The hotel is well situated, well staffed, especially the Executive chef, Restaurant manager,
and food and drinks manager.
The spacious rooms, though well appointed, have a flaw in that there is tottally inadequate lighting in the area where guest would be expecting to sit and read.

The literature in the room offers 'Whale watching' operated by the Sri Lanka Navy.
This is the only such trip offered by the hotel.
Sadly the reception staff do not know how this operates. Nobody from the hotel has been on the trip!!
We called the 'administering agents' Lankabrilliancetours. We established that the boat/ship was able to carry 200 passengers.
We were charged 100 US$ per person.[11,000 SLRupees.] We were assured that this was for the V I P section.
We were taken to Galle, where the Naval depot is located, and taken on board, to the upper deck and cabin. This is reached by a stairway with a gate at the top.
HOWEVER, after about 30 mins at sea, there was a massive influx of passengers from the lower deck, climbing up, unrestrained by crew or local agent, so that more than 100 extra people were on that deck. The Sri Lankan people are very nice folks, but they are clearly not good sailors. Dozens of them were sea-sick, and were kept well supplied with bags into which they could vomit!
They had paid 3500 S L Rupees, less than a third of what we were charged.
There was not enough seating, so we were being crushed out of our place by crowds as much as 6 deep against the rails.
When a few dolphins appeared on one side very few passengers were able to see, due to the numbers of people crowded on this deck. When a couple of whale appeared, we were lucky, being at that side at that moment. Most saw NOTHING.
There were NO visible life jackets, although the boat had life rafts. Every other boat we saw had everyone wearing life jackets.
Our ground agent in Sri Lanka, the best we have found anywhere in the world, called
Lankabrilliance tours, to speak to them about this rip-off. The 'director' he spoke to could
not have cared less. THEREFORE go to The Fortress, BUT do not go with the Navy whale watching. Go to MIRISSA, and use a smaller firm, with good credentials.

Ayubowan, and good luck.

My husband and i stayed at The Fortress- Koggala last weekend for two nights and had a wonderful stay!
As we arrived we were greeted by the friendly staff with a cool drink and cold towel..they even knew our names before we could announce ourselves!
The check in was done in the room and by the time we walked to our rooms, our luggage was already stored in the room! All this within 10 minutes of arrival!
The staff are fantastic! Very friendly and accommodating and always with a smile and a greeting!
We stayed the first night in a Fortress non sea view room and second in a Ocean view room. All the rooms are very spacious. The toilets are huge!!! it's almost the size of the bed room! The ocean view room had a Jacuzzi bath as well! The rooms are definitely much bigger than average rooms and the beds are so comfortable! There is a good selection of tea/Coffee in the rooms. two big bottles of complimentary mineral water is given per day.
The hotel has a lovely pool and sun beds..
The spa has free Sauna, Steam and Jacuzzi use for the guest. A Gym is available with complimentary water 24 hours a day.
The buffet breakfast was good, with a good mix of western and Sri Lankan food.
The al carte menu prices were very steep and the quality of the food did not justify the prices. You get very good food in Colombo for fraction of the price!
Had a few cocktails but was not too impresses by it as it tasted horrible! the worst Mojito i have had!!The bar tender needs more schooling on how to mix the cocktails!
At the Fortress you truly feel pampered!

Just perfect: huge standard room (about 65 sqm) with a huge bathroom and all of the technical finishing touches. Excellent and great amenities boy : clean, clean room,fantastic beds and several times on the day new laundry and room service. We liked it very much. A aufgedecktes and decorated the bed with flowers to find. Good selection of food,but to excessive high prices(approximately four to five times the prices,the outside of the hotel). In the immediate area there was no restaurants, you should simply by Tuk-Tuk to Unawatuna. there are plenty of dining.

This hotel is built to five star standards in a five star spot, but parts of the business just don't match such a star rating.

We stayed for 12 nights in January 2012. Our room was a Fortress room without a sea view. It was vast, well appointed and lacking in nothing. The room was clean and well serviced including an evening turn down service. I know that lots of people recommend the seaview rooms for the view but we found that we saw every sunset because it happens about 5.30 each evening while we were still at the poolside.

The Restaurant offering was dissappointing. The food was very good but after a few days menu fatigue set in. They offer special evening buffets which do vary things but essentially your choice of lunch and dinner was from the same shorthish menu. The hotel brochure talks of three restaurants, which we expected, but while physically there are three rooms with different names, during our stay two of them were not used at lunch and dinner times and the menu is the same wherever you eat.

The wine list looks extensive, however the everyday end of the list was completely sold out during our entire stay. On only one evening did they have our first choice of wine in stock. The Food and Beverage Manager when asked why, told us that 'they had problems with their supplier', 'the list was over 127 lines',' because there were so many tourists coming to Sri Lanka they could'nt get hold of enough wine', 'our cellar is not big enough to order more' and that 'it will be here tomorrow'- needless to say it was not. We found that they were prepared to discount higher priced wines most evenings. When we stayed in Colombo we had no problem getting wine and the prices were one third lower.
Breakfast was served from a buffet and was good and plentiful. The Restaurant service was good.
Lunch for two (1 course) with a beer and water about £22-£25, dinner for two (2 courses) with wine and water about £70-£75. Wine was about £24 for everyday drinking wines - when available.

The poolside was again very good, plenty of space and a large infinity pool which we found deserted every time we used it. We did swim in the sea a few times. There is a natural pool behind the reef which can be reached from the hotel, but there is a strong rip current and the red flag was flying most of the dats we were there.

We used the Spa on a couple of occassions and found it to offer excellent service if expensive
.
We went on a Safari to Yala Nature Reserve which was a great experience. We also went Whale Watching with the Sri Lankan Navy , again this was a great trip and we saw big pods of dolphins and many Blue Whales. Galle which is the nearest town is about 20 minutes from the hotel by taxi. It was nice to wander around the old fort area and there were plenty of places to stop and get a drink or lunch.

Our abiding memory is the traffic delays we encountered as we travelled around Sri Lanka. Tuk tuks abound and there seemed to be only one rule of the road - there are no rules, but try to stay left. I would not recommend self drive trips and that you leave ample time to get to wherever you want to go.