Two for one to paradise

There is still some damage — one of the restaurants remains closed and most of the ground-floor rooms are boarded up — but the lawn has been returfed, the spa moved to a new building and the beach cleaned up. Last week, the 300 staff were eagerly awaiting their first arrivals from the UK — a wedding party.

Sri Lanka suffered horribly in the wake of the tsunami. More than 30,000 people died and many more were left homeless. Tourism collapsed amid fears that disease would tear through the population. Although those fears proved groundless, the absence of holidaymakers at the height of peak season is spelling economic doom. An estimated 300,000 people living in the affected areas are directly or indirectly employed in the tourism industry.

Reviving it has become a matter of urgency. Last week, SriLankan Airlines got together with hoteliers and 10 British tour operators to launch an unprecedented offer: two holidays for the price of one. To qualify, you need to book by March 14 and travel before the end of June.

The deal is a tempting one, but if you take it up, what sort of holiday can you expect? First, you will probably be surprised to see your hotel in good working order. Some of the big resort hotels are built on rocky promontories and escaped the waves almost unscathed. Second, you will find the Sri Lankan people as charming and courteous as ever. Every day sees shops, restaurants and tour companies reopening for business.

The bulk of Sri Lanka’s beach hotels are clustered along the west coast, south of the capital, Colombo. One resort, Negombo, an hour to the north of Colombo, was entirely unaffected. But as you drive south towards the city of Galle, the level of damage steadily worsens. Alongside the main coast road, you will see houses reduced to rubble and families living in tents.

About 90 minutes south of Colombo is the small resort of Wadduwa, where the stylish Blue Water hotel, designed by the influential Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa, sits on a wide stretch of beach, surrounded by coconut palms. Normally in February, its 100 rooms are fully booked, mostly with British guests. When I visited, 87 rooms were unoccupied. The hotel had suffered some flooding and minor damage, but you wouldn’t know. Only the gym was out of action.

“Everybody is fine, although four of the staff lost their homes,” said the general manager, Roshan Perera. “We have given them cash donations and got teams of staff to go to their villages and rebuild their houses.” An hour further south is Beruwela, dubbed the Golden Mile because it contains the highest concentration of hotels in Sri Lanka. Of the 24 hotels, only three had reopened this month, including the Eden. The beach was eerily quiet. Nobody swam in the sea.

A few miles further south is Bentota, the most attractive resort on the west coast. Several hotels there were open for business, including the Bawa- designed Bentota Beach Hotel. Parts of it were out of action, including the tennis courts and the watersports centre, but one British couple sunbathing in the gardens were unconcerned. Mark and Sally Walker, from St Agnes, Cornwall, had booked their holiday in October, been offered the chance to cancel with a full refund, but decided to go ahead.

She said: “Once we heard the World Health Organisation say there were no outbreaks of disease, we felt we should come to support the Sri Lankans. The staff have been fantastic and they’ve all been telling us their stories. It’s been a very emotional experience. I would definitely recommend it.” Nearby is the Taj Exotica, a five-star hotel built on a rocky headland overlooking two superb beaches. Because of its elevation, it escaped with little damage: three rooms and one restaurant were flooded, but the hotel was back in operation the next day. “We made a policy not to lay off any staff,” said Ranjan Stanislaus, the general manager. “But it’s been tough. We’re hoping the two-for-one offer will bring us some more business from the UK.” Of those that had come, none I met had any complaints. Jane Edwards and Jeff Morley, from Poole, Dorset, were relaxing at the end of a two-week tour, their first visit to Sri Lanka. “It’s been an absolutely fantastic experience,” said Edwards. “It’s ludicrous, but even the hotels in the hill country, which are miles from the coast, are empty. At some of the big sights, we were the only tourists.”

South of Bentota, most of the coastline has been devastated. Houses, shops, schools, hotels and temples lie in ruins. One of the worst-hit villages is Peraliya, where a train from Colombo to Galle was derailed and 80% of the houses flattened. It is worth pulling over here to make a donation to the privately funded Rebuild Peraliya Society (www.peraliya.com), which is putting up homes, a school and a medical centre.

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The south coast also suffered badly. The backpacker resort of Unawatuna, a beautiful, sweeping bay with crystal-clear water, has been wrecked, many of the hotels, bars and restaurants set up illegally at the water’s edge simply gone. In spite of this, some owners are trying to rebuild.

At the Sun-N-Sea guesthouse, staff were repairing the ground floor, aided by their only guest, Nigel Hodge, a London-born carpenter who now lives in New York. “I’m here for six weeks. I just wanted to come and help,” he said.

The city of Galle, on the island’s southwest tip, was also devastated, but its 17th-century Dutch fort, a Unesco World Heritage Site, survived intact. One of the buildings within the fort is a former army garrison, built in 1683 and now a hotel, the Amangalla, part of the luxury Amanresorts group. It officially opened last week with a 50% reduction on its room rates (down to £156 until October 31), but despite the teak floors, the beautiful antique furniture and the tropical gardens, it will be a hard sell.

Around the corner from the Amangalla is Mrs Khalid’s, one of Galle’s longest-running guesthouses, where rooms start at just £8 a night. One of the guests was Harry Waters, from Brighton, a regular visitor to Sri Lanka. “To be honest, I was a bit scared coming this time. I didn’t know how I’d feel,” he said. “But the people aren’t miserable, they are smiling and cracking jokes. The past few days, I’ve been surfing. The waves have been great.” Didn’t he think that was in rather bad taste? “No,” said Waters.

“People here want to see things returning to normal. They want tourists. I would say, come to Sri Lanka, relax, spend your money and have a good time.”

Mark Hodson was a guest of Kuoni and SriLankan Airlines

How to book

The two-for-one offer applies to all package holidays to Sri Lanka, both beach holidays and tours, booked by March 14, with Airline Network (0870 234 9913, www.airlinenetwork.co.uk), Colours of Asia (0870 900 5004, www.coloursofasia.com), Hayes & Jarvis (0870 366 1636, www.hayesandjarvis.co.uk), Trans Indus (020 8566 2729, www.transindus.com), Island Escape (0845 230 4520, www.escapenow.net), Kuoni (01306 747008, www.kuoni.co.uk), Thomas Cook Signature (0870 443 4580, www.tcsignature.com), Tradewinds (0870 751 0003, www.tradewinds.co.uk), Trailfinders (020 7938 3939, www.trailfinders.com), and Travelpack (0870 121 2050, www.travelpack.co.uk).

Sample packages: the following prices are the total for two people sharing, and all include flights from Heathrow with SriLankan Airlines and transfers. Contact the operator for details of UK regional add-ons.

Kuoni has five nights B&B at the Taj Exotica from £788, five nights half-board at Blue Water from £844, and a six-night private tour followed by three nights B&B at the Mount Lavinia Hotel from £1,012.

Thomas Cook Signature has seven nights, all-inclusive, at the Bentota Beach Hotel from £998, and seven nights B&B at the five-star Lighthouse Hotel in Galle from £1,138.

Trailfinders has a 10-night Ceylon Circuit Tour, staying in Kandalama, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya and Bentota, with breakfast, and private car and driver, for £1,150.