Saman's Guesthouse — Hotel in Sri Lanka

I stayed only 1 night in this guesthouse with my wife, when we made a short stop in Dambulla to visit the cave temples there. The accommodation was not so bad, although our room was not prepared, when we arrived, because there were no towels, toillet paper or blankets, but after we asked about that, they brought everything. The room was quite simple but sufficient and it had its own bathroom. Next day early in the morning we payed and after the breakfast we left and in that time everything seemed ok. We went to Negombo with bus next and there we wanted to change some money, but we realised, that someone stole our money (USD and EUR) from our reserve wallet, which we left in the rucksack in the room in Saman´s guesthouse the night before. We thought, that someone must had come to our room, when we were out in the cave temples and took it. It could have done someone from the stuff of the guesthouse (they knew, we were going out), or even someone else, because there were some strange looking people walking through the guesthouse and we wondered all the time, who they were. The doors of the room were not secure at all, because it wasn´t possible to lock them with a key (there was some type of button only). Fortunately we had most of our money and our cameras with us, so it was not a big loss, but we were still pissed off and couldn´t do anything with that. We can´t be 100% sure, that it happened in that guest house, but we had controlled the wallet shortly before whe checked in the guesthouse and the money was still there. After we checked out, we had the wallet all time with us (but didn´t open it before we arrived in Negombo), so it couldn´t happen on the way to Negombo as well. Therefore we suspect people from this guest house, that they took it from us. We will definitely never come back...

Me and my friend ended up in Saman’s by accident. The guesthouse is only a few minutes by foot away from the golden- and cave temples. The room was comfortable and clean. We were the only guests staying there that night, because of the low season, but we were treated like royalty. I think every single member of the Saman family came by to have a little chat with us. In the evening we were surprised with a lovely honeymoon-like dinner, complete with a ten dish rice table, coconut torches and a fruit dessert (that they went to get us from the neighbours across the street). After saying goodbye, they made sure we got on the right bus to our next destination. A stay at Saman’s is, in my opinion, a great example of Sri Lanka’s warm...

Non ho dormito in questa Guest House. Per quel che ho potuto vedere le camere erano accettabili, parzialmente ristrutturate e con l'A/C. Il prezzo non è alto per noi europei, sui 20 euro, ma consideriamo che in Sri Lanka quella è la media per la maggior parte delle guest house. In ogni modo, il mio commento è per la cena al ristorante: ci hanno portato degli assaggi vari e il riso accompagnati con della birra locale. Spesa, poco più di 3000 rupie (sui 22 euro). Ma il cibo non era di qualità, alcune cose ci sono sembrati avanzi del pranzo se non del giorno prima; alla fine ho assaggiato giusto per fame, ma il più è stato lasciato lì. Il riso non era ben cucinato, eppure non è difficile... La nostra guida srilankese ci ha detto che la qualità era pessima. Era la nostra prima cena, e da europei abbiamo potuto pensare che alla fine si era speso il giusto e quindi "pazienza" se si era mangiato male, data l'esiguo conto. Ma con l'andare avanti nella vacanza, ci siamo resi conto che NO, non si era speso poco per il livello di cena....quindi la nostra indulgenza è venuta meno. Nelle sere a seguire, infatti, abbiamo sempre cenato in ristoranti lussuosi, con cibo di qualità alta, con servizio impeccabile, pulizia, ingredienti spettacolari, piatti presentati in maniera divina e non abbiamo mai speso grandi cifre, anzi, per ben due volte MENO che in questo Saman's Restaurant e altre volte 800/1000 rupie di più ma per ben latra cosa (che poi, sono 5/6 euro in più). Alla luce dell'esperienza a posteriori, quindi, a questo posto darei una stella. Ne lascio 2 solo perchè il figlio del proprietario parla bene italiano, è pieno di entusiasmo ed è gentile e offre suggerimenti sulle cose da visitare. Ma due stelle sono pura generosità su aspetti accessori, non sulla qualità del cibo o sulla...