Wadduwa Travel Forum

My sister is due to get married at this hotel on valentine's day and all 15 of us are due to fly out on 6th feb.

Thomas Cook has told us we cannot have a refund or can not offer a suitable alternative destination (offers so far, Lanzarote or Tenerife). so we are stuck!

Can anyone give us an honest view of what damage has been done to this hotel and surrounding areas?

Also has anyone got any views on travelling to this area. We are also travelling with 4 young children.

I cannot help you with what damage if any is caused.
I was due to fly out on 6th Feb to get married in bruwela, however my tour operator Cosmos contacted me last week , either offering a full refund or alternative destention, we are now booked to get married in Cuba. It was stressful in changing and choosing another destination due to the short notice and the amount of paperwork for each country.

I wish your sister well to getting this sorted.

Melanie

hi ,very sory to hear about this , we were surposed to get marrid at the neptune hotel not far from the hotel you are staying , our hotel has been very badly hit, ive been in touch with a guy on virtual touris who was looking at the damage at the neptune, he lives in sri lanka , i think his name is suprish, if you look on the sri lanka forum you will see his name, ask him if has been there, as far as i know it wasnt that bad there , but its not just that its the surounding area as well , we have just been in touch with first choice and they have changed our plans alltogether free of charge, im sure they must be someting they can do , also they need to sort out all the legal papers soon where ever they send you , let me now how you get on , john and beccy

Thomas Cook have us hanging on at the moment as well waiting to see if we can go in february to Hotel Villa Ocean View. Personally I don't think it's appropriate to go when so many people are hungry and homeless over there. Any thoughts on that?

i agree totalay with what you say , you can not send people to sri lanka not with children, its a disaster not a holiday, i feel so sory for the people of sri lanka, it wil take them years to repair, we have booked to go to kenya for are wedding , they were very good to sort out are wedding , i woud have thought that thompson chould do the same for you , i hope you sort out you wedding and get to go someware nice, plz let me now how you get on ,from beccy and john,

according to the sri lankan tourist board at www.contactsrilanka.org. This hotel is closed. The site does say that a pledge has been made to ensure that all hotels are back up and running by end of FEB , with the exception of 2 hotels (villa ocean view, not one of these). Whether it will be ok by mid feb I could not say.

I got engaged last valentines in Sri lanka and we always planned to return to be married there, I have attended weddings all over the world, all beautiful but after attending weddings in Sri lanka I really am prepared to wait to return there. Obviously if weddings are all ready booked then waiting isn't an option.

All the best with whatever happens
Di and Nige

Were getting married at the villa ocean view in April and we didnt really want to change and the main reason we wanted to do it in Sri Lanka was because we both love elephants and we wanted Monica the hotels tame elephant at our wedding. The travel agent mentioned transfering the wedding to kenya but they said the elephants in Kenya could turn very nasty sometimes and there not as tame. So were sticking with Sri Lanka!

We were staying at ocean view for the third time and experienced the tsunami. The damage was mainly to to grounds of the hotel although the lwer part of the restaurant and the ground floor cabanas were damaged. The main part of the hotel escaped. This is a wonderful place to holiday, the staff at the hotel are second to none. We are regular visitors to SL and the island has a lot to offer. However, it does take a long time to get from one place to another and this must be considered with young children. We are returning in March 17th. For your February visit, I would check with SL tourist board. This island is very reliant on tourism. It would be unfortunate if after all their efforts to rebuild hotels - nobody visited. Please go and enjoy!! Good luck.