Tartaruga Hotel

Perfect location. Friendly staff. Comfortable beds. Large rooms Had a great time. Sea turtles came and laid their eggs on the complex, the staff cared for them when they hatched and gave them very good care giving them the best possible chance of reaching adulthood they could 👍

I had read a few reviews beforehand and was a little apprehensive, but I need not have been worried this hotel was perfect. We ate there on two occasions and the food was excellent with plenty of choice, if not to your liking there were plenty of places you could try along the beach or in the town centre I have to compliment the bar staff best cocktails you will find in unawatuna. There was some loud music one night from an adjoining hotel but they need to cater for the young as well so this was not an issue. All staff were excellent and very helpful They don’t always replenish the toilet roll but if you ask in a very pleasant way with a smile they are more than happy to help.

I had booked my stay three months in advance, and it was confirmed right away. However, just a few weeks before my arrival, when I had already booked my flights and everything was paid for, I suddenly received a message from the hotel that they wanted me to cancel my reservation, because supposedly, they had scheduled a maintenance period exactly during the time of my stay. No reasonable hotel manager would schedule a maintenance period during peak season. Their intention was quite obvious: They just wanted to play me a dirty trick and kick me out, in order to sell the room for a higher room rate. All this raised serious concerns and doubts about the integrity and trustworthiness of the hotel administration, but unfortunately I insisted in my confirmed reservation. A cancellation would have spared me a lot of frustrations. When I arrived, I was pleasantly surprised that I actually had a room. Superficially everything looked good at the beginning, however, things began to deteriorate immediately. I went through a long series of complaints, but I would prefer to keep this review short and sum it up: The service attitude of the staff was lousy. Tartaruga means Turtle, this could have been an omen of what to expect at this place, but a Turtle is rather like a Ferrari, compared to the staff of this hotel. If you expect your "Deluxe" room to be cleaned, you will run into a long and tedious argument with the management. You only get a cold shower in the morning; breakfast is the same limited choice and miserable quality every day. So is dinner, if you choose to include the dinner plan, as I unfortunately did (after they got me sick twice, I decided to eat outside and everything was fine again). Their smeary waiter (Nandana) delivered poor and unprofessional service from the very beginning, which was gradually worsening day after day, but he still had the nerve to “discreetly” but unequivocally let me know that he demanded to get tipped, though the service charge was already included in the price, advising me furthermore, that he would “keep an eye on it”. Should I have mentioned that this place was extremely noisy at nighttime? My room’s walls were literally shaking from the neighboring party inferno. Also, their in-room Wi-Fi is as slow as everything else and breaks down every couple of minutes. As an alternative, at the airport you can purchase a sim card from a local provider (e.g. Dialog) and you will no longer depend on malfunctioning hotel networks. If it must be Sri Lanka, why not try a different place? This is only a suggestion: I had two very pleasant stays not far from Unawatuna some time ago, at the Coral Sands in Hikkaduwa. They offer great food, excellent staff and perfect service. It’s your choice!