Upon arriving at the Giritale, we were impressed. It had a nice open air lobby with a beautiful view of the lake, and welcome drinks were served. We enjoyed our stay until that point. Then we learned that there was no wifi - ok, we're used to that in Sri Lanka. But then they offered a internet-connected PC for $2USD/15 minutes. That might be the most ridiculous price I've seen for what should be a free service anyway. Things just got worse from there.

The rooms were old and worn - door and window seals weren't tight, letting in mosquitoes. Of the 2 nights we stayed there, they only had hot water once. When we called to complain, they asked us to just wait for the water to heat up again. Whether it was our first shower of the morning or at night, the water was cold. Housekeeping did not replenish our shampoo and soap, and it took them an hour to deliver these items to our room after our call. The pool is unappealing and old with some bugs floating around and the deck furniture is also old and no cushioning is offered for the hard plastic lounge chairs. As we sat on the deck outside the dining room, we asked for some tea. They charged is $4USD for something that again, should have been free. The following evening, we asked for 1 serving of tea this time. They brought out a much smaller teapot, but still tried to charge us $4. We complained, and the waiter chose to walk away rather than resolve this issue. So upon checkout when we were presented with the bill, we had to deal with this issue again, delaying our departure for at least 20 minutes while they dragged the manager out of bed.

All in all, a beautiful hotel at first glance, but definitely lacking in many ways. This was probably our most disappointing hotel during our time in Sri Lanka. We would not stay here again nor can we recommend it to anyone.

(Oh, the egg-chef seemed to be very nice and friendly. He seemed to be the only genuinely nice fellow at the hotel - everyone was somewhat cool under their veneer of friendliness).