Arabella on Boossa

Such a beautiful hotel, with beautiful rooms, directly located on the beach - you can have beautiful walks around and enjoy the ocean 🐠 all outside areas are also very nice so you can enjoy your day on the pool as well. Everyone is so kind - a big recommendation for this special place ♥️

The villa is very pretty, however too small if you plan to spend a lot of time in the villa. Lucky for us we went to Galle fort and spent the days there and only came to the room to sleep. What we did NOT like about the villa 1) there is no mini fridge in the room (the suite we stayed was 3 floors up so was not practical to keep going up or down if we needed our wine chilled.) 2) the curtains in the room do not close. if we wanted them shut they had to bring a ladder to close it and come back with a ladder to open it. (we were up by 6am thanks to the direct sunlight) 3) we changed rooms on the 2nd night and the new room was infested with cockroaches. 3 am we had to speak to them to come collect. it was terrible and the ground room smelled too. all in all unless they do a proper pest control and look into the above matter i do not recommend the villa.

Most of what I saw during my stay has already been mentioned in earlier reviews - lovely place but a few minor issues here and there. The Arabella on Boossa is a modern villa with stylish rooms, situated about 12 mins by tuk-tuk from Galle. I personally like the minimalist design and huge bathrooms. I noticed the use of fragrance sticks in the rooms to mask the humidity. As I've seen on previous visits to Sri Lanka, humidity is just something we'll have to accept. Room 4 is on the ground floor and you have to keep door/shutters closed as it's adjacent to a common area space. Room 7 was on first floor and a bit smaller. Floors can get slippery after rainfall. Arabella's location is a double-edged sword: close enough to Galle but indeed on a busy stretch off the main coastal road. I tried to walk outside a few times but it wasn't pleasant. The beach in front of the hotel is picturesque but while I was there it was indeed partially covered with a black substances. Silt from the nearby river I read somewhere though someone said it might be linked to an oil spill long ago. Also of note is that the far end of the beach is occupied by a small number of homeless locals in tents. Nice team running the place despite the occasional miscommunication: e.g. one said breakfast at 7, while the next person says it's 7.30 a.m. No huge issue - they were super friendly and helpful. I gave Arabella a rating of 4 out 5 because I think I got a decent deal and they were so kind to offer a late check-out (handy because of late flight). In absence of that, I can imagine some people might be a bit more critical. Overall - a very nice villa and worth checking out.