Our Stay at Habarana Village by Cinnamon

When you travel across Sri Lanka most of the time you pass Habarana since it is located centrally to most of the tourist attractions here in Sri Lanka. Since it's located centrally in Sri Lanka most people select Habarana at least for a one-night stay during their travel. Other than being located centrally to most tourist destinations Habarana area itself is in quite a proximity to the world heritage Sigiriya Rock. So when tourists, as well as locals, come to visit Sigiriya they do stay around Dambulla and Habarana areas. A lot of hotels are located in Habarana. Two-star, three start five stars, you name it a lot of hotels are located in Habarana. Also if you are planning to do a safari you can find many vehicles and guides from Habarana.

We went on a trip to Trincomalee a couple of months back. When we are coming back from Trincomalee it normally takes around 6hrs. Since I wouldn't say I like long-distance driving we thought to go to Habarana from Trincomalee and stay overnight there and come back to Colombo the other day. Previously even though we have gone past Habarana we didn't stay there overnight. So we had to look out for hotels out there and select a good option.

We started looking out in Booking.com mobile app as well as on the Facebook pages to find out a recommended place. While we were doing our research we saw that there is a promotion going on for locals at Habarana Village by Cinnamon. We thought it was a good deal and we opted to go there. So we did an online reservation through the Habarana Village on Cinnamon's official website. The promotion was given for full board stays.

So on the day of our stay, we left Trincomalee around 12.30 PM. After stopping at a couple of places we were able to arrive at Habarana Village Hotel around 3.30 PM. We received a warm welcome from the hotel staff. We had to wait in the lobby area for a few minutes to do the check-in. They provided us with a welcome drink while we wait in the lobby area.

After a few minutes, we were able to complete the check-in process and we were provided with the room key. They said they will send the baggage to our room.

As the name implies this hotel is constructed like a village. As per one of the hotel staff member hotel is located on 50 acres of land area. Habarana Village by Cinnamon hotel is a 4-star hotel. In this same mega land area, two Cinnamon hotels are located. One is the one that we were staying at, Habarana Village by Cinnamon which is a 4-star hotel. The other one is Cinnamon Lodge, which is a 5-star hotel. Both hotels are interconnected. If you visit Habarana Village you can have a walk or foot cycle ride towards Cinnamon Lodge. This mega land plot is located facing Habarana Lake. So if you stay in any of these two hotels you can get a nice sunset close to Habarana Lake. Since the hotel is located in a large land area there are a lot of paths where you can take a walk with your friends, partner, or family while having a chat. Or you can rent out foot cycles and have a ride. There are a lot of huts they have created for you to sit down and relax or to a gathering. Also, there are a couple of tree houses built close to the lake.

As per the briefing we received at check-in they do offer different sports like Badmington/Tennis/Cricket. They have courts for Badmington and Tennis. Badmington you can get the rackets and shuttle from the reception for free. But if you choose to play tennis you have to pay a fee per hour. Also since they have a lot of land area you can find many places to play cricket with your friends. If you choose to have a foot cycle tour you can get the cycles from the reception. They are also charged per hour.  As I remember for foot cycles they do charge LKR 300 /= per hour. Since there are many sports that can be done they do not have a gym inside the hotel. We are not sure about the Cinnamon Lodge, but Habarana Village doesn't have a Gym. I think that is reasonable since there are a lot of other things that can be done there to get all sweaty.

So after going to the room since the sun was also not harsh we thought to have a little walk around the hotel area. So we got changed and had a little walk. There were a couple of hammocks hung in different places where you can rest. Tree houses and huts were available in the open land area.

There was a nice tree hut built on the bank of Habarana lake. That had a good view as well. As I said before as the name implies hotel is built like a village and the rooms were also looking traditional both interior and exterior.  Also, rooms are located as clusters. In each cluster, there are around 10,15 rooms. Each room is like a separate villa.

Since we were tired after the walk we decided to get into the pool. So we got changed again and got into the pool. The pool is not that big. On the day that we arrived at the hotel, there was a bit of a crowd since it was a Sunday. So the pool was also a bit crowded. The pool has a deep end as well. As we remember it was like 2m or so. So after spending some time there we got back into our rooms and since it was almost time for dinner we got dressed up for dinner. When I was doing this reservation I mentioned that it is my wife's birthday. So they were courteous enough to provide us with a small birthday cake for her and it was delivered to the room.

As we remember dinner starts at 7.30 PM and it goes on till 9.30 PM. On that night we had a buffet for the dinner. It was a really good dinner buffet. Starting from starters, soups, mains, and desserts everything was there. They had action stations when it comes to meats and some other items. Also, they had Hoppers and Pittu action stations along with Paratha action stations. The restaurant staff was really helpful and friendly. We had our tummies full when we finished having dinner.

Since we were also tired from traveling we called it a day and went to sleep.

After a good night's sleep, we woke up in the morning and got ready for breakfast. Breakfast was also offered in a buffet since the same number of guests who were there for the dinner were there for the breakfast as well. So the breakfast was also really good. It had a good variety. We enjoyed the breakfast as well.  After having breakfast we thought to do some bicycle riding. So we rented two, foot cycles and started riding through the paths.  

The environment was so beautiful in the morning. We started from Habarana Village and went through many paths and went across Cinnamon Lodge as well and we rode around 3 rounds across the land area. It was a huge track to cover. After three rounds we felt like enough and we thought to have a walk toward the butterfly garden.

There is a butterfly garden located inside the hotel. You can ask the hotel staff where it is located. You have to take a walk towards that area. It's not some covered area. It's the same as the other areas that we see in the hotel. But this area has a lot of butterflies. It was not just a butterfly garden it was a flower and butterfly garden. When we go there we noticed there was a small village-like area created with a house built with clay. When tourists come it's being used to give them the village experience by cooking village food and letting them eat there. It's a nice concept to attract tourists as well. If some one wants to have that experience you can talk to the reception about it and get it arranged.

We some time there and came back to our room to get ready to get into the pool. So we spent around half an hour in the pool and came back to the room again since we had to get ready to check out. The checkout time was 12 PM. So we got ready and got checked out by returning the room key and doing the payments.

Since we had to take lunch we kept the bags in the lobby and went to the restaurant to take lunch. For the lunch what we had was an Ala carte set menu lunch. It seemed like there were only around 10-15 guests there for lunch. We selected a Chicken Burger and a Nasi Goreng as the main for us so we could taste both. Other than the mains soups, starters, and desserts were also given on the menu. The time taken to provide the meal was a bit high. We had to wait so much time to get the meals.

After having a filling lunch we headed to the lobby and collected our baggage and started our journey towards Colombo around 1.30 PM.

As an overall experience, we really had a memorable and enjoyable stay at Habarana Village by Cinnamon. The staff was really friendly and helpful. The food was really good and really tasty. The room was also spacious and clean. Overall we could give ten out of ten for our stay.