The super luxury Suriya Resort a five star plus Rs 900 million hotel was officially bestowed upon leisure lovers after a trial period of two months, said Suriya Luxury Resort (Pvt) Chairman Eric Suriyasena at a gala reception party thrown to over 700 guests in which more than 80 % were travel agents and hoteliers on Friday.

The service of the best staff trained around the world including Tyrell Wasalathanthrie, Executive Chef who is the President of the Chefs Guild and Janaka Withanapathirane, Pastry Chef trained in France, Sweden and Germany. The other staff too is well experienced with lots of exposure, selected from the best hotels in Sri Lanka to give the best service. Suriyasena said the guests who stayed at Suriya Resort during the trial period were so overwhelmed with the quality of the food, service, rooms, environment and atmosphere that they had made it a point to visit the hotel several times during period of two months. Also in the comments made on TripAdvisor too by guests, they have rated Suriya as the best in Sri Lanka.

The luxury resort hotel consists of six water bungalows which is a first in Sri Lanka and 56 keys out of which 42 are deluxe rooms and 14 suites. Another unique feature is that the gym and pub/restaurant too being constructed on water.Suriyasena said Basil Rajapaksa, Economic Development Minister termed Suriya as the best hotel he had seen in terms of layout and architecture participating as the Chief Guest. The Chairman commended his son Nilan Suriyasena for his contribution in achieving such brilliance in interior and architecture of the resort. He said his second son Ninesh Suriyasena, was the finance guy who sourced finances for the hotel and his third son provided consultation. They all received the accolades of Minister Basil Rajapaksa, he said.

Suriyasena recalled that at the time of purchase of the 11 acre land one fourth of it was covered with coconut plantation; the rest comprised a prawn farm and a huge pit. He said it was an enormous task to develop the property in an environmentally friendly manner to what it is now by bringing earth from outside and plantings thousands of tress to make it eco friendly that took a period of two and a half years. This hotel features water garden and art with a panoramic view of the sea, river and nature.

Another specialty is that teak and Kumbuk wood has been preliminarily used instead of cement structures to make the place environment friendly and also to give a real taste of Sri Lankan architecture. Even the restaurant doors and windows were made using local architecture sans cement blocks. The kitchen too is a unique open kitchen with a food spread that could not be found anywhere in Sri Lanka. Even Minister Basil Rajapaksa had acknowledged it to be the best spread, he said. Suriyasena appreciated the helping hand given by General Manager Lal Dissanayake in upgrading the property uplifting the management of the hotel and maintain the quality of food and service.

The hotel targets a high end clientele from Germany, UK, Europe and all other countries from Asia and the Middle East. Another spectacle of Suriya Resort is that guests from round the world could witness the Negombo and the Cultural Trangle cultures and atmosphere in the very same place in just a 20 minute journey from the airport.

With tourism booming another 14 water bungalows with a spar over water has been planned for next year.