Name: Gangula Lodge
Address: Sri Lanka, Sigiriya, Dambulla, Sri Lanka, Sigiriya, Sigiriya, Sigiriya, 21121, Sri Lanka
Rating: 9

Air conditioning

24-hour reception

General

Room service

Indoor Fireplace

Hairdryer

Shower/Bathtub

Shower

Bathrobe

Mosquito net

Toiletries

Rooms

Dry-cleaning

Services and amenities

Coffee/tea for guests

Breakfast

Breakfast in the room

Restaurant

Bottled water (at extra charge)

Kettle

Meals

Free Wi-Fi

Internet

Transfer services

Transfer

English

Chinese

Languages Spoken

Parking

Beach/pool towels

Pool and beach

Massage

Beauty and wellness

Pets Not Allowed

Pets

Location

At the hotel

Room amenities

Sigiriya Slaf Base

Gangula Lodge

Sigiriya

child-bed

child-bed-fee

external-private-bathroom

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limited-time

lounge

treatment

no-window

bay-view

bosphorus-view

canal-view

city-view

courtyard-view

garden-view

golf-view

harbour-view

inland-view

lake-view

land-view

mountain-view

ocean-front

ocean-view

oceanside

panoramic-view

park-view

partial-ocean-view

partial-sea-view

partial-view

pool-view

river-view

sea-front

sea-view

street-view

sunrise-view

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water-view

with-view

annex

basement

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1-bedroom

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not-guaranteed

wired-internet-access

smoking

sauna

duplex

safe

mini-bar

breakfast-for-1

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pets-allowed

wi-fi

kitchen

My wife and I stayed at the Gangula Lodge for one night. Upon arrival the host was very friendly and welcoming. Great location to the main road with local restaurants and shops and walking distance to Lion Rock.

We checked in and received our room. It was a budget hotel and we weren’t expecting much. Once entering the room we notice a smell. We opened the door to the washroom and got hit with a wave of a mold stench. I am a contractor in Canada and I can recognize the smell of mold, though the mold wasn’t visible.
We notice a colony of ants around the toilet which gave us an disgusting feeling. My wife and I kept repeating to ourselves “Only one night”.

The next morning after completing the climb of Lion Rock we returned to the budget hotel. We had used a private driver previously in Kandy and Dambula and had arranged for him to takes us to Negombo from Sigiriya. The host asked us if we had a ride and we answered yes. That was a big mistake which we would later find out. 

After telling the host our driver was arriving in 10 minutes, the host went on a personal vendetta to sabotage our prearranged ride because he wanted us to use local Sirgiryan services.The host had communicated with all the locals and local tuk-tuk drivers that an a private driver was coming to Sirgiriya. Once the driver arrived he was threatened to leave Sirgiya. The driver contacted us to walked 300 metres down the road to meet him due to the current threat. We walked for 1 kilometre and didn’t see him. Coincidentally our host and a local pulled up to us on the side of the road and offered his services once again. We were stuck with no ride and felt there was no other option but to agree to the ride. 

We found out later that day our private driver was attacked by the local thugs and his car received damage. 

This whole incident started with our host. He is a very distasteful human and only cares about the fast dollar he could earn. I highly recommend people staying away from the town Sigiriya with there Mafioso mentally. 

We feel disgusted and terrible for what our private driver endured.
 
The host name is Sunil Banadara of Gangula Lodge.

Terrible Experience

I am writing this due the unfortunate incident happened to Canadian couple who stayed one night was droped by myself. This is totally because of the unhumanity of the owners of the property. I was driving to pick up Canadian couple from Gangula Lodge to negambo. Suddnly when I am entering small road of the lodge, several gangsters stopped my car and threatened me not pick them as it is their territory saying that I am not allow to do so. One of the gangsters came up and told me he is the owner of Gangula Lodge. Then I contact the guests and asked them to walk down the main road about 300m, So I can pick them. After about 5 minutes those gangsters came with a jeep and hit my car and damaged my tale light. Then I had to move away from the entire city and lodge a complain in the sigiriya police station. Finally the owner stopped the two guests and offered them a taxi with a higher rate (almost double than my fair) indicating them that there is no any other way of getting off from sigiriya. This is very bad diciplined towards foreign tourists as it indicating the country impression bad. 

Sooo plzz plzz plzz.. My advice is to not to use Gangula Lodge for your stay in Sigiriya 

Car damage photos are attached here with.

Not safe for at all (Mafia people)

We only stayed here for one night because we wanted to be walking distance to the Lion Rock which was the only positive. 

The place was cheap so we didn’t expect much. But the smell of mold was pretty bad. The place was dark and tired looking. Ants in the bathroom but even all that isn’t the reason to write this negative review. 

When it was time to leave the host of the lodge asked if we wanted a ride to our next destination (Negombo). We said no we had our own driver. He asked when he was coming and we said 10 mins. He then took off. Not knowing that him and a few others went to meet our driver at the end of the street to harass him and send him away. 

Our driver told us the situation and asked if we could walk 300m down the street to meet him. 
We walked almost one km out of town and he was no where to be found. We knew something was wrong but we couldn’t call our driver because we were only communicating through wifi. We were stranded, and then all of a sudden our host shows up and asked us if we wanted a ride. At that point we had suspicions that he was the root of the problem. But because we felt stranded we fell into his plan and had to use his driver for a higher price. After a 4 hr drive to Negombo (driver was a terrible driver) we arrived at our new hotel and found messages from our driver that he was harassed again at our meeting spot. They did damage to his car and ended up at the police station!! We felt terrible that they did this to him. We explained the situation to our new host in Negombo and he said there is a “Sigiriya mafia” which is what we experienced. I’m sure there are many great places to stay in Sigiriya but I would recommend staying in Dambulla and driving into Sigiriya to do the Lion Rock climb. It’s really too bad that a group of terrible people have to ruin it for others.

Do not stay here! “Sigiriya mafia”

We spent 2 nights at Gangula Lodge and really liked it. It is run by a lovely family and located a quick walk off main street so it is nice and quiet with a beautiful garden. Monkeys and birds all over the place. Our wifi and air conditioning worked well. The breakfasts were delicious and always served with a smile. They also offer elephant safaris to nearby Minnereya and Kaudulla parks, wherever the elephants are gathering at the time. I would highly recommend staying here and will definitely do so next time I visit beautiful Sri Lanka. On main street, just around the corner from the path to Gangula Lodge is an excellent very cheap restaurant called Shenadi...we ate all our meals there it is that good :)

great stay in a perfect location

When we arrived, I told the owner that the A/C was not working in our room.  He told me that A/C listed in the “facilities included” section of our booking only meant that the room has an A/C unit.  It does not mean it will be turned on free of charge.  To do that, it would cost another 40% of the price of the room.  
I suggested we call the booking site together.  They would not.  Nor would they give me access to the internet to do so myself.  
When I argued with the owner that this was not right, the owner became belligerent.  He told me to leave, saying nobody could book a room with A/C for such a cheap a price as my booking.  He said I should have known this when I made the booking, based on the price I received.  I am not from the area.  Therefore, I did not know the price I had received was too good to be true.   Because it was already dark and I had a toddler, and our driver was not willing to take us to look for another property, we conceded to his price increase.  To his credit, he was very nice the next day.  Almost like a changed man.
In addition, we had negotiated a price for our driver’s room as well.  However, when we checked-in, the owner wanted more money for this room.  50% more than originally quoted by email.
The guest rooms are very basic.  Just a small blanket on one bed and a sheet on another.  From what we could see, no free toiletries were in the room, as listed on the booking website.  
The rooms are not soundproof as described on the booking website.  In fact, we could hear music until 5 a.m. from somewhere.  We could also hear the snoring from the room next door.   The roofs are metal (see photo).  You can hear monkeys running along them at night.  
The breakfast is bananas, watermelon, bread, muffins, cookies and coffee.  They are large portions too. Make sure to tell the owner when you are finished eating, because the monkeys will come and break the plates as they scavenge the leftovers.  The tablecloths are Turkish Airline blankets from an airplane (see photo).
Water appears to come from a bucket up in a tree (see photo).  The water was brown.  Make sure to have bottled water to brush your teeth.
Location is close to places to eat on the main road.  Hotel itself is a little hard to navigate to, as it is off the main road down a narrow road.

Not what we had though

I stayed here for five days and made it my base while I visited the surrounding ancient cities via a rented scooter. This is a local family run place with a welcoming and always smiling family. To them thanks for the great hospitality and everyone else enjoy your stay here.

Michael Short

While this place may not be everyone's cup of tea, I loved it here! There's a little stream out back where you can take a dip, and monkeys playing around in the trees. The rooms are average, but for the price you really can't complain. The bed is comfortable and the A/C works well. The shower pressure and hot water could be better, but again it's ridiculously cheap! Breakfast is big enough to feed a small army. Leska and her husband are very sweet and helpful with information. Sigiriya town is tiny, so location wise nothing is more than 4 nanoseconds away. Sigiriya rock and Pidurangala rock are right next door and walkable, if you choose. Buses to Dambulla are frequent and cheap.

Sweet little guest house

My partner and I stayed here for a few nights while we explored Sigiriya. It’s right in the middle of the tiny town but a fair way off the main road, so it’s lovely and quiet except for the sound of the nearby stream.
The place definitely has a jungle feel to it - we awoke the first morning to find monkeys in the trees outside our room! The rooms are spacious with decent mosquito nets, although the bathroom was a bit dank with no window to let any air in. 
The breakfast is delicious (fruit, eggs, banana pancakes and coffee/tea) and the family members who run this place are wonderfully friendly and helpful. They can help to arrange safari tours or car journeys onwards to other cities.
Highly recommend this place!

Loved this place! 

Spent three nights here, perfect location for the restaurants, for lion rock or the pidurangala rock (which is much cheaper to climb and less crowded, plus you can take pictures of the lion rock itself!). Rooms were really nice, ask for the rooms bordering the river, they also offer AC and are really secluded! Monkeys and birds are literally on your doorstep (and are not aggressive, watch out with food though). Fun to observe them play together and see them jumping and swimming in the little river. Breakfast is nice, nothing special, but similar to what you have probably experienced throughout sri lanka.  All in all it was a really pleasant stay. 

Dambulla temples can be easily done as a day-trip by tuktuk. Busses stop on the main street (100m walk)! 

Tip: bring a torch/light on your phone, as the path towards the homestay is quite dark at night. 

Gangula Lodge

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