Need to know
Rooms
Eight, including four Deluxe and four more spacious Ultra rooms.
Check–Out
11am; check-in, 2pm, but both flexible subject to availability.
Also
When the proprietor is in residence, there's usually a happy hour at sundown, with free canapés and cocktails poolside. If you fancy some entertainment, groups of six or more guests can request Kandyan dancers, who will shake their stuff in silver breastplates to tom-tom drums and eat fire while you sample the delicious menu on the veranda. During Kandy's Perahera Festival, in July or August, there is a free high tea provided before guests depart for the ceremony.
Hotel closed
The Kandy House closes during Sinhala New Year, usually 12–15 April.
At the hotel
Free WiFi in the Butterfly Bar and on the restaurant veranda. In rooms: waffle linen bathrobes, natural bath products made from local herbs. A laundry service with one-day turnaround is also available.
Our favourite rooms
For romantics, Deluxe room the Pioneer (though small and sans bath tub) is nearest the infinity pool and has its own veranda and garden with a hammock. We also love Ultra room Indian Admiral, which sports an original mahogany veranda with French café table. You may need high-jump skills to access the ancestral four-poster, but you can recover afterwards in the claw-foot bath-with-a-view. Ultra room Red Spot Duke will bring the scarlet harlot out in anyone, with a shiny metal bathroom and cane chaise longue on the wraparound veranda.
Poolside
The expansive infinity pool is fringed by palms and jungle foliage, with cushioned teak sunloungers and towels festooned with fresh frangipanis on the surrounding lawn. Early risers can breakfast poolside gazing at buffalos in the fields.
Packing tips
Take a map if you like to know where you're heading: locals don’t believe in them. And swap the Choos for sandals you won’t mind leaving outside temples. A hip flask will come in handy so you don’t get caught ‘dry’ on poya days (full-moon holy festivals), and mosi-repellant is de rigueur.
Also
Every honeymoon couple staying three nights or more receives a bottle of bubbly, an aromatherapy bath, a tray of tempura, a pair of cocktails, his and hers designer sarongs and a candlelit dinner for two (valid April–June; September–November only).
Children
Children over-12 are welcome and can stay with parents or in separate rooms (although there's no single room occupancy rate). Extra beds for older kids (US$65 a night) can be added to Ultra rooms Indian Admiral or Black Rajah for under-16s.
Sustainability efforts
The Kandy House uses locally sourced, seasonal food where possible and makes bicycles available for guest use. Smoking is allowed in outdoor areas only.