Southern Province · Sri Lanka
Amangalla
A restored Dutch colonial landmark inside the ramparts of Galle Fort
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The building dates to 1684 and served for more than a century as the New Oriental Hotel, the grande dame of colonial Ceylon. Aman restored it rather than reinvented it, keeping the teak floors, plantation chairs, satinwood furniture and enormous shuttered windows that open onto the fort's streets.
Rooms are called chambers and suites rather than numbers, and the largest have separate sitting rooms and four-poster beds. The Baths, the hotel's spa, offers Ayurvedic treatments alongside a hydrotherapy pool in a garden setting.
Galle Fort itself is the attraction: a walled Dutch town of churches, warehouses, jewellers and cafes that you can walk end to end in twenty minutes, with the ramparts making an obligatory sunset circuit.
At a glance
What to expect
- Colonial chambers and suites
- The Baths spa
- Garden pool
- Library
- Fine dining
- Ayurvedic treatments
- Fort walking tours
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