We were surprised to arrive at Galapita and find a completely unkept gate, where we had to wait for an old man to turn up who didn't speak a word of English and seemed pretty grumpy. He brought us to the main area of the lodge over a badly kept path, sidestepping rubbish on the way, and when we saw the lodge we immediately knew we were not going to stay even one night. The entire place looked like it had been abandoned for quite a while. The thatch had blown off the roof, all the chairs were sun cracked and the matting of each chair had a huge hole, the sofa's (if you can call them that) were soiled and there was nothing welcoming or otherwise pleasant about the place. A short look at one of the beds confirmed the suspicion that it was uncomforable with dirty linen.

A real shock and disappointment after all the excellent other places we stayed in Sri Lanka. Obviously this place fell into the hands of some very poor management and has been completely neglected since then.

I'd echo the previous comment, the website made this place look very luxurious and I looked forward to activities that just weren't available. The site is very beautiful but quite shabby although while we were the only guests it was lovely and peaceful. Because of the open nature of the rooms when the place is busy privacy becomes an issue.

We went as independent travellers but Galapita is clearly trying to impress the travel companies and once these clients arrived we got no service at all. There was also some odd behaviour going on between the staff, it wasn't clear who was in charge and we were put in a very difficult position by one staff member's behaviour.

On the upside the food was fantastic, fresh and varied.

We wanted to stay in an eco lodge near to Yala national park and Galapita looked the obvious choice from the guide books. The website also looked really slick - a long way from the reality unfortunately.

Our first difficulty was in contacting Galapita - the number in the guide book did not work and, after finding another phone number on the web, no one answered it. So we ended up making the booking through an agent in Colombo (using another number on the Galapita website) and the quote was for $75 pp pn full board. This is quite expensive by Sri Lankan standards but we assumed that given the website, that this must be justified. Following a 3 hour journey from Tissa, we arrived and were surprised at the lack of any reception or greeting. There were no other guests there and the staff did not speak English. There is potential to make this a really nice place but it all looked a bit tired and certainly not at the standard you'd expect for the price. The setting was rural and by a river but not especially scenic. Needless to say, we were disappointed to have made the journey and decided not to stay.

We booked Galapita directly, looking for somewhere different to stay - the web site promised various activities, including tyre tubing (sic), elephant watching and cycling. The accommodation is very very basic, although it is a lovely location by the river. None of the activities were available - we were told the tires "had burst". The staff tried hard, but there just wasn't much on offer. The food was basic vegetarian - but after 2 days we'd had everything on offer - endless vegetables, three times a day. It's terribly over-priced, for what it is - at half the price, it would be almost reasonable, but we definitely couldn't recommend it.