Name: The Seahorse Inn
Address: 44 Panama Road, Arugam Bay 32500, Arugam, 32500, Sri Lanka, Arugam, Arugam, Arugam, 32500, Sri Lanka
Rating: 9

Air conditioning

Smoke-free property

Gift shop

Terrace

Outdoor furniture

General

Non-smoking rooms

Room service

Family room

Shower/Bathtub

Shower

Linens

Mosquito net

Rooms

Laundry

Dry-cleaning

Services and amenities

Restaurant

Meals

Internet access

Internet

Airport transportation

Transfer

Parking

Free parking nearby

Free Parking on Premises

Beach/pool towels

Pool and beach

Family/Kid Friendly

Kids

Pets Not Allowed

Pets

Location

At the hotel

Room amenities

Arugam Bay Beach

Ampara Airport

The Seahorse Inn

Arugam

If you want to chill out to the coolest tunes and enjoy some seriously good pizza then look no further than the seahorse inn,Arugam bay Lanka.
Such a friendly atmosphere I highly recommend this venue 👍👍👍❤️❤️❤️

Coolest chill-out 

Two friends and I stayed at the Seahorse for 2 weeks and our stay could not have been any better. Our room was very clean and gorgeous and the location is so great and convenient! The staff were beyond amazing and we felt we had made a good friendship with each of them, made it very sad to leave. The wood fire pizza at this Inn was too good, we ate one almost every day and the rest of the menu was well prepared and well priced for the genuine quality you received. The cocktails were mouth-wateringly good, the Pina Colada and Passionfruit daiquiri were our favourites. This venue is suitable for all types of holiday goers, safe and comfortable for families and fun and happening for those wanting a good time. The live music on Tuesdays was a highlight for the week. The beach is about a 5 minute walk and the staff are so helpful with organising taxis, safaris and other activities for your time in Aragum Bay. Could not recommend this place any more to any traveller looking for a place to stay, great place for a fantastic price. I will be returning to the Seahorse Inn next time I visit Sri Lanka, I may even just return to Sri Lanka so I can stay at the Seahorse Inn. 

Fantastic Stay

I really liked the hospitality of the owners.  The pizza and pasta were delicious, my kids were happy. Its a great hangout spot any time of day. The rooms clean and simple, large enough for my family..

great food and room

Seahorse is a great place to hang out at night for dinner and drinks. Pizzas are really good with thin crust but my favorite is the pasta al pesto. Booze are perfectly ice cold which is a must. Set up is also super chill with comfy beds and dimmed lights to sip cocktails with friends or a date. And if you come alone, the bar will do the job with its friendly staff, large led TV to watch sport and games and always a few nice dudes to engage conversation.

Great place for food, drinks and watching games

My wife and me are repeated customers of the seahorse and just love it for the atmosphere. You can meet people from all walks of life in the evenings and everyone of the staff make you feel welcome whether your are the hippest kid or average Joe. It's just welcoming and good people working there. 
Ask for room 6 upstairs which is super spacious. Few stumbles in the morning and you are on the beach. Seahorse we will be back!

Great stay!

This could well be one of the hardest reviews I have had to write as you will see from my review history i have been many places around the globe and try to avoid negativity as much as possible so I will continue that approach and just outlay the facts. We booked Seahorse Inn despite it not being the most affordable for what you get. There is plenty of other accomodation in the area for less which includes air conditioning and more modern rooms but we went with Seahorse due to the good reviews, ran by an british couple so we thought would be ideal for getting feel of area and organising things etc and also fact has a highly reviewed and recommended pizza restaraunt on site. Lets start from beginning we arrived Arugam bay 11:30am and get to seahorse. Lady there notparticularly friendly greets us we find out she is the owner and shows us to the room gives us the key and off she goes. I quickly catch her before she disappears to ask if we could use the restaraunt as we would love pizza etc as we just had a 6 hour bus and from reading on trip advisor the pizzas are said to be amazing. She tells me they had a heavy night (strange thing to say to your newly checked in guest) and kitchen will not be open until 1pm. Bit of strange time considering online says restaraunt opens from 8am but not to bother we said we come back then. I went back to room to unpack etc. Lets now dicuss the room. Probably the most basic room we have had in sri lanka; bed, mosquito net, bedside table and hanger, roof fan and standard floor swivel fan. Was cleanish but everything just felt a bit grubby and damp and toilet was old and shower had seen much better days. Another thing which I will come to later is that on the back of the door they mention sustainability about using power wisely etc but also the fact that they have their own well and the water is iron rich so may cause some discolouration. Me and the girlfriend are eco warriors and Arugam bay is very bohemian so we thought nothing of this. 1pm comes around we go to restaraunt sit down but are told doesnt open till 1.30pm. We wait despite still not understanding why they are not open at the times advertised on trip advisor and online. We order, pizzas and pastas here to be fair are really good so hats off for food in terms of taste etc. It is a little bit expensive but very nice. Anyway we go out, do our thing and come back in evening for shower to get ready and go for dinner. First shower in the room and we soon realise no hot water. Not a problem was boiling in Arugam bay but bit strange that there is not hot water whatsoever. As well as this shower and tap water smell like rusty nails but it is meant to be sustainable so we think its minor sacrifice for a good thing. Slept fine in room no problems. Get up next day for inclusive breakfast which consists of coffee, fresh juice and toast and eggs and jam. I will say for a breakfast this is all you really ever need so cannot fault it. 2 days pass me and the mrs have been surfing and beaching it so relaxed and didnt spend to much time in room. However on 2 occassions we noticed again that the restaraunt was not opened for lunch when we came one day and secondly when we sat chilling near our room we saw the restaraunt turn away people as they were not open. This seriously should be addressed as we got annoyed when we can never plan when we could eat from this good restaraunt and I can only imagine what people think when they use trip advisor to go to a place get there despite saying online open and find out its closed. Anyway moving on our last day we suddenly decide to do a safari on recommendation from a friend but would mean we have to stay another night in arugam bay. Speak to owners they say thats fine and kept the price the same. We got out on safari (highly recommend Arugam bay Tours down the road) great price, new jeeps and we saw 3 leopards and elephants in Kumana. As we come back to Seahorse its about 5pm ask manager for bill for room etc. Says dont worry go out for dinner and settle when we come back. We go out for dinner come back ask for it again they say just relax in chill area and bring it to us. Again no bill comes and then just before we go bed we tell them we have to be out at 5.30am so want to settle bill as dont want to do it in morning they say will knock on room door with it in 15 minutes. Hour goes by way we give up and go sleep. We get up 5am go to walk out door its pitch black no one is around. We cant believe this so go to find someone and we find a barman partying in chillout area with his friends who doesnt even acknowledge we still havent paid for room etc. We settle the bill in the darkness which really wound me and the girlfriend up as it nearly meant we missed our bus. Now that I have summarized the events heres why i went from a potential 3 star average review to giving them poor. On the morning of checkout as mentioned above the staff were partying in the chillout area of which when checking out tried to offer me cocaine and were clearly high and stoned. I got no problem with people doing whatever but to have staff who work here, who have access to keys to our rooms and serving us and dealing with us on a regular basis doing hard drugs and offering to me when i am trying to checkout is disgusting. This is meant to be a professional and family friendly establishment i wouldnt want this anywhere near family or solofemale travellers. Secondly another reason for the bad review is see that the well with its iron rich water only as we get to Mirissa and do a laundry and take all the clothes used and give to new place every single light coloured item had dirty rusty colour marks. We noticed when we were in Seahorse over our stay slight discolouration to the sheets but we thought this was sand and dirt etc. It turns out when showering in Seahorse there is so much iron in the water that even when you dry off yourself with a towel it leaches onto your clothes as well. Well lets just say 3 washes later stains still not out and nearly 60 pounds worth of t shirts, my girlfriends white bras and pants all thrown out. Im sorry that is a joke. If the water is so iron rich that it stains clothing and smells so strong like rusty nails then you should advertise that on booking.com and all websites. To think we had to endure brushing our teeth with that iron taste and showering in it and all the time despite drying off it was ruining our clothes. Shame on Seahorse for not advising to people in advance of this I am all for sustainabilty but if I knew in advance the problems of this iron rich water staining everything it touches I would have avoided this place like the plague. I do sincereley hope the best for the owners but as long as they permit a laid back party style vibe with their staff, opening their restaraunt at whatever time they see fit, and dont address the issue of advertising the iron rich water and its affects before bookings then unfortunately you can only expect this sort of feedback from the guest. No doubt you will see some sort of management response contradicting the above but they cannot deny there is some major flaws.

Completely Disappointed! Major flaws have let them down!

Amazing and cosy place to stay, and a perfect location to enjoy everything Arugam Bay has to offer. It's a few mins walk from the beach, as well as based on the main strip where all the shops, bars and restaurants are. 

The rooms are lovely, very comfy beds and really nicely designed. I've stayed in the family room (which is a really lovely 2 story room!!) as well as the single rooms, and loved them both. 

Adam and the staff are great and always do whatever they can to help in any way. The food is great (best pizza in town) and the cocktails are really good as well (i can recommend the Arrack Attack!!) 

I work in Batticaloa and often come down to Aragum Bay for a weekend- and I wouldn't stay anywhere other than the Sea Horse!

Best place to stay in Aragum Bay

Very good restaurant and good atmosphere but to escape for the rooms: the boss can party until 3:30 in the morning without warning We wanted to get up early 6:30 we had taken 3 rooms we were all crammed with fatigue and the other mornings we were woken up by traffic the rooms are too close to the main street

Good restored bad rooms

When we arrived at the Seahorse Inn, we were greeted by Mr.Adam, the owner.The restaurant under the trees is very nicely decorated.There is a bar with cool music.The pizza was very delicious.The room and bathroom are large and interestingly decorated.In the room there is still a third bed in a gallery.It was a nice stay...man can only recommend further👍👍

That's wonderful.

Friendly boss I assume from England really cool guy food was great and also the cocktails very much to recommend:) Ambiente super....with good pleasant music in the bar feeling. I can only recommend further.

The Seahorse Inn

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