To visit Anuradhapura is to relive some of our country's past glories. We file past bricks and foundation and conjure up the palaces and princes written about in our history books. What better place to stay, then, than one which has the same sense of history about it?The Tissa Wewa Grand Rest House in Anuradhapura is the oldest rest house in Anuradhapura and travel writers throughout the years have praised it. For them, this was the only place to stay. There are many more options now but, for us, Tissa Weva is still the best.
That you can literally walk to Ruvanveliseya is part of the attraction. But what makes the biggest difference is its wide open character. In many of the other Anuradhapura hotels we visited (Nuwara Wewa, Miridiya Lodge, etc) there is a sense of claustrophobia: the narrow hallways feel as if they are closing in on you and the rooms, assuming you make it past the corridors of terror, are small and have low ceilings.
Here, the rooms have high ceilings and the corridors are open up to the verandah and garden. The recent refurbishment has, thankfully, maintained the colonial charm of the rooms with wooden floors, high ceilings and four poster beds. The bathrooms are also newly done in keeping with the design of the rooms: the fittings resemble those from a planters' bungalow.
The dining area is also quite decent but we chose, being lazy, to have our meals (from the very reasonably priced a la carte menu) delivered to our room. The service overall was excellent: the waiters uncomplainingly came over and over again to deliver our various requests, bring items they'd forgotten the first time and pick them up once done.
As Tissawewa is on a former government botanical garden, the grounds are huge and understandably unruly. But with a cup of tea at dawn on the verandah, they take on a new, unusual character and there are WT Keble and all the travellers of colonial days, gazing with you at the Ruvanveliseya through the "fine collection of trees." (Ceylon Beaten Track, WT Keble, 1940)
Hotel Name: Tissa Weva Grand Rest House
Address: Sacred City, Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka
Directions: Follow the signs to the sacred city area and ask at the checkpoint.
Phone: +94 25-222-2299. Book ahead on long weekends as there are only 14 rooms.
Rates (half board): AC/New Wing (6 rooms) LKR 6,300. Non AC Old Wing (8 rooms), LKR 3,750
More Photos: See slideshow below or visit Tissa Wewa Grand Resthouse Anuradhapura Sri Lanka on Picasaweb
This is misleading. I booked this place for a short stay based on the above and my childhood memories of the place where we stayed often on trips to Anuradhapura.
ReplyDeleteBecause my English parter seemed to be a relished delicacy for the SL mosquetos, we opted for an AC room.
I was terribly disappointed when we got to the place. Place was deserted and had the feel of an abandoned residence from another age. Floors dusty, our room just off the main varanda dusty and full of cobwebs, and creepy crawlies. Serching for shabby shiek we seemed to have arrived at downright shabby.
Only positive thing was the Sal tree that I remembered playing under as a child is still there, but the garden is unkempt full of mangy stray dogs.
We left after two hours to the clean and tranquil Palm Garden Village Hotel a few miles away, but the manager insisted we paid the full days rent
Worst hotel experience ever... They took more than one hour to serve lunch and food is so bad. My advise is dont go there to waste your money.
ReplyDeleteI would come back to this place again... service was excellent and the 3 nights was a memorable stay... Highly recommend for Local and foreign friends..
ReplyDelete