€22.90 for 1 Night
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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
€22.90/ 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 restored 19th-century colonial manor in the paddy country near Tangalle, five suites around an L-shaped pool, taken by the room or whole as a staffed villa.
Collection:
Award Winner 2015
Asia’s Best Romantic Retreat
Need To Know
- Five suites across two pavilions set around a 20-metre L-shaped pool; bookable individually or as a whole staffed villa for groups of around 10 to 15.
- In the village of Aranwella, near Beliatta, in southern Sri Lanka's paddy country, about 8km and a 15-minute drive from Tangalle's beaches.
- A two-acre garden, INDRIYA Ayurvedic spa with in-room treatments, a yoga pavilion and daily-changing set-menu dining.
- A free shuttle runs to the south-coast beaches; alcohol is BYO, with no corkage.
- Our Favourite Rooms: an Old House suite with 25-foot ceilings, lattice work and a four-poster opening to the pool.
Check in - Check out
Check in from 14:00; check out before 12:00.
We Love
- The setting. A grand village wall opens to a two-acre garden of paddy views and peacocks, a genuine countryside retreat rather than a beach resort.
- The architecture. A restored 19th-century walauwa, a manor of the old Ceylon elite, with 25-foot ceilings, intricate lattice work and antique four-posters.
- The pool. A 20-metre L-shaped pool sits between the two pavilions, with verandas and sun beds for moving between sun and shade through the day.
- The food. A strong kitchen running daily-changing set menus, with the option of a Kamatha lunch served out in the working paddy field.
- The whole-villa option. All five suites can be taken together with full staff, which makes Maya a natural fit for a family or group of around a dozen.
Key Features
Book Your Stay at Maya Tangalle Villa
€22.90 for 1 Night
Location
Address
Old House, Temple Road, Aranwella, Beliatta, Sri Lanka
Travel Info
By car: 3 hours drive from Colombo. 1 ½ hours from Galle, By train: Galle or Matara station, By plane: International airport in Colombo. 1 ½ hrs from Hambantota regional airport
Nearby Places
By car: 3 hours drive from Colombo. 1 ½ hours from Galle, By train: Galle or Matara station, By plane: International airport in Colombo. 1 ½ hrs from Hambantota regional airport
250m
Last Updated: 2026-06-30
Expert Review
Origins
Maya occupies an Aranwella walauwa, a manor of the old Ceylon ruling elite, built in the late nineteenth century in the colonial style, with British and Dutch influences, 25-foot ceilings and intricate lattice work. Like many of Sri Lanka's ancestral houses it had fallen into disrepair, and was rescued in the mid-2000s by the New York-born designer Niki Fairchild, who came upon it in 2004, and the Sri Lankan architect Pradeep Kodikara. They restored the old house, added a new wing under the same roof and built the L-shaped pool, and named it Maya, Sanskrit for illusion or dream.
The property was reborn after the pandemic under new owners, with a refresh by Channa Daswatte, the architect who trained under Geoffrey Bawa, Sri Lanka's most celebrated designer and the father of its tropical-modernist style. The result is a calm, confident take on colonial design: period bones and antique fittings paired with clean contemporary lines, set in a two-acre garden of birdlife and paddy views in the quiet interior behind Tangalle. It runs as an intimate five-suite villa, the kind of place taken over by a family or a group as readily as booked by the room.
Top Secret
The Buddhist temple next door has blessed Maya for years, its monk offering the villa regular pirith in thanks for the support it gives the village; walk over in the morning and you can sit for a blessing of your own, about as local as a stay in the deep south gets.
The Review
Sri Lanka's deep south is the island at its most relaxed, a coast of turtle beaches, surf coves and national parks behind. Maya sits a little inland of it, behind a grand village wall in the paddy country near Tangalle, and that is the first thing to understand about it: this is a countryside manor, not a beach hotel, and the appeal is the quiet, the garden and the house rather than sand at the door.
The house is the draw. A restored nineteenth-century walauwa, it keeps its 25-foot ceilings, lattice work and antique fittings, refreshed with a sure hand by a protégé of Geoffrey Bawa, and arranged as five suites across two pavilions around a 20-metre L-shaped pool. The rooms are large and characterful, several opening straight to the water, and the whole place can be taken over by a family or group of a dozen or so, which is how many guests come. There is a two-acre garden loud with birds and peacocks, a yoga pavilion and an Ayurvedic spa, but no crowds and no traffic, only the quiet of a working village.
Food is a real strength. The kitchen runs daily-changing set menus that move easily between Sri Lankan and Western, the fusions often the best of it, and the eight-dish curry is a highlight; meals are taken under the stars, by the pool or at the long polished-concrete table, and dinner can be staged out in the paddy field as a Kamatha lunch. The staff, drawn almost entirely from the surrounding villages and visibly invested in the place, are a large part of why a stay here feels personal rather than run.
It will not suit those who want the beach on their doorstep or a full-service resort: Maya is small, set-menu, and a 15-minute drive from the coast. But for a private, design-led base in the deep south, ideally taken whole, with the beaches, Yala and the turtles of Rekawa all within reach, it is among the most characterful places to stay in southern Sri Lanka.
