Flameback Eco Lodge

Top top notch place !! A little bit of heaven on earth. From meeting Saduni on reception (lovely girl, couldn’t do enough to help you) through to Ishan who helped guide our village visit, and helped us at meal times (so friendly and helpful), to chaminda (resident and truly wonderful naturist) every single member of the staff went out of their way to make sure we had a wonderful visit. The glamping tents were SO comfortable- superbly comfortable bed, AC, loo, brilliant shower - everything and more that you could wish for - all the sounds of the outdoors, but in cosy luxury indoors!! The food was amazing - 7 courses and totally delicious. Lovely pool area, right close to lake, birds xx everywhere and land monitor lizards all around! We went on a couple of guided bird walks around the camp which we loved, and also went to Yala and were lucky enough to see a leopard close up, relaxed and personal!! What a thrill!! Great Spa on Stilts, too…. Cool and wonderfully tranquil and relaxing . If you get a chance to go to this camp - definitely go!!

We had the best time staying at Flameback Eco Lodge - the location is beautiful, the food amazing and the staff very friendly & helpful! We booked a full day safari and a half day (afternoon) across both national parks with Thushan and were extremely fortunate to see a leopard! The tent accommodation was very impressive, spotless, cool with A/C and immaculate. We will 100% be returning on our next trip to Sri Lanka!

On first impressions we were very impressed with this Eco Lodge, where we based ourselves for 3 nights in order to visit Yala and Bundala National Parks. Our African style safari tent (each named after birds - ours was Monarch) had everything we could wish for. Amazing air con, great hot shower, comfy bed (though it was very hot even at night, so the duvet was a bit much and a sheet would have been better) and WiFi. It also had its own deck and seating with views out over Weerawila lake which is a bird reserve, and there were always water birds on the lawn in front too. The two issues we had here were: a) Bug - mosquito type insects were literally swarming all the time immediately outside our tent, so we felt like we were taking our life in our hands entering and exiting each time, and could not enjoy the outside seating (although no issues first afternoon). It was a similar situation at dinner, with them attracted to the lighting (albeit muted by staff to try to mitigate the situation). The manager apologised and said it was just the time of year and had only just started to be an issue. b) Noise from outside the property. The first night (Friday) there was booming music with a deep repeated base until 10pm (we had gone to bed early due to a 5am start for Yala safari the next day!) and the second night (Saturday) this went on until 1am. On the third afternoon when we could hear it at 4pm we went out to the road to investigate and found a party bus with flashing lights and locals dancing around it just across the road from the Lodge. Thankfully that night (Sunday) it went quiet by 7pm, I think the manager may have put a call in after guest complaints. He advised that unfortunately, local regulations only restricted noise after 1am at weekends and after 10pm on other nights! He agreed this was not good for a bird reserve and advised he was in a local association with other hoteliers pushing for further constraints, which suggests this is an ongoing issue. We would therefore not recommend staying on a weekend, or take good ear plugs! In general, the lodge is not as isolated as it appears, with a busy road nearby which passes across the lake. Food was nice, and they had the largest international menu of all the properties we stayed at, with some really good dishes, but it was not the best - perhaps trying to offer too much choice. It was Valentines Day when we arrived and they laid on a special set menu which was a nice touch. The lodge had a good pool near the lake but only 3 pairs of sun loungers, which was sometimes not quite enough for the 7 tents, when guests returned from their morning safaris. The Lodge's naturalist took us on a walk in the grounds and he was very good at identifying birds for us. Each guest receives a free 10min foot massage which was a lovely bonus, and we also paid for full body aromatherapy massages which were very good - although the monkeys running over the spa's roof were a bit distracting:-) We