Green Sapphire Holiday Resort Wilpaththu

Booked months in advance and we arrived to be shown a room that was not the one we booked. When questioned, the host offered us a slightly larger room for an inflated price. When I challenged him on this, he told us we must leave and find other accommodation. We did just that (see our review for Ceylon Resort) and to our surprise we found another couple from Cyprus who had been told to leave on the same day as they "did not have a booking" for them. We know now this property takes bookings but if someone is willing to pay a higher price, your booking becomes worthless. This is inherently dishonest and not typical of the Sri Lankan people. Read ALL the reviews, particularly the one stars - I would give zero if possible.

Green sapphire is a great place to stay! The enthusiastic host Dylan goes out of his way to give an amazing experience during your stay in the resort. Breakfast and dinner are delicious. Rooms are perfectly clean and comfortable. Location is about 5 minutes from the national park which is perfect when you go on a safary and also the safary was awesome. Obviously safarys have an element of luck, but our driver was amazing. He was great at spotting animals, communicating with other guides in the park, and anticipating where the leopards would be. We ended up seeing five leopards,one sloth bear and more elephants, we Would definitely come back!!

I wouldn’t go there again and recommend you all NOT to book there. The Owner – a Sri Lankan guy that presents himself as "Dylan" (Ya, right - if his name is Dylan, then I am Elizabeth the dead queen of England 😊 ) is not reliable and not a trust worthy person at all !!!! My experience was so bad that I have no words to describe – I made a reservation an hour and a half before I arrived (when I was on my way) and received a confirmation from Booking . I even received a nice and welcoming whatsapp message from "Dylan" (or whatever his name is ) an hour before I arrived, greeting me for the reservation I made ,asking me if I wanted to book a safari tour for the day after and even describing the dinner menu choice there is. It all looked and felt really nice from his Whatsapp and the price was reasonable and the pictures on Booking looked great so me and my friend had a good feeling coming there…. When we arrived, NOT only he didn’t remember that there was a booking and acted like he doesn’t know what we are talking about (again, I booked 90 minutes before I arrived, received a confirmation and right after his welcoming Whatsapp message) -Not only that BUT few minutes after when he realized his mistake , he did admit that he made mistake and gave our room to someone else half an hour before AND without even apologizing offered us a family room that he still had in a much higher price . When we told him it wasn’t fair that he is asking us to pay more because of a mistake he did and therefore should take the responsibility for it, he kept on saying that if we want to take the big room, we would have to pay more. So not only he made the mistake, he still expected us to pay more for a family room that we didn’t book ( we booked a room for a couple). Even the srilanken taxi driver that took us there spoke with him and explained to him that it is not ok what he is doing but this Dylan didn’t care at all. We had to look for a different place in the dark (it was late in the afternoon) , which wasn’t nice at all but we preferred it than staying at his guest house and accepting his inability to pay for his own mistake!!! I am telling you all – don’t book there. This owner/ manager is not reliable (not to say a lier!!!) and there are so many other nice guesthouses around – that I would really advise you all not to get close to this one.

Surprisingly cosy place with, helpfull and nice host Dylan, who provides a lot of welcoming, good meals and also arranged pro park driver who combines driver&spotting guide in one person. Picture-perfect paddy fields around and compact but very nice kept territory are included with this place.

Let's be honest, the point of being in accommodation close Wilpaththu is to have easy access to the national park and see wonderful creatures (the local big five plus more, we saw elephant, leopards, sloth bears, crocs, water buffalos, wild boar, eagles). When planning., as long as the accommodation is OK then fine. Green Sapphire, however, is so much better than OK. Wonderful (not over bearing) hosting within five minutes of the park entrance is the headline. Great food for dinner, cool beers on arrival (and as you want one) and your tour sorted with a great driver (however short the notice) and all day meals and snacks whilst out on your jeep, if you are looking for make up the package of options available here. Friendly but not "in your face" hosting from both the host and tour guide make for a perfectly formed experience that is actually your own. Would not hesitate to recommend to others.