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€0.00/ Night
24/7 Support
Looking for help choosing or for a property we don't list? Message our Private Rates Concierge on WhatsApp for member rates and insider knowledge on the right stay
A nine-room boutique hotel in the hills above Kandy, set in three acres of garden with an infinity pool framing the Hunnasgiriya and Knuckles ranges, minutes from the city.
Collection:
Free extra on us
Book a minimum of 2 nights and enjoy room upgrades (subject to availability), romantic turndown service, foot massage and an exclusive cake.
Need To Know
- Nine rooms and suites, each individually styled with Kandyan batik and dance art; categories run from Deluxe Rooms to Junior Suites and two Kanda Uda Rata suites.
- In Aniwatta, a residential hillside about 1.5km from central Kandy, with the railway station 2.5km away and Colombo airport around 103km.
- Three acres of garden with more than 56 plant varieties, an infinity pool over the mountains, a spa, yoga, a library and bicycles.
- Butler service, a restaurant of Sri Lankan and international cooking, and a betel-leaf welcome ceremony on arrival.
- Our Favourite Rooms: the Kanda Uda Rata King's Suite for space and a private balcony, or the Queen's Suite for families.
Check in - Check out
Check in from 14:00; check out before 12:00.
We Love
- The pool. A turquoise infinity pool looks across three acres of garden to the Hunnasgiriya and Knuckles ranges, the view that defines the place.
- The setting. Three garden acres with 56-plus plant varieties and resident birdlife, a quiet hillside retreat 1.5km from the centre of Kandy.
- The welcome. A betel-leaf and candle ceremony on arrival, and the chef coming out to talk you through each Sri Lankan dish at dinner.
- The rooms. Just nine, each different, with timber floors and ceilings and walls hung with Kandyan batik and dance art for a sense of place.
- The location. The Temple of the Sacred Tooth, the botanic gardens and the Udawatta Kele reserve are all minutes away in the UNESCO city below.
Key Features
Book Your Stay at Kings Pavilion
€0.00 for 1 Night
Location
Address
4/22 Galkanda Road, Aniwatta, Kandy 20000, Sri Lanka.
Travel Info
Most guests reach Kandy by train or private car; the railway station is about 2.5km away and central Kandy 1.5km. Colombo's Bandaranaike International Airport is around 103km, roughly a three-hour drive, with transfers arranged on request.
Nearby Places
Polgolla Reservoir Airport
4500m
Last Updated: 2026-06-30
Expert Review
Origins
Kings Pavilion began life as a holiday bungalow that hosted international cricket teams on tour in Kandy, a quiet hillside house in the residential district of Aniwatta, above the old royal capital. It has since been reworked into a small boutique hotel, the project of two Sri Lankan owners, Priyantha, a former rugby player, and Dinesh, an entrepreneur, who reopened it to all guests as a tribute to the country's heritage.
The hill capital sets the tone. Kandy was the seat of the last Sri Lankan kingdom, holding out in the highlands until 1815, and remains the island's cultural heart, home to the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic and its great Esala Perahera procession. Kings Pavilion draws on that Kandyan culture rather than colonial nostalgia: rooms hung with batik and dance art, a betel-leaf welcome, a hidden garden shrine for meditation, and a kitchen rooted in highland cooking. Nine rooms, three acres of garden and a hilltop position give it the feel of a private house above the city rather than a hotel in it.
Top Secret
Tucked into the garden is a hidden meditation shrine looking out over the grounds and the hills; ask, and the staff will point you to it for a quiet half-hour away from the pool and the city below.
The Review
Kandy is Sri Lanka's hill capital, the seat of the island's last kingdom and still its cultural heart, wrapped around a lake and the Temple of the Sacred Tooth. Kings Pavilion sits just above the noise of it, in the residential hills of Aniwatta, 1.5km from the centre but a world removed in feel: a nine-room boutique hotel in three acres of garden, with the mountains laid out beyond the pool.
The setting is the headline. A turquoise infinity pool looks over the garden to the Hunnasgiriya and Knuckles ranges, and the grounds, more than three acres with over fifty plant varieties, draw enough birdlife to make a morning by the water an event in itself. Inside, the nine rooms are individually styled, with timber floors and ceilings and walls hung with Kandyan batik and dance art; they are comfortable and characterful rather than vast, in keeping with a place that was once a private bungalow and still feels like one.
Service is where it lands hardest. This is a small, family-owned hotel, and it shows in the detail: a betel-leaf and candle welcome on arrival, the chef, Keerthi, coming out to talk each dish through at dinner, a turndown done with real care. The food is a strength, Sri Lankan cooking to the fore, fish curry and vegetable kottu among the highlights, taken on the lawn with the hills in front of you. A hidden meditation shrine, a spa, yoga, a library and bicycles round out a stay built around calm rather than activity.
It is small and a little out of the centre, which is precisely the point: this is a quiet, personal base rather than a full-service city hotel, and a short tuk-tuk or car ride puts the Temple of the Tooth, the botanic gardens and the Udawatta Kele forest within easy reach. For travellers who want Kandy's culture by day and a calm hillside retreat to return to, Kings Pavilion is among the most appealing places to stay in the hill capital.
