Arabella On Boossa

Sri Lanka , Galle
HIKKADUWA, 39 Galle Road Gintota
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20 reviews shown

10/10

Exceptional

28 Feb 2026

Roger

wonderful staff. We had a very beautiful sea side room on the top floor.

The pool is a bit small but the location to the sea makes up for the small pool.

Partner

10/10

Exceptional

06 Jul 2025

Sarah

Beautiful upmarket stay in a gorgeous location. I will note it’s not walking distance to fort but easily reached by a 10 min Tuk Tuk. We visited in off season and had the entire place to ourself

Leisure Friends

10/10

Exceptional

26 Jan 2025

Catherine

We loved our stay at Arabella. Loved the simplicity and size of the rooms. Kept very clean and tidy by the staff. Cute offering of bananas for supper in the room with the turn down service. Bed and pillows were very comfortable. Pool area was on the small size but we had no problem using it when we wanted to. Kitchen and kitchen staff were A . Food and service was amazing highly recommend the chimichurri prawns & the prawn or fish tacos! All breakfast options were great also! Tuk Tuks available outside the property cost us 1200 rupees to the fort which is approx 15 minutes away. Beach not suitable for swimming but a lot of the Sri Lankan coastline is rough like this and if you want to be able to swim in the ocean you’ll need to stay at one of the touristy areas which actually make great day trips from the hotel. Great spot for a walk along the beach. We went in the peak tourist season & found this good value for money for our family would happily stay again. Staff attentive even playing cricket with our son.
Cons
No kettle in the room for making tea only a coffee machine so you need to wait for the kitchen to open at 8am before you can get a pot of tea- would be nice to have one in the room

If you’re in room 1 it is closest to the road and you might need some ear plugs or white noise.
Also suggest an eye mask as there are shutters that allow the light through.

Breakfast not available till 8 when the kitchen/restaurant opens would be nicer if it opened a little earlier

Leisure Family_with_children

10/10

Exceptional

21 Mar 2020

Charlotte Sverre Lund

Amazing place

Amazing hotel and atmosphere on the beach with so much delicious food!

Friends_and_family Friends

10/10

Exceptional

02 Feb 2019

Cat

Hotel is about a 10 minute tuk tuk from Galle train station, hidden behind a large gate - make sure to ring the bell to get let in. It is a hidden oasis though, its airy, white and concrete leading onto a lovely garden with pool and direct access to the beach.
We paid a bit more for a balcony room which I would recommend as the garden rooms don't face onto the ocean. Our room was very comfortable. Only slight downside is there is no back up generator so when there is a power cut (common in Sri Lanka) everything stops working, including the water upstairs.
Staff were very helpful and organised a whale watching trip for us.
Food in the restaurant was good, with a good range including local food.

10/10

Exceptional

10 Dec 2018

Verified traveler

Absolutely amazing hotel, enlightened hospitality at its best. The facilities are superb and the location is perfect if you want to be out of the hustle and bustle, but very close to all of the amazing places along the South West coast of Sri Lanka. The staff were incredibly amazing people and always went out of their way to make you feel comfortable and really looked after. The rooms were beautiful and really clean, the food also fantastic! We were really blown away with how perfect this place was. Highly recommend!

10/10

Exceptional

13 Aug 2018

jca

Nice hotel near Galle on the Beachfront

It’s a great botique Hotel on the beachfront near Galle. The hipster vibe that the Australian owners wanted to convey in this eight-room boutique hotel is evident in this contemporary black and white hotel.
The heavy bass music in the lounge area is great mid-day while drinking a wine however, I am of an age that thinks music starting at 8:45 am was a bit earlier than wanted.
The western breakfast was fine with terrific juice and fresh fruit although the eggs were cold on both mornings. I suggest asking the kitchen to prepare the eggs after the toast and other sides.

10/10

Exceptional

15 Apr 2018

Lou

We had a fantastic 4 days at Arabella on Boossa. A little piece of tranquility against the hustle and bustle of Galle Rd. We had ocean views waking each morning to the sound of the ocean, friendly but not intrusive staff, a short stroll down to the beach and a fifteen minute tuk tuk drive away from Galle. Thoroughly recommend it. Thank you Arabella x

4/10

Poor

04 Apr 2018

Harriet

So much potential but sadly not there

This was probably one of the most expensive places we payed out for on our trip and having been recommended it by a friend we were super excited as reviews and pictures looked amazing. Sadly this fell well below what we expected. The concept of the place is amazing but sadly let down by numerous pests in the rooms ( we had ants crawling up us in bed in the middle of the night!), staff that don’t speak any English so you can not communicate with them on even the simplest things like ordering food or asking questions about the hotel facilities. There was no manager around when we asked for him and I had to speak to him over mobile as he only comes in at certain times ! The air con in our room was broken when we arrived and so we were freezing cold but no one understood when we went to ask about it being fixed as no one understood us. There was no hot water the whole of our stay from the shower but by this point we had given up trying to get help with things because of the language barrier. And finally the food was awful. It looked great on instagram and the menu looked amazing but when ordered it did not meet expectations and was pricey. We got charged for things we hadn’t ordered and because of the langauage barrier it was impossible to sort out, plus they didn’t even order my food so my friends came and I had to wait another 20 mins for mine to eventually arrive after asking numerous times. We decided to eat out for the rest of our stay there. Avoid!!

10/10

Exceptional

10 Mar 2018

Matthew

Great rooms, food & service!

Great boutique hotel with a relaxed atmosphere. The standard of the rooms, service & food is excellent and th vibe is great, especially considering limited rooms. They are very happy to arrange activities for you, including a cooking course at the hotel restaurant. Food/drink prices are a lot more expensive than the rest of Sri Lanka, but I think this is representative of Galle too. Would definitely recommend to anyone who wants a calm environment, 10 minutes drive from Galle fort!

Partner

10/10

Exceptional

20 Feb 2018

Verified traveler

Beautiful hotel with delightful staff.

A beautiful hotel with wonderful helpful and smiling staff. The rooms and gardens were delightful. Only gripe is that there is no tea/coffee making facility in the room and breakfast does not start until 8am. The breakfast, whilst good, is too prescriptive. i.e. One could not have curd with fruit as curd comes with muesli! Prices in restaurant were priced without tax and service charge which was misleading as everything was 25% more than expected. We checked out other hotel in the area whilst there and we feel we made the right decision to stay at Arabellaonboossa. We are planning a return trip.

Partner

10/10

Exceptional

24 Dec 2017

colin

Five star Arabella

An amazing week at Arabella. The team worked tirelessly to provide a first class customer service. The food was of a very high standard and the waiting staff were brilliant. The hotel is right next to the beach and the staff arranged transport if you wanted any day trips out. The rooms were very comfortable and clean. All of the areas of the hotel had a very attractive design. The staff were very customer centred and provided consistently high levels of service.

Family

10/10

Exceptional

02 Dec 2017

Byju

Spectacular Design meets Beautiful Beach

This is the first time I've personally looked for and decided on a hotel online (i usually have a travel agent's package hotels or on-the-go sort of bookings done). And so, after much reading through reviews on hotels.com and many other popular sites, I decided on Arabella. I just had to see if the photographs that were being posted, were infact the real deal.

It turned out to be one of those places where 'photos don't do justice'. The service was excellent from the minute we arrived, and at times i felt they were even going out of their way to make us feel comfortable. The design language of the hotel is a mix of minimalism, contemporary design and Srilankan style. The Suite was nothing short of spectacular. The balcony doors opened to the beautiful and clean beach, with views of the garden and swimming pool below. I couldn't stop taking pictures of the room and the view, and found it very pleasing to sleep to the subtle sound of the waves crashing onto the shore.

Even their restaurant - ahara - has a beautiful range of food and drinks to offer. It overlooks the pool and the beach, almost as if it all flows as one.

We're a family of 3, and we went to Galle only to experience everything we had heard about the place - from the fort and the architecture, to the great food and the beach. Next time however, it'd be for all that + Arabella on Boossa.

Family

8/10

Excellent

20 Nov 2017

Rakesh

Close to the beach.

Rooms are nothing to gloat about but the view was fantastic. We ran into some glitches with wi-fi that took some time to get sorted.

4/10

Poor

05 Oct 2017

Verified traveler

super overrated, never again

Pros:
- employees smiling and kind
- nice grass
Cons:
- room without window
- floor very sliding and dustry but they do not provide sleepers
- No wifi in the room
- Beach very dirty (they clean it by making a hole in the sand and put garbage inside)
- Service inefficient:
- bad english: they say yes to whatever you say but after you discover that they did not understand
- totally irresponsible to take care of kids: they say on the website \"babysitting and childcare\". But they let our 3 years old daughter alone at 20 meters from the sea. Basically they just give you things to draw and paint for 15 USD...
- manage everything yourself or you will have bad surprises (bad service and charges)
- They overcharge external services like Tuk-tuk (700 rs instead of 400-500 !)
- There is nothing to do around. If you want a restaurant you need to pay for a Tuk-Tuk to go Galle (10 km)
- The restaurant is super expensive 15-20 USD for a main course, and it is not good. Only presentation is good. The breakfast is ok.

Family

10/10

Exceptional

04 Jul 2017

Birdincharge

Fabulous hotel, great staff, awesome location

We stayed at the Arabella for at total of 6 nights and throughout the stay the staff were wonderful and very attentive to our needs. The hotel is peaceful and the food was especially good.. Breakfast is fab with plenty of variety to suit most peeps taste. I especially loved the crab curry.. We will return to Sri Lanka and the lovely Arabella.. Thank you

10/10

Exceptional

19 Jan 2017

Magdalena

A lovely boutique hotel, peaceful & private

We had a great time and it was relaxing. We were in room number 8 which I believe is the largest, has great views and is spacious. Plenty of space for our little one to move about.

The staff were very friendly and eager to help.

The beach is a little dirty but you can safely enjoy it without issue as we did with our 21 month old son. The pool is not very large but proportionate to the hotel.

The entire hotel is spacious and welcoming and you can relax almost anywhere in the hotel.

It is definitely a good place for family with young children as you know everyone around. We also made use of the babysitting service provided which gave us adults a bit of time for ourselves.

The breakfast that is included with the stay is good the only thing I would say is that for the price of the room you could throw in the bacon for free :)

The food menu is a little limited if you are staying there for more than three days but all the food I ate the restaurant was well prepared and tastes great. The kids menu can be improved.

If you like your food there are many places available to eat in Galle (15mins) and other hotels in the area which we did and enjoyed a lot. Dutch hospital & Fort Printers in Galle and WB Villa (30mins) for great seafood and Italian with an amazing selection of wine.

Overall it was a great stay and we returned refreshed and rested. Thank you all and we will be back.

Family

10/10

Exceptional

14 Mar 2016

Gary

A paradise retreat

If your looking for a relaxing five star experience at an excellent price with unbelievable service this is the place for you.

Can't recommend this quiet boutique hotel enough. Arabella is a stunning white villa on a quiet beach, a great place to unwind and a good base to explore the southern and western part of Sri Lanka. The staff are exceptional and will cater to your every wish. The hotel only has four rooms and feels more like a home than a hotel. Without a doubt it's my favourite hotel in Sri Lanka. .

Also there is a beautiful family beach restaurant called Sadans one hundred metres down the beach to the right, and a backpackers bar a little further.

Partner

10/10

Exceptional

14 Feb 2025

Natacha

Ein traumhafter Aufenthalt im Arabella!

Mein Aufenthalt im Hotel Arabella war einfach wundervoll! Schon bei meiner Ankunft war ich von der Schönheit des Ortes und der herzlichen Begrüßung begeistert. Ich hatte das Glück, in einer atemberaubenden Suite mit direktem Meerblick zu übernachten – ein wahres Paradies, in dem ich jeden Morgen mit einem spektakulären Ausblick beginnen konnte.

Das Essen war hervorragend, mit einer großen Auswahl an köstlichen Gerichten, die mit frischen Zutaten und viel Liebe zubereitet wurden. Jeder Bissen war ein Genuss!

Das Personal war unglaublich freundlich, immer aufmerksam, hilfsbereit und mit einem Lächeln auf den Lippen. Ihre Gastfreundschaft hat meinen Aufenthalt noch schöner gemacht.

Das Hotel Arabella ist ein wahrer Geheimtipp, und ich kann es nur zu 100 % weiterempfehlen. Ich freue mich schon auf meinen nächsten Besuch!

Partner

4/10

Poor

05 Jan 2025

kensuke

the service is poor.

Leisure Partner