Villas in Sri Lanka: Old Palm House

Pricing (per night)
1 May	-	30 Jun 2012	$350
1 Jul	-	31 Aug 2012	$450
1 Sep	-	30 Nov 2012	$350
1 Dec	-	18 Dec 2012	$400
19 Dec	-	8 Jan 2013	$550
9 Jan	-	9 Feb 2013	$450
10 Feb	-	16 Feb 2013	$550
17 Feb	-	30 Apr 2013	$450

The Old Palm House is exactly as the name suggests..an old house surrounded by lush tropical gardens and jungle nestling in the hills surrounding the historic town of Galle. The driveway meanders down the hill towards the house through landscape gardens. The house is at one end of the plot whilst the pool and pavilion is on a lower level. inside the house there are 3 doubles - (2 ensuite) and a small single room that shares a bathroom with the third double. All the double bedrooms have french shuttered windows that open to the garden and overlook jungle.

The large sitting room separates the master bedroom from the others and adjoining this is a large terrace where the dining table offers commending views of the surrounding jungle almost at canopy level. This part of the jungle is on a monkey trail so you can spend hours watching monkeys pass by on their daily journey to and from home and listen to them shout and play.

The kitchen is reached along the path leaving the other end of the sitting room and the cook enjoys preparing local rice and curries. This a house steward who is joined by a gardener and night watchman to make up the full compliment of staff.

Reviews

Given 5/5 by Sebastian Triebl from Switzerland

Within the last 5 years, as publishers of a Swiss business magazine we traveled to many luxury hotels, retreats and private islands, relaxing in jet aviation lounges and private pools next to Brad Pit, Robert De Niro and Kylie Minogue. I always asked myself if it would make sense to spend five to six digits (of the western currency of your choice) to have two weeks off of the rat race and if you would simply have to spend this money to "have it all"... We'll you don't!

We've been fed up with hotels of all kinds and so we chose to go with renting some private residence for our private holidays. After falling in love with Sri Lanka last year and having already booked business trip to another Maledivean retreat we fell in love with the Old Palm House here on the website and planned to go there right after our stay at the Maledives.
We wanted to be as secluded as possible and just eat, pray and love. No TV no WIFI, no e-mail, no information, no hosted dinners as usual.

What we've found was far more than what we had expected it to be. If the world ended during our stay at the Old Palm House we would have been ok with it.

The house in the hills is just gorgeous. The Sri Lankan food is marvelous (ordering western food would have been a sin and just stupid). The sound of the buddhist monks meditating in the temple next to the villa gave us goose bumps. And even the funny melody of the "bread man" 3-wheeler passing the house sometimes is a highlight.
Even more a highlight were the people (one chef, two boys taking care of the property and a security guard. And not to forget Bessy the dog and Lola the cat ;). Up front Champika, the chef taking care and nursing us to make sure we would leave this place with a big smile in our faces and in our hearts.

If you are looking for private butlers with white gloves, sip Pinkeys at the pool and opening Château Cheval Blanc for Dinner go to Four Seasons, or Disney Land.
If you are looking to be around real, warm hearted people that really care about you and have a great time in a luxury environment… do not look any further. Go visit Old Palm House!

Many thanks to all the people from Eden Villas foremost Jack himself. We enjoyed meeting you too and we hope to come back soon.

Given 5/5 by Irene from Switzerland

Excellent staff, great house!