Sri Lanka Luxury Beach House for Holiday Rental

See all the details and book directly with the owner at Zoom Holiday Rentals property ref: 101088

Our aims were simple; we wanted to build a big, beautiful, comfortable, family house with a pool on the best undeveloped beach in Sri Lanka. We found secret Mahawella 'big beach' with its golden sands and fishing boats, safe swimming and peace and decided we had found it.

We finished building Thalassa in July 2008.It was designed by an experienced Sri Lankan architect, Amila de Mel, who had a great cv, which included Geoffrey Bawa team work and study in the UK and USA.

It grew to 85OO square feet on two floors of covered space. There are seven double beds, which all have sea views, and seven en suite bathrooms, a huge sitting room with a piano, two outside sitting rooms, a big dining room, a pool in the inner courtyard, a massage temple, a great kitchen, a study with satellite TV,internet, DVDs and books and games and spacious staff quarters.

We have used only Sri Lankan materials, furniture and fittings throughout the house, and were delighted to discover how luxurious these are, and often stunningly designed too. There are luxurious 10 inch mattresses, mosquito nets and fans in every room and stunning use of colored polished concrete in the bathrooms and elsewhere. The furniture is a mix of state of the art - a vast stainless steel chandelier and barbecue - and genuine eclectic antiques. The Burmese teak floors in the two biggest downstairs bedrooms, the studyand sitting room are recycled from a defunct ballroom in Nuwara Eliya, and the walkway has pillars from a collapsed South Indian temple. Dutch and old Brit antique chests and planters chairs sit side by side with modern white sofas and Chinese cabinets. There are Sri Lankan and other pictures everywhere.

There are really three gardens. The seaside garden is often windy and has 25 palm trees and a one-minute walk from the house to the beach. There are hammocks and loungers and built in benches along the front of the house and a croquet set and badminton net. The courtyard garden contains both pool and massage pavilion and is sheltered and the bougainvillea and hibiscus thrive here. The back garden is defined by the graveled driveway and the family dogs, cats and hens live out here too. Big shady trees abound in all of them.