Shangri-La Hambantota

Good property for a holiday with kids. The activities like trapeze, zipline etc were good for teens and pre teens. Akash, Pushpita and others do a great job with managing the activities. The kids club is good for the little ones. The staff at the front office, pool and restaurants is excellent. The beach access is good. The property has 3 pools ( kids, family and adults). There are multiple restaurants and bars within the property serving pan asian, continental , local and indian cuisine. The food we tried was good, specially local cuisine like kottu and even the asian food. You can book excursions like a trip to the national park or the bird park which are not very far from the property. The icing on the cake were the peacocks which you can spot throughout the property. I do not play golf but the golf course looked good as well. Overall a nice property with something for all age groups.

The facilities and staff are very good. The food is below par. Food that is to be served hot were served lukewarm. By the time, I walked back to my table from the buffet line, the items were cold. Imagine cold "kirihodi" on String Hoppers or cold scrambled eggs on toast :-) The food that was to be served cold were at room temperature. Not what you expected from a 5-star. The selections were poor. Not much grilled meats/fish. Crab the size of a large shrimp. Remember seeing larger crabs in the paddyfields :-) Thai green curry that had absolutely no vegetables - just small shrimp floating in a green food colored gravy. The so-called Papaya Juice was nothing more than watered down iced washing of a papaya slice! Worst, no coffee after dinner. On top of all this the food is highly over priced. A terrible value! One afternoon at the pool side bar, they wanted a Rs. 1400 for a cup of "kade" tea. What are they making this stuff of - gold? Some of the staff seems clueless of what they are selling. Example, by the pool side on a hot afternoon, we asked for the price a ice-cream bar. The guy had no idea but guessed it was Rs. 4000. The actual price after another guy checked on his POS, was Rs. 600. The first guy should not be a server! We will not be back! They are missing the mark big time! Hope the management take the feedback and improve their offerings. What a shame, afterall they have fantastic facilities and most staff are very good!

There are positives and negatives about this hotel. First, the positives: the staff are friendly and helpful, and some of the amenities are good. For example, there is a good games room, and the pools are quite good (the water is a little dirty though). The buffet in the evening is a good option, the other restaurants not so much. There is a welcome happy hour for cocktails.. There is quite a lot of wildlife around the hotel (monkey’s , various birds, lizards), which is interesting. The negatives: the service in some of the catering facilities is almost ridiculously slow. There is no orange juice at breakfast, and the other available juices are poor. The breakfast in general is not quite up to the standards of some other Shangri-La hotels (although it is not bad). The property overall is slightly run down and the rooms could do with some refurbishment. A coffee machine in the rooms, with fresh milk in the fridge, would be desirable. If you are to visit Hambantota and are travelling from Colombo airport, choose a good and reliable car service, although not the one offered by the hotel, which is priced multiple times higher than other available options. I would recommend a visit to Hambantota and Shangri-La overall, though, if only for the chance of seeing wild elephants walking down the road.

Overall, a great experience, staff were very helpful and accommodating for every need. The main returns and al la carte restaurants were very good quality. The only recommendation that prevented 5 star rating was the quality/strength of wifi available

Great staff vibe: very attentive to needs and welcoming.