Generally, the best time to go to Bentota is from October to April, when it’s warm and dry - although, be prepared for the occasional shower. It’s also about an hour from the Dutch fortress city of Galle, with its terracotta-tiled buildings, churches and artisan boutiques. Toddy is the extracted flower sap of palm trees, and you’ll often see the head of someone collecting it poking up from the crown of a tree.īecause it’s only two hours south of Colombo, Bentota works well if you’re after a place to charge your batteries at the beginning of a trip or somewhere to unwind at the end. Much of Sri Lanka’s toddy is tapped here, and brewed into arrack, a fiery spirit. You could kayak along the Bentota River or visit some of the region’s traditional mask-making workshops. Your main reason to come here is for rest and relaxation, but there are some activities available.
You can eat Sri Lankan curries in candlelit courtyards, at Indian restaurants set in old shophouses and homemade ice cream served in coffee shops. While the beaches themselves are relatively quiet, there’s a collection of restaurants, cafés and shops inland. The selection of exclusive luxury options includes Saman Villas, a collection of two-storey villas, each with its own plunge pool and butler. The hotels along Bentota’s beach range from the small, relaxed Club Villa to expansive resorts offering water sports and activities galore. Featuring playful artworks and a statue that’s a little too pleased to see you, his gardens take a more fantastical, relaxed approach. You can also visit the home of his brother, Bevis Bawa, who, in his retirement from civil servitude, also had a stab at design. The gardens are open to visitors by appointment.
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The house is a series of modernist cubes, arranged within a series of courtyards and ambitiously landscaped gardens (he cut the top off a nearby hill to give himself a better view).
Lunuganga Estate, Bawa’s country retreat, is a short drive inland. Bawa sought to reduce the barrier between the indoors and outdoors, which you’ll see here in a series of alfresco terraces, balconies and courtyards mediating between the rooms and gardens. The 17-room Club Villa is one of Bawa’s works, designed to feel like a home away from home. They’re the work of Geoffrey Bawa, a Sri Lankan architect who created tropical modernism, a blend of modern minimalism and traditional design. Take a long walk along the beach and you might notice that many of the buildings share similar aesthetics. While this is a popular beach resort, there are no beach bars or restaurants lining the sand, just hotels, villas and luxury resorts tucked behind the palms at discrete distances from each other. The lengthy stretches of golden sand are shaded by corkscrew palms, the occasional granite outcrop, and little else. Still welcoming those who crave a break, it’s now one of Sri Lanka’s most popular beach resorts.īentota is spread along Sri Lanka’s west coast, with a cluster of hotels to the north that gradually thin out as you travel south.
In the 19th century, the British converted the fort into a rest house, where civil servants would come to relax in the grounds under the shade of the tamarind trees. Bentota began life as a settlement built around a small Portuguese fort on the estuary of the Bentota River.