With its lush biodiversity and teeming wildlife, Sri Lanka has no shortage of eco hotels to choose from, ranging from luxury boutique hotels to smaller resorts each with its own unique offerings, reflecting the location of the country that they are situated in. The hotels generally arrange wildlife and sightseeing tours for visitors and are equipped with safari jeeps and experienced tour guides for such purposes.

Some of the better known eco-retreats include the Elephant Corridor hotel, a boutique hotel constructed on an elephant corridor between the Minneriya National Park and Sigiriya. Strategically located in the midst of many wildlife hotspots and the cultural triangle, the hotel effectively captures the essence of nature and it is common to find wild elephants walking up to the hotel lobby or through the pathways of the hotel while monitors and wild peacocks roam on the immaculately groomed lawns at sunset.

The Plantation Hotel in Kitulgala is yet another excellent location on the banks of the wide Kelani River and surrounded by tropical jungle. A restored and refurbished colonial bungalow with eight stylish rooms, it is positioned in the territory of white-water rafting and canoeing, while the jungle provides ample opportunities for wildlife enthusiasts to view some of the country’s diverse fauna and flora.

In the primeval Sinharaja forest, a World Heritage site and a major eco-tourism destination, is the Boulder Garden eco-resort, built into a rocky outcrop that blends in with a chain of huge boulders and streams. With ten suites, two of them in natural caves, painstakingly built from rock, the boutique hotel provides an experience like no other.