Anna is a co-founder of Adventure in You and has been traveling the world for the last 9 years. She has spent time living in Thailand, Mexico, Indonesia, and Spain and is our local expert in these areas. Her expertise on travel, gear, and building businesses have been featured on Foundr, Business Insider, Yahoo Travel, and more.
After spending three weeks sightseeing around Sri Lanka sightseeing, driving a tuk-tuk 1000km around the Southern coast and generally just having the time of our lives, it was time to leave. With that in mind, our quick stay at Jetwing Beach was everything we needed and more and was the perfect way to end our trip to Sri Lanka.
Offering over 31 different hotels spread out in Sri Lanka, the Jetwing Hotel brand is known all over this country. With properties spread all over mountainous towns, beaches, colonial cities, their brand has managed to build out various properties that give out a feel of luxury, elegance, and character. Despite the fact that Jetwing is a large chain of hotels which can be seen all over Sri Lanka, I was able to experience first-hand how charming each of their properties was. One of my fears when staying in large hotel chains is to find a place which promotes cookie-cutter experiences. A one-size fits all kinda thing. After just a day of staying in one of their properties, I was pleased to see that the entire place was beaming with character, mostly due to the fantastic staff that welcomed us in.
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So, back to business. After booking Jetwing Beach, Negombo due to its close proximity to the airport (15-minutes away), we arrived not expecting much but was generally pleasantly surprised as soon as we walked in. The staff warmly greeted us and brought us some cold towels to cool us off from the tropical heat outside and an assortment of freshly squeezed juices. While waiting to check in, I wandered around quickly and saw their large property extend towards the beach area. While Negombo Beach isn’t world-renowned, I was glad to see their beachfront area well maintained and clean. With lounge chairs surrounding the swimming pool and beach area, there was plenty of space to relax and unwind. Due to the open air concept of the entire hotel area, it immediately gave out a cool tropical vibe. As mentioned, we had just finished traveling around, going on Sri Lankan safaris, and driving a tuk-tuk around the South so a few hours of lounging around by the seaside definitely sounded good.
The Rooms at Jetwing Beach
As soon as we walked in, our eyes immediately zeroed in on the large bathtub. For exhausted travelers, the idea of a warm bath sounded like heaven and was exactly what we needed. The room was bright, airy, with a small balcony area with a clear view of the palm tree studded beach area. We arrived around dusk and were lucky enough to catch the sun go down from the comforts of our balcony window.
As with most luxury hotels, the bed felt like a bed of clouds with fresh linens, soft pillows, and a comfortable bathrobe to lounge in. While we wanted to make use of the other hotel facilities, we settled in and made ourselves a warm cup of tea from the complimentary coffee and tea set in our room. While this is quite common with most hotels, I loved that they gave you a little french press so you could make yourself a strong cup of coffee at your perusal. Apart from these deluxe rooms, Jetwing Beach also has a limited number of Suites complete with every luxury imaginable, including your own private sun loungers and jacuzzi area.
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Apart from the well-designed rooms, the facilities both in and around Jetwing Beach is beyond gorgeous. Between a large swimming pool area, a beach area, an outdoor courtyard, complete with five different dining options, guests have a wide range of local and international food to choose from. From a beach-front dining restaurant to a fine dining restaurant featuring authentic Sri Lankan food, you will not get bored nor run out of food options. Although as much as we wanted to try them all, we settled for a few curry dishes delivered straight to our room which did not disappoint.
One of the best features of Jetwing Beach is their spa area which offers a wide range of treatments from massages, scrubs, to Ayurvedic treatments to get guests feeling rejuvenated. The spa area has well-trained specialists with a steam room, wet area, as well as private massage and treatment areas.
Breakfast consisted of a wide array of fresh fruits, freshly cooked hot dishes like bacon, waffles, made to order eggs, along with a few local delicacies like curries, dhal, and paratha. Put it lightly, if you head there for breakfast, you will not leave disappointed. I would also like to claim that in our three weeks stay, the coffee we had at Jetwing Beach was probably the best we’ve ever had.
Although I could go on and on about the fantastic facilities, to be perfectly honest, what really stood out for us was the staff. Everyone from the receptionist to the lovely general manager who we had the pleasure of meeting went above and beyond to accommodate every single guest. In fact, during breakfast the next day, Tom’s stomach wasn’t feeling too well due to a bad meal he had a few days prior. After one member of staff noticed his disappearance from the breakfast table, someone went up to me and asked if he was feeling fine. After explaining, someone brought over a glass of lime juice and some king coconut juice to help settle his stomach. Just from that one small act kept us (including Tom) smiling the whole day. Small things like this and attention to detail are what makes a hotel, giving it heaps of character, charm, and is what will keep guests coming back. We know we definitely will.
