high end
Pool: Yes
Sea views: Yes

Balcony: Yes
Food: 5 Stars

A classy joint with two huge restaurants, two bars, and a few pools right on Unawatuna Beach where you can walk out of your hotel and into the ocean during the day, and walk up or down the beach in the evening to find copious restaurants and bars that come alive at night with music and twinkling fairy lights. This is a great place to be!

Some of the rooms have sea views and some don’t – they look onto a grassy courtyard. But they are all very nice rooms and the beach is literally less than 100 mtrs from your door. Just remember to specify if an ocean view is a deal-breaker for you!

The restaurant at Calamander was probably our favourite of all the restaurants we visited for dinner. We ate there 3 times, the food was wonderful and the atmosphere was unrivalled. If you like piano music, comfy chairs and an ocean view, you’ll LOVE Calamander!

6. Sugoi House

Budget: Mid range

Pool: Yes
Sea views: No
Balcony: Yes

Food: 5 Stars

Want to rent a villa overlooking rice paddies 10 minutes inland from the beach? We’ve got you covered with Sugoi House. Complete with two large, luxurious bedrooms with beautiful en suite bathrooms and an open-plan kitchen and lounge area that rolls out onto a large deck and pool.

Offering bed and breakfast with an in-house chef and cleaning service, this is luxury. We would love to stay somewhere like this with friends!

This property belongs to the owner of La Verandah Di Serena, and he invited us here to take a look around and asked us to pose for some pictures in his pool. He treated us to a delicious dinner back at La Verandah so how could we refuse?!

While we didn’t stay here or try their food (the villa is brand new), I can pretty much guarantee the service and food will be amazing.

So there you have it! The 6 Best Places To Stay In Unawatuna, Sri Lanka.

I hope you’ve found this post on the 6 Best Places To Stay In Unawatuna helpful!

When we were planning our trip, never having been to Sri Lanka before and having very limited knowledge on the country, we found it a little overwhelming because there are copious places to stay, but when you’re doing everything online things can be a bit misleading and you’re not sure if you’re making the right decisions.

With that being said, I’d be remiss if I didn’t let you know that for the first part of our trip we stayed at Sevonra Hotel in Unawatuna, and while I won’t go into detail, it ended up not being the best experience and we moved across to La Verandah.