I spent a few days at the fortress hotel in koggala, www.thefortress.lk It was very relaxing, as usual bathing in the sea is the most pleasurable pastime for me. The hotel is almost on the water, being on a 4 acre thin strip of land between the main Galle Matara road and the beach, and was built on the land previously occupied by Hotel Horizon, which I used to visit when I was small.
The main feature, is the simple fortress like design on the outside, based on old Dutch buildings in the Island, however there are no other Sri Lankan touches other than the staff in sari or sarong. One could be in any hotel room anywhere in the world as the interior while finished to a very high standard has no traditional motifs or furniture. There was no desk in the room and the closets for clothes was minimal, which for a super luxury hotel is one that needs addressing.
The bathrooms are almost the size of the rooms with white marble on the floor and up to ceilings, with modern fittings, bath showers and double wash basins and modern fittings. All rooms have flat screen tvs and ipod, with good sound stereo, which also implies the iphone can be charged on the same docking station. The free wifi did not work as well as hoped.
The choice of food was good, but not excellent,however the staff were exceedingly helpful and polite, but still lack the attention at a US restaurant where the water tumblers are always filled with iced water, without having to be asked.
6 comments:
the fortress is a hideous blob of cement, ruining the coastline. the inexistent ccd (coast conservation dept. hahhahhah) should not have given permission to build it.
galleblogger
It is debatable, that if the cement parapet wall that keeps the sea at bay was not there more erosion of the coast could occur.
The more hideous sight is the abandoned hotel adjacent stretching out for more than a km along the beach.
The reality is that within a few years the whole southern coast would be one stretch of hotel or villa from Galle to Matara. You only have to drive from Fortress to Galle to realize that stretch is already taken.
The debate should be about future development not ones that have already taken place.
so i shouldnt have said it right?lol!
you want to debate it? ok:
1- distance from beach (breached)
2-height of buildings(breached)
3-cement/greenery ratios(breached)
4-facilities for handicapped
5-environmental impact assessments
it has all the features of a monster!!!
btw, what is the difference between a lived in hotel and a deserted one from the environmental point of view??!it's still an eyesore!i dont understand...
how about LEARNING from past mistakes and not reproducing them in the future?
ppl think tourists like to sit in cement blobs, it's not true, most tourists like NATURE thats why most come to sril...in fct the fortress is normally EMPTY.
gb
I cannot comment on the rules of what is and what is not allowed as I dont know.However when viewed from the beach, the public park and the hideous structures on one side and the even taller abandoned hotel on the other side are uglier than Fortress.When viewed from the road your comment has merit.
Re viability, at least the staff enjoy the highest service charge allocation of a non city hotel, an effective 10% equal share of the revenue.It had a 50% occupancy of foreigners. I personally dont like any hotel with more than 15 rooms for Sri Lanka, but that is another story.
The real issue here is not to dwell on what has been done but to prevent them from being repeated. It is easy to criticize, but more difficult and rewarding to prevent rules being broken, as is likely along the whole coast.
Nice sunset pictures!
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