Hotel Pinnalanda - New Deal! Half Off Airport Pickups Available

i was staying next door, but came here for dinner - great choice ! A lovely evening. Soft music playing when I entered and of course, a gorgeous view ! 

I went at sunset ... watching the bats flying back to roost is magical. Attentive professional waiters, great atmosphere. I had the pepper steak - it was delicious ! I was eating early ... 6 pm. About 7 pm a musician arrived, playing soft acoustic guitar & singing gentle, lovely songs. Twas a lovely night.

We had a lovely time at Grand Hotel Pinnalanda, this was our 2nd time at theirs. Such lovely and helpful staff, always goes above to help their guests. “Ela” and Miraj both were very attentive to all the guests and helpful at their best. There was some issues with the electricity in our room, but Mahesh (electrician) and Miraj took care of it during our stay, going above and beyond to ensure we are not disturbed with the power issues. A huge thank to Shantha, the manager who is a people pleaser and always tries to make every guest returns to them again. He even helped us buying tickets for the elephant bathing session. The two lovely ladies at the reception (sorry we couldn’t take their names) were welcoming, polite and friendly. We are definitely going there again next time we visit Sri Lanka. To the owners of this property - Your strength is your lovely staff, take good care of them! There’s a lot of room for you to improve things in this property for more guests to return to you on their next visit to Pinnawala. Try and invest some money on improvements in the property and your guests will pay happily to enjoy as your hotel has the best view of the river. Also we believe that you don’t need to keep the minibar filled in all rooms, not even 5 star hotels do that nowadays. Instead, invest some money on improvements and maintenance of the property. It’s a lovely property that needs a bit of love from the owners.

The view of numerous elephants bathing in the palm-fringed Maya Ora River in front of the Pinnalanda Hotel is an iconic promotional image of Sri Lanka that looks as good in real life as it does on the tourist brochures. And the location in Pinnawala is half way from Colombo to Kandy or Sigiriya. On our arrival, management confided to us that their deluxe rooms were actually basic with a communal balcony. They upgraded us to a private balcony room overlooking the river in the next door hotel. The room was great, bed comfortable, and view over the river and elephant bathing in the morning was excellent. There will be elephants bathing in the river from about 8.30am until 12 noon, although the biggest number will be between 10-11am. The hotel pool overlooking the river was great, (although you had to walk through the restaurant to get to it) and the hotel staff were friendly and helpful. Unfortunately, their restaurant food was poor quality. Dinner in the restaurant was a selection of badly cooked western food. Breakfast buffet was not much better. Unfortunately you have no other options for eating. If you arrive at the hotel before 4pm, you will be required to pay the Elephant Orphanage entry fee, even if you don't visit it. The hotel has many flights ofstairs and no elevator. This was difficult for my wife as she has some mobility issues.