Polwaththa Eco Lodges

The most peaceful and beautifully decorated lodges in the middle of nature! We woke in the morning up to the sound of monkeys on our roof :) We really enjoyed this place - especially the peace and authentic atmosphere around the lodges, on the balcony and in the restaurant. With the nicest staff getting out of their way to give us a good experience. Especially, Charles, who took us for a jeep ride in the rain forest, jumping out of the jeep again and again to find cocoa plants, pepper, coffee, mimosa plants ecc. for our kids. And bringing fresh mango for our son from his own garden the next morning. And the food in the restaurant was amazing! Sri Lankan food made from local ingredients, in all colors and served in beautiful small bowls and plates. We highly recommend this place if you want to get off the beaten track and experience the rain forest and the fantastic nature and people of Sri Lanka.

Eco Lodge Polwaththa is a fantastic place to escape from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. The jungle surroundings are beautiful and peaceful, the hike to the waterfall is stunning, and the yoga class in the shala is rejuvenating. The staff are also incredibly helpful. Highly recommended!

It is heartwarming to see, that places like this exist. I visited the place for a short yoga retreat and was overwhelmed by so much social engagement and hospitality. Nihal and his wife have created a little hideaway, where you can focus on the simple things and enjoy nature and community. You can feel, that it is a family run business. A lot of local people from the village have a job here, get trained and supported. The family is additionally running a rainforest foundation, has planted a organic vegetable garden and has recently founded a small spices manufacture, which I absolutely loved. We had a cooking class in the traditional kitchen with two local ladies. I loved it and the the food was amazing. A highlight is for sure the coffee, that is grown on the property and roasted over a wood fire. We planted a tree with Nel, which was a great experience to learn more about the forest and local fauna. Prasanna picked me up at the petrol station and was available all the time during our stay to make all our wishes happen. His service was really professional and still personal. We had a very fun and interesting tour with him to the waterfalls. He was showing us a lot of herbs and local plants on the way and bought some nice little snacks here and there to give us an authentic experience. Freya, the daughter in law, is an excellent yoga teacher and was taking so good care for us! She created a very good atmosphere in the group and we really enjoyed her company. The yoga shala with view in the jungle and on a lake is a dream. I learned a lot during my stay and good really enjoy the yoga classes.

August 2023 An absolutely magical place. Gorgeous location and tasteful lodges privately spaced around the area. However the true beauty of the place was in the family that run the ecolodge and their staff. Every individual truly went out of their way to ensure that you were loving everything about the place and were genuinely interested in you as a person and of your needs while there. The food was all amazing- local and foreign tastes perfectly catered for and some tasty optional extras on offer to order including beer for those on need! A wonderful mixture of cultures and mixes amongst the owners and staff- all sharing a passion for their sustainable project, cultures, traditions, environment and more. Fabulous village trek to a waterfall including tuk Tuk ride, lovely refreshing swim and excellent yoga class on an amazing platform with lake view in the jungle afterwards. Lovely chats with the guide, yoga teacher, owners and staff before a well deserved buffet dinner. Food was plentiful and replenished and the staff were sensitive to individual needs and preferences within the buffet set up. Loved the wild pigs behind the kitchens and other wildlife that occasionally made appearances! Would love to return and wish them every success in their impressive and ambitious venture, and in their personal lives. Thanks to everyone from the Bolton family. 💗

I highly recommend this place if you want to experience what it means to live in line with nature. The cabins are pretty remote, which allows you to live a more conscious lifestyle. The owners have a clear understanding of the cycle of life, thus teaching us the way they live alongside nature, animals, and the community members living close by. They are doing wonderful work enriching the soil and enriching social ties. And who doesn't like doing yoga and walking around a food forest?

Polwaththa Eco-Lodges seemed like a cool place to hang out for my visa run from Dubai. I chose here because of the jungle surroundings and the yoga classes offered. Staff member Namal greeted me and showed me around. He had a easy-going manner with a great sense of humour and he answered all the questions I had. I booked in to the 4-day yoga retreat which included two yoga classes per day in their Yoga Shala, an open air yoga gazebo built from timber with a large tin roof. It has sweeping views of the evergreen jungle. Very nice. The birds and wildlife are a constant reminder that you are indeed deep in the jungle. This is exactly what I needed. I haven't done yoga for quite a while so it was a little nervous about how much stiffness had developed around my back and hips. My 4-day yoga package included a traditional cookery class on fire wood and clay pots. That might explain why everything tasted so good and fresh. They also use ingredients from their own organic garden, including their own excellent  coffee beans grown locally and hand-picked. They roast it on a hearth old-school style. I was really impressed with the coffee, especially since I had read that Sri Lanka is not known for it's good coffee. Wow! Who'd've 'thunk' it? In the 4-day package I booked there are other activities that appealed to me as well which included an adventurous hike through the jungle to a swimming hole,  complete with a natural waterfall. After the trek through the dense jungle there's nothing better than a refreshing swim in clear water surrounded by abundant green jungle and talkative birdlife. To me this is the ideal excursion. There are about ten different activities on offer that fit nicely into the definition of "eco-tourism", including interaction with the surrounding community, a visit to their organic farm, tree planting in their re-forestation and some programs that support the local people, including a Women's Empowerment program. The treks have a large range of distances and levels to suit most adventurous traveller's taste. I didn't participate in many of the treks simply because my main focus was on getting some of the kinks out of my body doing two yoga classes a day. Freya's yoga classes were so well structured that I changed my plans and extended my booking another six days and included her two yoga classes for the entire trip making my visit nine. Freya's careful instructions and her cues were consistently clear and precise. She managed to facilitate the needs of beginners as well as the more advanced yogis. She was phenomenal, enabling me to make many breakthroughs and encouraging me to reinvigorate my self practice. I took copious notes to work on at my own pace at home. All the staff are very enthusiastic and helpful so it was an easy decision for me. I really appreciated the way they all make sure you're satisfied with the amenities, service and meals. We are all able to do as little or as much as we want. I chose to do very littl

This place is incredible, authentic, in an idyllic hidden setting amongst the forest and teaming with flora and fauna, it is really off the beaten track, photos just cannot do this justice, the team come and pick you up from the shed so you don’t have to worry about finding it. What this family have done is such an asset to Eco tourism and an example for the future. Everyone working here is local to the village which itself is a few houses hidden in the forest. Charles was a fantastic local nature guide showing us the local fruit and medicines found in and around the forest, things we had only seen in books before. We walked to the local waterfall which we swam in whilst giant butterflies hovered above us. The lodges are hidden amongst the trees and teaming with wildlife, birds monkeys, the sound of the calls of nature were amazing. Breakfast and food is all local produce and delicious. Inside the lodges is charming and really authentic with a lovely deck to sit on and relax. I would love to join the yoga retreat one day - what a dreamy place. Our family of four - two teenagers all went on the knuckles range trip which was a great walk with fantastic views. Charles once again went out of his way to make it an incredible experience. Thanks so much Charles .. This is a place that you will always remember a truly unforgettable experience . Katharine, Paul, Oliver and Ava

The rooms are pretty basic and are certainly in the jungle! The people running the place are lovely and we really enjoyed the food we had there, The guided 10k walk to the waterfall was one of the highlights of our trip as Charles introduced us to the incredible range of spices and medicinal plants. We experienced freshly tapped Toddy and Fishtail Palm Honey which left a lasting impression and the walk was a really genuine experience. Freya runs a yoga retreat and I cannot imagine a more authentic place for this type of experience even though we did not have time to try it. This is not the place for everyone but we ended up loving the experience and both agree that the walk with Charles was one the most memorable experiences of our whole trip.

Absolute gem in the midst of the Kandyan forest, far away from the chaos and noise of the city. The truck will pick you up from the road from where it will take you 2.5km uphill on a dirtroad to the camp. Beautiful setting in the forest with enough space between the lodges so that you will truly feel surrounded by nothing but nature and the monkeys. So peaceful, we slept like babies. The lodges are very spacious, comfortable and clean and have their own bathroom. The whole staff and owners were beyond friendly and welcoming, always smiling, joking around and very helpful. They were genuinely interested in the guests and used every opportunity to chat with us. The food we were served throughout our stay (for breakfast and dinner) was among the best we ate since we arrived with plenty of different varieties to taste from and colourful, beautifully presented on the table. You can see the love everyone puts into this beautiful concept. The trek we did with Namal was very nice and super rich in information, we learned a lot during this half day. Namal is very knowleadgable and eager to share, and he even invited us into his home along the trek to meet his family and serve us a cup of tea with snacks. We truly enjoyed to spend the day with him. We recommend this place without hesitation and were sad to leave. BUT it was surely not the last time we visited 😀