Pandanus Beach Resort & Spa

This is a fantastic spot with spotlessly clean and tidy rooms, right by the beach and pool. The poolside bar team is top-notch, whipping up delicious cocktails, beer, and more. We celebrated a birthday with a beautifully decorated beachside table and fresh barbecue seafood—the staff were incredibly supportive and eager to please every guest.

excellent time at this hotel. all staff and ammenities wereexceptional. we have booked to come again next year.

The hotel location and beach are great and the food and staff are lovely with one exception - the General Manager. Towards the end of my stay an expensive set of hearing aids went missing from my room. I went to report it and they summoned the general manager who rather than empathise or apologise came armed with my registration form and immediately showed me the clause that said they had no liability. He promised an incident report within 4 hours but 4 days later am still waiting. He was rude and arrogant and his staff were clearly scared of him. Additionally it is worth knowing that whilst we booked all inclusive wine is not included in Sri Lanka! The country is stunningly beautiful so use your time to explore !

For me there was a lot of «first-times»: first journey to Sri Lanka (and this part lf the world), first far-away travel with a 1 y.o baby and first time of quite passive beach leisure without active tourism. And Pandanus turned out to be a perfect place for such conditions! During our 12-day stay we left the hotel just a couple of times to Aluthgama and never went any further than 15 mins afoot away from the hotel. It has everything you need to just relax by the ocean: proximity to the ocean, pool, good food, entertainment and even an opportunity to purchase paintings of local artists. The staff is really special! Everyone is friendly and ready to help, everyone was very kind to our baby giving him little treats and gifts every now and then. The room service is impeccable, room boys take their cleaning responsibilities very seriously. We really felt well taken care of. The guide and tuk-tuk driver Ravindu Shiranga was also really helpful and a nice company. The restaurant staff was also very kind, prompt and we thank you for the celebration of my husband’s birthday! I also would like to thank the hotel administration for providing me with access to the conference room and high speed connection when I needed to give an online lecture - without any payment or other difficulties, with complete understanding. And I can’t but mention that we were upgraded to the lux room on the 5th floor with just an unforgettable ocean view. We really appreciate it! Though even without an upgrade our stay would be very nice and cozy full of the best and warmest memories.

We stayed here in November. I usually only review if its going to be good comments, however I feel that I need to give all feedback for this hotel. The rooms needed some tlc. In our room, the wardrobe door was dropping off, we had to swivel the knob to a certain position to be able to close the door - otherwise the wardrobe light would be on constantly. The curtains were really dirty. The air con was old and noisy - appeared to badly need a service. The light outside of our room (in our door alcove) wasn't working. Each night we had to use our phone torches to be able to put our room key into the keyhole. Yes, we reported these things a number of times. Balcony repairs and redec were done while we were in the room or on the balcony. We didn't opt to go all-inclusive but decided to eat a couple of evening meals in the ala carte restaurant and one meal in the buffet. Sadly not much choice on the ala carte menu and we were told that we could only eat ala carte outside on the restaurant balcony, and as it was always windy, our meals went cold very quickly. On one occasion the meal was cold on arrival. The staff serving there appeared very stressed and not very pleasant. For all three meals, we were brought the bill to pay in the middle of our meal, as if we would run off without paying. Not very nice to be made to feel as though we were untrustworthy. Some of the staff were lovely and friendly, specially on reception. But this was marred by the few on the ala carte staff. The buffet breakfast was ok, but as in a previous review, the salad and fruit was not covered and open to insects so I always took my food from the bottom of the serving bowl. The hot food was pretty samey, we were pleased that we didn't opt for all inclusive. As in a previous review, the sea was very rough and only slightly calmer in the mornings so expect not to be able to swim or even paddle for most of the day. The location was fab, right on the beach, massive expanse of sea in front of you - which made it even more disappointing not to be able to get in it. There are other cheaper but better hotels in the area. The tuc tuc drivers are friendly and can offer much cheaper trips than the hotel or tour agent (usually half price). Raja was very good and a very friendly guy offering informative trips. Ask your tuk tuk driver to take you to buy beer. Theres a local shop (buy at the window) where you can buy packs of beer which work out much cheaper than the hotel. If you do the local boat safari, watch out if you stop at the herb garden. It looks very friendly with a guy who takes you around explaining the herbs. He then ushers you into a shack and offers you a "free" back and neck massage carried out by his students. However you are told to donate money towards their studies and are told if you havent offered enough. You're then led upstairs to the "shop". This is where the hard sale starts. Be firm and only buy what you need - the products are highly priced and only 4 items could cost you £100. He threatens to contact the hotel to get your payment on entry. Also the same hard sell in the Aida jewelry shop where they pretend that Princess Diana was a customer - they even had fake newspaper cuttings. They calculate amazing prices for this jewelry with beautiful "gemstones", however, apparently, the stones drop out and silver tarnishes after a couple of weeks of being back home.