Paradise Galle — Hotel in Galle

I found this place while exploring and got contact info via GoogleMaps. I stayed in the annex with sink for two months from mid Dec 2023-mid Feb 2024. I also had a couple of friends visit who stayed in the main house and was satisfied. Overall it was a decent stay at great value for foreigners.

Layout: The main house has 4-5 rooms for rent and the separate annex has two rooms for rent sharing a bathroom, surrounded by a beautiful garden maintained by the owner, Vini, and his help who also live in the house. The main house has a two beautiful rooms looking out to the garden (ensuite + AC ground floor room, and upstairs balcony room with shared bathroom). The other rooms are decent but a little stuffy and slightly moldy. The garden is a beautiful way to start the day, where monkeys gather in the neighbor's trees every morning. There are fruit trees and also edible greens that I added daily to my salad.

Room: The annex was a large room, half partitioned with a sink in the back, with built-in vents. The vents were great for airflow but not for mosquitoes. Vini added a mosquito net later upon request and some convincing of its need. The annex had a flat rooftop so it got hot during the day and took longer to cool down at night. It also meant there was poor rooftop water drainage. There was a strong mold smell from the room next door but just visible water damage on the ceiling in mine. The pillows, mattress and mosquito net were very moldy when I moved in, but Vini and his help ended up working it out with me in my first couple of weeks. The room looks out to Bope road at the junction, which is a nice view, but noisy starting 6am most days with tuktuks and the odd truck, accompanied with their smoky emissions. At night, there is a street light that shines right onto the bed but I eventually got used to it. The room was comfortable since it was big, airy and well furnished by Vini. The bathroom was satisfactory although had low water pressure for flushing and showering.

Service: For a long term stay, they obliged my ask for cleaning and sheets change once every 1-3 weeks. Because of its affordability, addition of services like kitchen use, washer use, hot water and AC are at an additional cost. This is typically sorted out with the owner's son, Krishan, who speaks English, works in Colombo and manages the booking.com site and guest calls. I had a few difficult interactions with Krishan who is young, unempathetic at times, and not always present with guest needs since it's not his main focus. But he did fulfill my request for a water filter after I reported yellow sediments in the government filtered water line and was mysteriously sick for weeks. They have a kitchen with a stove top, pots, full sized fridge + freezer, kettle and blender which Vini is happy to share, although it can be a little bit dirty at times and moldy in the cabinets. The internet is choppy and of a limited package so I had to restrict my internet usage during my stay.

Neighborhood: The location was great - 3 mins walk to the marine walk where locals hang in the evenings, 2 mins to Sirimal cafe for lunch/snacks, 2 mins to Hemantha Super City for groceries (Monday and Friday restock for most produce and curd), 13 mins to a local pop up market every Friday morning (search "Produce Market" on maps), 10 mins to Oak Ray for a decently priced foreign standard lunch buffet everyday, 9 mins to Hiran Hotel for a evening or night time kottu or snack, and 12 mins walk to Star Bakery for white bread and snacks. It's a tightknit community which I eventually fell in love with at the end of my stay. I hope to return to the neighborhood when I come...

Recently me and my boyfriend stayed at the Paradise Galle. We were supposed to stay for three nights, but ended up only staying for one night, because we had a horrible experience with one of the guys working there. Doing the night we were together as couples sometimes are, and when I went to close the curtain (that we already closed once), I got eye contact with the guy who worked there, because his face was glued to window perving on us being intimate together. We went out to confront him and demanded him to show us his phone, because we were afraid that he might had been filming us and it was shocking seeing all the pornographic material and some of it looked illegally obtained. We couldn’t find any material of us, but it made us realize the character of this man and that this was not a singular event. He claimed that he didn’t understand any English, but my boyfriend had spoken with him during the stay and the communication were at a comprehendible level. The manager of the place showed up, since the owner lives in Colombo. We wanted to see the footage from security cameras, but suddenly the password didn’t work. The manager was confused, so we ended up talking with the owner on the phone, where he continued to give us the password written down (we think the man who worked there changed the password before we came out ). Finally, after multiple talks with the owner being spoked to in the most disrespectful way I have ever experienced, he finally admitted that is was the guy on the footage. This is a family owned business and the guy who was peeving on us, were either the son or the cousin. We were unable to go to the police because we didn’t have any video evidence and the corruption in Sri Lanka would have been a waste of time with no recourse. We are deeply effected by the invasion of privacy by what happening to us and we want to ensure future travelers don’t relive...

Wikitravel recommends this as one of the top budget accommodations. It is a villa converted into a hostel. It is located about 1.6 km from Galle Train Station. Once you come out from the train station, turn right and walk along the main road towards Mahomodara Hospital. You will pass by a nursing school and once you reach the hospital, turn right and walk for another 5 to 10 mins till you see the hostel signboard. ||||The Galle Fort area is just opposite the train station. The hostel is not within the Galle Fort area so you need to take a bus or walk for 1.6 km to reach the fort area. I personally walked my way twice to the fort area from the hostel. There is a Keels supermarket located somewhere along the road between the hostel and the train station. I bought a number of items from the supermarket. So bear in mind when he decided to choose this hostel. ||||Second. the hostel has no air conditioner. It only has fans. I came to Galle at end of Feb and the weather is terribly hot. The air conditioner would help to induce sleep. I found it quite uncomfortable with the fan turned on and hiding my body inside the mosquito net hang down from the ceiling. ||||Third. The wifi signal is not very strong at the second floor and I had to come down to the ground floor to receive the signal. ||||Nevertheless, the plus point is that it is reasonably cheap. The owner charged me only 900 rupees for a night and the whole room I was the only one occupying the room. The room is spacious and from the verandah you can look down at the villa compound. The toilet and bathroom were clean and well maintained. The owner also welcomed me with a cup of tea. Breakfast is, however, not inclusive. ||||It is quiet at night but my sleep was not very comfortable with fan. The owner is a quiet reserved man and did not provide much information...