මේක මම trip advisor එකේ දාපු review එක. එහෙම්මම කොපි කල මෙතන
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Water Gardens: A pleasant surprise
First of all this is a very very late review. I wanted to write this as soon as we were back, but I didn't have enough free time. even this was a effort of free slots throughout multiple days.
Let me start this review with how we came to be at Water gardens Sigiriya.
Me and my wife wanted to celebrate our first wedding anniversary which was on 7th December and decided to have a 5 day trip and try out two hotels. [2 nights each]. Our hotel choices were to spend 6th & 7th at Heritance kandalama and then on 8th & 9th on some other hotel [I'm not mentioning the hotel here as we didn't get to stay in it due to lack of available rooms].
Since we had a doubt about a potential lock down, we didn't want to book the second hotel [one for 8th & 9th] early and thought we will check-in at Kandalama first and then will book the second one if there is no potential lock down. Unfortunately by the time we check the second hotel for booking, all the villas were booked [they were available two days back
]. So through a suggestion & a recommendation of a friend we came across Sigiriya Water garden. We checked their website and luckily a villa was available. Next, we needed to get one day full board & and the next day half board [as on 10th we had to return early to attend some other pre planned work and hence lunch was not required]. However, water garden was not offering such option to mix half board & full board. So I called the hotel and Mr.Jaan at hotel asked me to book the villa for half board for both nights and at the check-in upgrade one day for full board. Easy solution 
initially we were skeptical about the place because we had a pretty bad experience with heritance kandalama but we decided to give it a try anyways hence booked the water gardens
[One may wonder why I mentioned Heritance kandalama but not the second hotel, this is because I'm also writing a review for it and one may find it useful]
Location:
Location of the water garden feels bit remote...which is good. If you are following the google map to reach water garden, please note that last part of the route is not mapped in google map. [also, at one point google map went completely mad and decided to take me 5 - 6 km in a remote road just to do a U-turn. FYI....] so as you drive please be sure to look for guidance boards placed in roadside by water garden. Only issue I had was the last junction, which there seems to be no road sign. I took the left turn and then saw the road sign. Water garden team should place a road sign in the last junction near water garden.
Road is mix of tar section and a gravel road. No complains about the road condition.
Villa:
Water Gardens has villas. These villas are specious and well furnished. It was very clean and well arranged. Living room has ample seating and a TV with internet & Netflix connectivity, full mini fridge, and a jar of cookies along side the tea cups and the kettle
Villa is equipped with 2 AC units, one in the living room and one in the bedroom.
Bath area is quite large as well, equipped with a bath tub and a separate bath & toilet cubicles. Bath room is also well equipped and all the toiletries were there. No complains here.
Bedroom has a spacious and comfortable bed, a comfortable chair and a large wardrobe.
Living room was nicely arranged and One we stayed had its own private pool.
Service:
Service at Water Gardens is exceptionally good. Infect it is one of the best services I have seen. Everyone you encounter are extremely friendly, respectful and will greet you with a smile.
Room service is also very good. Unlike most of other hotels, here room service will attend to you twice a day. One in the morning and one in the evening. In the evening they will knock on your door and will greet you with some complementary Sri Lankan sweets. They will check if you have everything you need. water, coffee, tea towels etc. They do not hesitate to give you extra water bottles or additional tea and coffee packets and replace your linens and towels. I have not seen such a great and generous service before in any other hotel I have been to. In those, they will give you the exact amount of water bottles and other things allocated per day. You may be able to get extra, only if you requested. But here, you don't have to request, they will voluntarily offer you extras.
Room service team is also very friendly. They don't forget to ask how we are and if the room is good.... with a smile
Such a great service. Kudos
ambience:
Inside the gates of water garden, we were able to see multiple paddy fields and water fills and villas are established in between them. I guess the name water garden is due to these number of water based or water filled areas in the hotel property.
It tends to get hot during the day and I guess given that it is located in sigiriya area, this is normal. But this heat is not unbearable. At leset for locals
Within hotel property we can see number of bird types and peacocks seems to be the dominant. Peacocks are freely wandering within the property and usually can be seen on the roofs of villas. Sometimes they tend to visit you at restaurant if you decided to take your meal on a table placed outdoors of the restaurant and sound a short cry expecting a piece of food.
If you are lucky you should be able to see at leset one dancing peacocks. If you are a foreigner, who haven’t seen it before, be sure to keep an eye. It is quite spectacular. Given the number of peacocks there in the property, this shouldn't be a problem.
Food:
Food arrangement in water gardens is a set menu based instead of a buffet.
Food is served in their restaurant located next to the pool. Seating is available both inside & outside of the restaurant and we preferred having our meals outside. if you opt for outdoor dine-in, you will get to see the peacocks up close.
Restaurant staff is friendly, polite, and well mannered.
Food combination is great, tastes good & well presented. This is in fact way better than having a buffet. Food portions are generous and guarantees that you will leave the restaurant with a full belly.... if you want Food seems to be cooked as they get ordered, so the meal will be freshly cooked.
For the breakfast you will get a fruit juice, fruit platter and then a selection from the menu [Western or Sri Lankan].
Lunch & Dinner consists of appetizer, Soup, main meal & a dinner which you get to select from western or Sri Lankan set menu.
If you are a foreigner or a local, try their Sri Lankan menu which is really good. Don't forget to taste the seeni-sambol. it is spot on!!! [I'm a big fan of seeni sambol...so this recommendation may be bit biased, but no harm eating some good seeni sambol]
From Sri Lankan menu, I preferred "mathara Buth" & "Pol Roti" options. Option with "dallo kalu pol" was not great though.
You can also opt for in room dine-in if you feel like, which we tried. Food was on time and even though it was delivered to the room, they managed to preserve the presentation
Verdict:
This is one of the best hotels I've been to. Me & my wife stayed there for 2 nights. Only regret I have is that we did not stayed another night and had to checkout early. I believe the reason for this pleasant experience is that all the members in hotel staff in every hierarchy are doing their part well and gives their 100%. This is not the case at most places. I think staff here does not treat their work as a mere job but as a personal responsibility which results the great service. kudos!!!
Will I visit again: Definitely, and will be recommending to all my friends as well.
Dear Water Garden Team,
Thank you very much for this present experience. This is way way better than I expected. Please keep up your standards. We will visit you again
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Water Gardens: A pleasant surprise
First of all this is a very very late review. I wanted to write this as soon as we were back, but I didn't have enough free time. even this was a effort of free slots throughout multiple days.
Let me start this review with how we came to be at Water gardens Sigiriya.
Me and my wife wanted to celebrate our first wedding anniversary which was on 7th December and decided to have a 5 day trip and try out two hotels. [2 nights each]. Our hotel choices were to spend 6th & 7th at Heritance kandalama and then on 8th & 9th on some other hotel [I'm not mentioning the hotel here as we didn't get to stay in it due to lack of available rooms].
Since we had a doubt about a potential lock down, we didn't want to book the second hotel [one for 8th & 9th] early and thought we will check-in at Kandalama first and then will book the second one if there is no potential lock down. Unfortunately by the time we check the second hotel for booking, all the villas were booked [they were available two days back
]. So through a suggestion & a recommendation of a friend we came across Sigiriya Water garden. We checked their website and luckily a villa was available. Next, we needed to get one day full board & and the next day half board [as on 10th we had to return early to attend some other pre planned work and hence lunch was not required]. However, water garden was not offering such option to mix half board & full board. So I called the hotel and Mr.Jaan at hotel asked me to book the villa for half board for both nights and at the check-in upgrade one day for full board. Easy solution initially we were skeptical about the place because we had a pretty bad experience with heritance kandalama but we decided to give it a try anyways hence booked the water gardens
[One may wonder why I mentioned Heritance kandalama but not the second hotel, this is because I'm also writing a review for it and one may find it useful]
Location:
Location of the water garden feels bit remote...which is good. If you are following the google map to reach water garden, please note that last part of the route is not mapped in google map. [also, at one point google map went completely mad and decided to take me 5 - 6 km in a remote road just to do a U-turn. FYI....] so as you drive please be sure to look for guidance boards placed in roadside by water garden. Only issue I had was the last junction, which there seems to be no road sign. I took the left turn and then saw the road sign. Water garden team should place a road sign in the last junction near water garden.
Road is mix of tar section and a gravel road. No complains about the road condition.
Villa:
Water Gardens has villas. These villas are specious and well furnished. It was very clean and well arranged. Living room has ample seating and a TV with internet & Netflix connectivity, full mini fridge, and a jar of cookies along side the tea cups and the kettle
Villa is equipped with 2 AC units, one in the living room and one in the bedroom.
Bath area is quite large as well, equipped with a bath tub and a separate bath & toilet cubicles. Bath room is also well equipped and all the toiletries were there. No complains here.
Bedroom has a spacious and comfortable bed, a comfortable chair and a large wardrobe.
Living room was nicely arranged and One we stayed had its own private pool.
Service:
Service at Water Gardens is exceptionally good. Infect it is one of the best services I have seen. Everyone you encounter are extremely friendly, respectful and will greet you with a smile.
Room service is also very good. Unlike most of other hotels, here room service will attend to you twice a day. One in the morning and one in the evening. In the evening they will knock on your door and will greet you with some complementary Sri Lankan sweets. They will check if you have everything you need. water, coffee, tea towels etc. They do not hesitate to give you extra water bottles or additional tea and coffee packets and replace your linens and towels. I have not seen such a great and generous service before in any other hotel I have been to. In those, they will give you the exact amount of water bottles and other things allocated per day. You may be able to get extra, only if you requested. But here, you don't have to request, they will voluntarily offer you extras.
Room service team is also very friendly. They don't forget to ask how we are and if the room is good.... with a smile
Such a great service. Kudos
ambience:
Inside the gates of water garden, we were able to see multiple paddy fields and water fills and villas are established in between them. I guess the name water garden is due to these number of water based or water filled areas in the hotel property.
It tends to get hot during the day and I guess given that it is located in sigiriya area, this is normal. But this heat is not unbearable. At leset for locals
Within hotel property we can see number of bird types and peacocks seems to be the dominant. Peacocks are freely wandering within the property and usually can be seen on the roofs of villas. Sometimes they tend to visit you at restaurant if you decided to take your meal on a table placed outdoors of the restaurant and sound a short cry expecting a piece of food.
If you are lucky you should be able to see at leset one dancing peacocks. If you are a foreigner, who haven’t seen it before, be sure to keep an eye. It is quite spectacular. Given the number of peacocks there in the property, this shouldn't be a problem.
Food:
Food arrangement in water gardens is a set menu based instead of a buffet.
Food is served in their restaurant located next to the pool. Seating is available both inside & outside of the restaurant and we preferred having our meals outside. if you opt for outdoor dine-in, you will get to see the peacocks up close.
Restaurant staff is friendly, polite, and well mannered.
Food combination is great, tastes good & well presented. This is in fact way better than having a buffet. Food portions are generous and guarantees that you will leave the restaurant with a full belly.... if you want
Food seems to be cooked as they get ordered, so the meal will be freshly cooked.For the breakfast you will get a fruit juice, fruit platter and then a selection from the menu [Western or Sri Lankan].
Lunch & Dinner consists of appetizer, Soup, main meal & a dinner which you get to select from western or Sri Lankan set menu.
If you are a foreigner or a local, try their Sri Lankan menu which is really good. Don't forget to taste the seeni-sambol. it is spot on!!! [I'm a big fan of seeni sambol...so this recommendation may be bit biased, but no harm eating some good seeni sambol]
From Sri Lankan menu, I preferred "mathara Buth" & "Pol Roti" options. Option with "dallo kalu pol" was not great though.
You can also opt for in room dine-in if you feel like, which we tried. Food was on time and even though it was delivered to the room, they managed to preserve the presentation
Verdict:
This is one of the best hotels I've been to. Me & my wife stayed there for 2 nights. Only regret I have is that we did not stayed another night and had to checkout early. I believe the reason for this pleasant experience is that all the members in hotel staff in every hierarchy are doing their part well and gives their 100%. This is not the case at most places. I think staff here does not treat their work as a mere job but as a personal responsibility which results the great service. kudos!!!
Will I visit again: Definitely, and will be recommending to all my friends as well.
Dear Water Garden Team,
Thank you very much for this present experience. This is way way better than I expected. Please keep up your standards. We will visit you again
