Our Deluxe Rooms have private balconies with direct and partial sea view.

The rooms are also spacious enough for a small wooden sofa and writing desk.

Heritance Ahungalla is an ideal Galle resort in Sri Lanka which gives you the utmost bliss of a beach vacation. Our luxury rooms have much larger balconies and seating areas. The bathroom contains a bathtub with overhead rain shower.

With a separate sitting area and a spacious private balcony, our Suites provide you with more space to spread out and relax. They are ideal for families, as we can provide an extra bed in the sitting area.

The bathroom has a bathtub and separate rain shower cubicle. With all these modern amenities we give you the best accommodation facilities any luxury resort in Sri Lanka could provide.

Our spacious Luxury Suites have separate living rooms with DVD player and home theatre system – perfect for a family night in or entertaining friends.

No waiting to use the bathroom, either, as it comes with twin basins, Jacuzzi and separate rainshower cubicle. Our well designed luxury suites provide you the best comforts and finest amenities any beach resort in Sri Lanka could offer.

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ONE BEDROOM

KING SIZE BED

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Heritance cuisine takes the best local ingredients and techniques and combines them with Western presentation and influences to produce healthy dishes that look stunning and taste divine.

We use no artificial flavours, fragrances, sauces or animal fats. And we serve it in courses, unlike traditional Sri Lankan dishes, which are presented all together.

Because Heritance cuisine relies on local and regional ingredients, you will find different specialities at each Heritance hotel. For example, at Heritance Ahungalla the dishes may feature prawns from the Madu Ganga lagoon, or karancoku, a kind of local bean.

At Heritance Ahungalla, our Heritance cuisine menu won the gold medal for New Sri Lankan Cuisine in the Culinary Arts 2011 competition organised by the Chefs Guild of Sri Lanka.

You might start with “Serendib sea harvest” – tuna ambulthiyal roulade, with chilled prawn rasam and green cashew and mango salad.

After welpenela and red onion soup, you could then sample pot-roasted breast of chicken stuffed with coconut, with leeks and fenugreek gravy, and hill country beef fillet in smore gravy.

All this is accompanied by sweet lime pickle rice, baby carrot tomato curry, dal and spinach curry and fried okra – not forgetting the sambols and chutneys!

For dessert, how about buffalo curd and passionfruit terrine with honey lemon sauce, and tropical fruit in avocado pancake?

For a sophisticated Sri Lankan experience that will leave your tastebuds tingling, be sure to ask for the Heritance cuisine menu.

Our main restaurant, named after the batik fabric on the ceiling, has full-length glass windows overlooking the lush grounds of Heritance Ahungalla.

It’s the setting for our sumptuous buffets, where you can choose from delectable displays decorated with amazing pastry or sugar sculptures.

There is always something going on at our chef action stations, from waffles and omelettes at breakfast to devilled prawns or kebabs on our theme nights.

For special occasions, our fine dining restaurant blends cultural influences from around the globe.

We start with top-quality ingredients from around the world – Tasmanian salmon, New Zealand lamb, Swiss white chocolate – and use techniques from east and west to produce a sophisticated fusion menu.

So a teriyaki-glazed tuna steak might be served on daikon noodle cake with an orange caper sauce, and coconut and saffron mousse comes topped with batter-fried lemongrass ice cream and raspberry coulis.

And of course there’s an international wine list to match – our sommelier recommends the best matches for each main course.

Whatever time of the day or night, cooled by sea breezes, our Mustard Coffee Shop offers a wide-ranging à la carte menu.

It’s very handy for a quick snack during a break from sunbathing, or if you get the midnight munchies during a bout of jetlag.

The menu covers most bases, from soups and salads to steak and seafood, pasta, curry and Chinese food. There’s also a wine list as well as hot and cold drinks.

This bar in the south wing, adjoining the lobby, is the place for an intimate drink. With its dark alcoves, lavastone tables and lamps and black leather sofas, it feels secluded and cosy.

There’s also a large TV for catching up with sport or movies.

Busy throughout the day, this bar is shaped like a traditional wooden boat, echoing the vessel in the Infinity Pool.

As well as drinks and snacks, there’s a separate ice cream menu, where you can cool down with treats like our Spice Inheritance signature sundae – cardamom and jaggery ice cream with coconut pani pol (sugar and grated coconut), grated jaggery and roasted nuts with kitul treacle sauce.

In the evenings there are often craft sales and live music or performance in the adjoining Mirror Lounge.

On the first floor overlooking the Infinity Pool, this air-conditioned space is the place for indoor games, such as pool (Rs300 an hour), table football or board games.

As well as alcohol, the bar also sells coffee and cigars.

This provides snacks and drinks by the Residents’ Pool.

Open Friday and Saturday nights in high season, the nightclub has an industrial feel, fitted out in concrete and metal.

At Diviyan Spa our philosophy is simple : we want to make you feel better and more beautiful. Our three fundamentals are professional expertise, professional treatments and professional products.

Our own line of blended pure massage oils and genuine herbal cosmetics are made in Sri Lanka from the finest natural ingredients.

Our honest and professional therapists from Bali are trained in our spa centre in Indonesia. They will ensure that you have a relaxing, rejuvenating, enjoyable and memorable experience.

Diviyan Spa offers a complete range of services to pamper you:  choose from massage therapies, body treatments, facials and nail care. There is also a selection of packages combining several treatments.

Our treatment rooms include two rooms for couples, a manicure/pedicure room, steam room and sauna, and an open-air Jacuzzi. There are also lockers and showers.

We recommend that you book in advance and that you arrive 10 minutes before your appointment to fill in the consultation form. If you are having a massage, arrive half an hour early to use the steam room and sauna (this is free as part of your treatment).

We have two swimming pools at Heritance Ahungalla. We provide free towels, sunbeds and sun umbrellas – please ask the pool attendant.

Our pools are attended by lifeguards, but please supervise your children closely.

INFINITY POOL

The Infinity Pool is one of architect Geoffrey Bawa’s ingenious concepts. The pool, right next to the main lobby, guides your eye to the ocean as you enter the hotel. It looks as if the edge of the pool blends with the water of the ocean, giving the impression that you are in the sea, although the beach separates the pool and the ocean.

The traditional boat placed in the middle of the pool is an icon of the hotel adds a touch of local culture. Poolside seating,bars and the Mustard Coffee Shop make this a favourite place to soak, sunbathe or enjoy a cocktail.

RESIDENTS’ POOL

The Residents’ Pool is located in a private area of the hotel grounds and is not open to non-residents. The branches of a nearby tree dip almost into the pool, providing more shade and the ambience of a natural pool.

The Wall Bar offers drinks and snacks throughout the day.

We are very happy to welcome families and children to Heritance Ahungalla. Please ensure that you supervise your children around the pool and the beach.

We can provide an extra bed in your room for a small charge. We also provide free cots for babies, and free highchairs in the Jute Restaurant and Mustard Coffee Shop.

BABYSITTING

You can book a babysitter at a fee at the reception.

CHILDREN’S MENUS

Please ask your waiter or restaurant manager for the separate children’s menu.

GYM

Our modern air-conditioned gym is fully equipped with free weights, treadmills and exercise machines. Animators are available at all times to advise and help you.

The gym is free for all hotel guests.

CYCLING

Explore the backroads around the hotel, cycling through quiet villages and cinnamon plantations. You ride past paddy fields, hilltop temples and quiet streams.

Local families welcome and wave, and may invite you into their houses to show you ceilings of drying cinnamon quills.

A 15km circular route from the hotel will take around two hours. The roads are fairly flat, and once you are off the main coast road there is little traffic.

TENNIS AND BADMINTON

We have two tennis courts and a badminton court at the end of the north wing.

TABLE TENNIS

Our tennis court is outdoors but under shelter at the end of the north wing. It is free to hotel residents.

PUTTING GREEN

Our small putting green is free to hotel guests. Ask at reception if you would like to borrow the putting equipment.

BILLIARDS AND POOL

As well as a pool table in the Apollo Bar, we also have a full-size billiard table in a separate room.

BOARD GAMES

Carom, chess and table football are available in the Apollo Bar.

WATER SPORTS

We can provide transport to nearby Bentota, where a range of watersports is available, including jet skis, banana boats, windsurfing and kayaking. Please ask at reception if you are interested.

Simply Imagine floating in air, feeling completely weightless and gliding through the atmosphere putting all your cares into perspective. With barely a wisp of a breeze to touch your skin, balloon rides are one way of finding yourself at one with nature and seeing the world from a bird’s eye view.

Share this experience with a loved one for a truly romantic time, celebrating an anniversary, birthday with champagne and make it an experience you will never forget. Treat family or friends or treat yourself to an indulgent balloon flight over your local countryside spotting sights of nature that are normally hidden from view. You will see popular landmarks from a completely different angle – becoming more beautiful than you have ever imagined.

A Hot Air Balloon Flight is a participative activity and you can assist in the inflation and the deflation of the balloon if you wish.

Our route and final landing spot will depend on the direction and strength of the wind, but the flight lasts about 45 minutes. We will bring you back to the hotel afterwards.

Kosgoda is famous for its sea turtle conservation project operated by the Wild Life Protection Society of Sri Lanka. It was established in 1988 to protect Sri Lanka’s turtles from extinction. Since then it has released about 3.5 million baby turtles into the wild.

The hatchery pays fishermen for eggs that they collect at night along the long sandy beach. Although October to April is the main laying season, some eggs (mostly green turtles) can be found at Kosgoda throughout the year.

The hatchery buries the eggs in sand, and when they hatch around 50 days later the baby turtles are released into the sea at night. Only about one in 1,000 turtles survives to maturity.

Kosgoda turtle hatchery also has tanks for injured or disabled turtles, including albino turtles that would not survive in the wild.

There’s also a small shop and café.

The estuary of the Madu Ganga river is a complex coastal ecosystem of mangroves and islands. It may be one of the last remaining tracts of pristine mangrove forests in Sri Lanka.

A boat trip is a wonderful way of seeing some of the hundreds of species of plants and animals – monkeys eat fruit in the trees, a water monitor lizard glides slowly through the water, and cormorants, egrets and kingfishers wait patiently on the banks, eyeing the water for prey.

There are around 64 islands in the river and lagoon, from a tiny speck housing a deserted shrine to one housing 250 families connected to the mainland with a very long footbridge.

You can visit an island with a Buddhist monastery, where the friendly young monks will show you a 150-year-old book made of palm leaves and how they cook on cinnamon wood on an open fire.

The main occupations of the local inhabitants are producing cinnamon and prawn fishing – if you take the trip in the early evening you will see the fishermen in their canoes lighting lanterns to attract the shellfish into their traps.

Sri Lanka is famous for its gems, one of which is the moonstone. This pale blue, almost transparent, stone is a type of feldspar known as adularia – the way the stone shimmers when it moves is known as adularescence.

At Meetiyagoda you can see how the stones are actually mined. The miners climb down a 10-metre-deep shaft on a frame made of strong coconut wood. A machine pumps out water, but all the digging is done by hand.

The buckets of soil that are wound regularly to the surface yield around 50-100 rough moonstones a day, though not all of them are saleable quality.

The small adjoining factory cuts, polishes and sets the stones into more glamorous jewellery. In the saleroom you can see some beautiful examples of their art, along with other gems like topaz, garnets, tiger eye and tourmaline.

Ambalangoda, the closest village to Heritance Ahungalla, is known as a centre for antiques and masks.

At the Mask Museum you can see many types of mask. Most are made from kaduru, a light, pliable wood similar to balsa. After carving, the masks were traditionally sanded using rough leaves or shark skin.

Masks are used for several purposes in Sri Lanka. As well as featuring in traditional dance, drama and comedies, and in large pageants and processions, they are also used in ceremonies to exorcise demons or cure illnesses.

The museum also contains several puppets, made from the same type of wood and manipulated with strings. The average height of traditional puppets is around 4 feet, but those representing royalty or nobility are taller and heavier. Puppet shows are accompanied by music on the drum and seraphina, as well as singing.

It’s an early start, as we leave Heritance Ahungalla at around 4am to catch a boat from Mirissa at 6.30am.

The whales usually start to appear after about an hour out to sea. Mostly it’s blue whales, but sometimes we see killer whales too. Sightings of dolphins are also common on the way out and back.

We get back to the hotel in time for lunch.

We can provide seasickness tablets if necessary, but bring a hat and plenty of sun cream, as well as a camera and binoculars.

This excursion normally runs from November to April but may be cancelled if conditions are unsuitable.

It was Bevis Bawa, brother of Heritance Ahungalla architect Geoffrey Bawa, who converted this former rubber plantation into a wonderful series of landscaped gardens.

Through clever planting and screening, you are led through a series of tableaux and views, nooks and bowers. Statues and artwork are dotted throughout, as well as in the minimalist house. Many are Bawa’s own work, while the Australian artist Donald Friend is also well represented.

Lunuganga was Geoffrey Bawa’s own estate, where he experimented with his ideas about space, light and scale for nearly 50 years.

When he bought the land in 1948 it was a rubber plantation on a peninsula jutting out into a lake. Over the years, Bawa painstakingly reshaped the land and the vegetation to fulfil his vision, in one case slicing off the top of a hill to improve his view of the lake.

Don’t expect a riot of flowers planted in neat borders. This is essentially a series of outdoor rooms with cleverly framed vistas – a Buddhist stupa on a hilltop, an artfully placed Grecian statue.

Bawa continued to change and experiment with the spaces and structures throughout his life until his final illness in 1998. On his death in 2003 the garden was left to the Lunuganga Trust and is now open to the public.

The 300-year-old fort, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the big draw of this southern city. Portuguese invaders were followed by the Dutch and British, and the streets within the fort are crammed with colonial remnants, from the Dutch clocktower, Reform church and commander’s house to the British coat of arms on the outer wall.

You can wander the atmospheric streets, explore the ramparts, visit the lighthouse and check out the bhodi tree and reclining Buddha in the temple.

Many of the buildings have been converted to  boutique hotels or stylish stores – perfect for a drink or a bit of light shopping before returning to Heritance Ahungalla.