Cape Weligama

After a Sri Lankan omelette and pot of tea (obvs), we waved goodbye to Ceylon Tea Trails and settled in for the 5 1/2 hour drive to our next stop on the South West coast.

I love driving and getting trains in foreign countries as it really gives you a chance to see the country a bit better, and unlike England, I can happily spend hours just staring out of the window without regressing to a five year old and asking ‘are we there yet’. Our driver from Tea Trails was possibly the nicest man in the world and the long car journey almost felt like an extension of our stay. He never stopped smiling and never commented on how weird we were being when playing the snog, marry, throw off a cliff game or discussing Serial in depth. For those of you that aren’t into it (are there any of you out there?!), Serial is an amazing podcast all about a real murder trial of a high school student in 1999. So yeah, you can imagine how that conversation sounded to an unassuming outsider….

Once we got near Colombo, the heavens opened and it began to rain. And when I say rain, I mean rain. Sri Lankan rain knows no bounds and by the time we arrived at our destination, the roads were water logged, the sea was grey and the sky was growling. So it says something about Cape Weligama that the weather didn’t do anything to dampen our first impression of this seriously impressive new hotel. Perched on a prominent headland near the Southern surfing beach of the same name, Cape Weligama has a lot of buzz around it at the mo. If you’re like me and devour the weekend paper’s travel sections, you’ll likely have read about Sri Lanka’s latest luxury opening already…

The stars of the show are the rooms, the pool and those all-encompassing views into the blue. The rooms aren’t really rooms at all when you consider ours was bigger than our entire flat in London. No kidding. Each room is in fact a detached bungalow with enough room to swing several cats both inside and out and every little mod-con and luxury catered for. Steam room, walk-in wardrobe and personal butler anyone? I think Jamie and I actually did a really uncool victory dance once we’d been left alone in our new abode…  We especially loved having breakfast and reading our books on the big outdoor verandah with whirling fans overhead while listening to the waves crash nearby.

And the pool is a showstopper. Not only did we have a private pool we shared with only one other bungalow (but had to ourselves for 90% of our stay), the main pool is an enormous moon-like crescent that has incredible views around the bay. It’s one of those hotels where you can always find space and peace and yet there always seems to be someone with an icy bottle of water to hand just when you need it.

I’m going to let the pictures do the talking from here and just annotate as we go… Ready for another jumbo dose of photos? Here goes…

Thanks to the torrential rain we arrived in, the first thing I did was jump in the lagoon-like bath and wallowed in it ’til dinner.

The illustrious ‘moon’ pool… Oh and there’s a bar and a gym underneath it. As you do.

Bikini | Topshop

Lunch is served… Grapefruit and tuna with a side of fries.

Does anyone else feel irrationally pleased with themselves when they order salad and fries? Like having your cake and eating it too.

There’s a near deserted beach just to the west of Cape Weligama with private steps leading down from the hotel. The sand was marbled in purple and gold (look at the shot above to see what I mean), fishermen perch on their poles in the morning and stray dogs sleep in the shade. As soon as the sun came out, I was down there in a flash to get a much-needed fix of that sandy-toes-salty-hair feeling.

Shorts | Vintage Levi’s (similar here)
Bikini | Asos
Scarf | Rose + Rose (similar here)
Sunglasses | Rayban
Necklaces | Lumo & Catherine Zoraida

Fruit plates on our terrace and lime sodas by the pool…. It doesn’t get much better than this folks.

Bikini | Varley
Anklets | Asos
Dress | Topshop (similar here)
Sunglasses | Kite

We found a little hidden lookout point from which to watch the sun set and the clouds roll in, immediately followed by sundowners at the hotel bar…. As an aside, I love a hotel that has random board games and books dotted around. We played so much chess and scrabble while we were away and, like a pair of pensioners, our eyes lit up at the sight of either.

My favourite spot….

Our time at Cape Weligama went by far too quickly. We could have happily spent a week rolling out of our cloud-like bed, into that magical pool and back again, but after two days it was time to move on to our next stop….

Playsuit | Reformation

Ph. by James Wright and myself using a Leica MP, Sony RX100 and Lomo LC-A