Bentota · Sri Lanka
Three rooms in a Geoffrey Bawa house. From USD 200 / LKR 40,000 a night, with breakfast. The beach is three minutes away.
The house
“Spaces are not designed to be absorbed all at once, but rather revealed gradually.” That is how the house is planned, and how to meet it: one framed view opening onto the next.
A Geoffrey Bawa house: whitewashed walls, polished cement, old timber and deep verandas, in a garden around a lake. The house and its garden
Revealed gradually
01 — The lawn
A shaded pavilion at the end of the lawn, under the old trees.
02 — The threshold
Through the green doors, past the red tassel.
03 — The hall
Whitewash, polished cement and timber, and light from both ends.
04 — The staircase
A sculptural staircase, plain as a wall and as quiet.
05 — The breeze
Latticed openings to let the coastal breeze through.
06 — The end of the axis
And there, in the courtyard, a cow.
Three rooms
Each room keeps one piece of the house's collection above the bed. Choose by the piece. Every rate is per room, per night, with breakfast.
Windows on the lake, verandas, and a door straight out to the upper gardens.
USD 240 a night
Sri Lankan residents: LKR 50,000
Bed and breakfast, per room, per night, net
Step out of the room onto a private terrace, the pool and the lower gardens.
USD 240 a night
Sri Lankan residents: LKR 50,000
Bed and breakfast, per room, per night, net
Up high, looking over the pavilions to the lake. Best at sunrise.
USD 200 a night
Sri Lankan residents: LKR 40,000
Bed and breakfast, per room, per night, net
Scores as shown on each site, October 2026.
The garden
The big trees here were shaped over years by sandbags hung from their branches, the way Bawa trained his at Lunuganga, fifteen minutes up the road.
Paths of red laterite run under them to a lake and a marsh of water lilies. Peacocks walk the lawn, kingfishers work the water, and purple-faced langurs come through the canopy.
The collection
“Brooding British gentlemen and enigmatic French vampires” in oils from Portobello Road, and Nandi, the bull, everywhere you look.
The collection's centrepiece is a portrait of Nandi. Then there are the carved mask, the horns over a bed, and a stone Nandi on a whitewashed wall.
See the collection
Dining & events
Per person, net. Ask at least 24 hours ahead.
Wedding registrations, engagements, birthdays and private dinners for up to ten guests, in the house and garden. Photoshoots by the half day or the day.
Bentota