Lake View Hotel in Tissamaharama

Depends what you want. If you're going for a safari and just need a place for sleep over, it is clean, although not modern and it is cheap so it's a good option for a night. If you want to stay longer but are not used to budget accommodation then look elsewhere but for budget travelers this will do. It's basically a family house where the family lives. There are a few things that we need to be realistic about: this place is cheap, this is Sri Lanka so some things we take for granted are a luxury here, the family doesn't speak good English (the daughter speaks it pretty good but we met her at the end so ask for her if you really need to communicate) but they are VERY helpful. We asked for electricity adapter and got it, the man carried bags for us and was extremely polite (and he is half my size), they woke up at 5am to make take away breakfast for us (it wasn't anything good, basic stuff, but they really try their best). The place is in front of a lake which is beautiful, nice terrace with a great view and a couple of nice restaurants about a kilometer away. The room is a big let down. It goes to the terrace and they left the door open before we got there so a couple of mosquitos got in, had to kill them, spray around a little bit, turn the air conditioner and it was fine. The bathroom was ok for simple use, shower is not really pleasant at it is between the sink and the toilet and it is there if you have to use it. A number of other small different issues. Having said all that, the room was clean, no bugs, no spider webs, no dirt. I would give it 2 stars but it was cheap, they were very friendly and we stayed there only for 8 hours to sleep over until early morning safari. We also left out stuff with them, nothing went missing, they seem like honest people.