Arcade Beach Hotel

If you want to spend your vacation in a guest house directly at the beach with the most wonderful landlady 😍 who offers you an abundant and very tasty breakfast – and all that at a very reasonable price, then this is the place to go! 👍👍👍 My review in detail: Location: The "hotel" (I call it "guest house") is situated between the main road and the beach. It has a big garden where you can sit in the shadow of a palm tree 🌴 and have breakfast with ocean view. WOW!! There are enough sunbeds for every guest so there is no need to "reserve" it with a towel... 😉😁 You can lie in the sun or shadow. Both is available in abundance. Right next to the guest house is a fish 🐟 restaurant. Up and down the beach there are a few more restaurants and bars 🍹. Unless the fish restaurant has a band 🎵 playing (not often) there is no noise disturbance. Beach: White, soft sand like on the typical catalogue pictures. Only that in Induruwa there is a step of approximately one meter from the garden fence down to the ocean. But even with my extreme overweight I was able to overcome this obstacle of sand 😉. When I was there (March) we had high waves 🌊, strong currents and a lot of rain 🌧, so you should prefer the season November to February. But it was wonderful to sit on the sunbed and watch the ocean. Rooms: The beds are comfortable, the rooms are large, the furniture is functional, and the bathroom is ok. An open closet or some shelves could help to unpack the suitcase. If you book "Seaview" please make sure that you take the upper front room (send a message to Shashi). Because (1) it is the only room with partly Seaview (through the palm trees), and (2) there is a stairhead with two chairs that can be used as a balcony. The stairhead has a roof, so you can sit outside during rain. The upper rooms both have air conditioning (new!) and one room has a fridge. The second room upstairs has neither Seaview nor balcony and is closer to the road which can be annoying at night. I would not recommend the downstairs room as it has no air conditioning (it is a little damp). Food: Spectacular!!! 🌟⭐🌟⭐🌟⭐🌟⭐🌟⭐ Shashi cooks fresh breakfast every morning that takes some time to prepare (please consider that when planning your breakfast time). She asks you beforehand what you want to eat and drink, she makes proposals for Sri Lankan food and explains the ingredients. So, each day you have the chance to try different local foods. If you prefer "Western" food, she will offer that, too. There are breakfast times, but Shashi is very flexible if you get up later. I always had a pot of Ceylon tea (with milk or lemon), omelette or fried eggs 🍳, a choice of exotic fruits 🍌🥭🍍🥝 (some of them were new to me), juice and some local specialities (spicy 🌶️ like sambal or sweet like pancakes with coconut 🥥 honey 🍯). Yes: it's "and", not "or"!!! The food is so abundant that I wasn't hungry all day. Atmosphere: I felt like part of the family. 🤗 On arrival, Shashi immediately took my suitcase and carried it upstairs. Her daughter (4 years) said: "I want to carry this" and pointed to a small bag. She brought me flowers and seashells as presents every day. She is adorable. The whole family is so sweet and charming! When I was sick 🤒🤧 for a few days Shashi went to the pharmacy and got me some medicine. Then she wrote WhatsApps several times a day to hear how I felt and whether I needed something. She even cooked a special soup 🥣! Cleanliness and service: If you want cleaning or your bed made every day, you should tell Shashi. Normally she does that twice a week. Since I wanted a "neat" bed at night, I asked her to make it every day. The bathroom could be cleaner 😐, but Shashi is alone in charge of everything 💪, so guests have to be a little tolerant. 😊 Of course, you could have a perfectly cleaned and proper room with stylish furniture, a decent bathroom, a big balcony with Seaview and a daily room service – then you can book into the hotel next door and pay three times as much. Your choice 😉😊 One more positive thing: Since there is always some ocean breeze, you can sit on the sunbed at the beach until late at night without 🦟 mosquito repellent. 👍 All in all, I can recommend this hotel to all guests who are not too fussy about the facilities but want to be part of a warm-hearted family with a landlady that will fulfil every wish you may have and introduce you to Sri Lankan life. Thank you for everything, dear Shashi!!! 😘😘😘🥰🥰🥰