Nature Inn

I stayed for three weeks and had even planned to stay another full month. My hut was just left of the garden entrance gate. It cost 1.200 LKR a night with breakfast, and you may get a better deal by contacting Pradeep directly instead of booking through a site, which can take up to 30% of the accommodation price. That’s general advice, though, and I stayed a long time. The hut looked just like the photos and was cozy and beautiful. It could fit two people, with an indoor bathroom, a roomy covered terrace with a dining table and chairs, and a little tea-kitchen beside it. I picked it over the cheaper single-person room because I study online and needed space to use my laptop and do homework. I worked on the terrace during the day without being disturbed, or indoors under the mosquito net in the evening if I’d been out sightseeing. The meals were amazing, especially for a vegetarian like me who loves spicy Sri Lankan home cooking. I’m known among friends for eating a lot, but I couldn’t have managed any more than they served. Breakfast was included, and they tried to offer me something different each day. I often had dinner there too, usually Sri Lankan rice and curry with at least three different curries, all very tasty. Pradeep also drives a tuk tuk and can arrange tours. If you stay a while, as I did, his prices are much lower than anything I found in town. For 2.500 LKR he drove me for 5 hours to a turtle nursery, the only virgin white tea plantation in the world, a spectacular place you need to see, a snake farm, and a batik factory. Entry fees weren’t included, but it was still an incredible price. I came away with a suitcase full of lovely teas and some batik shirts. The garden at Nature Inn gives you a feel for the Buddhist area's culture as well as its wildlife, including all sorts of birds and monkeys. The locals aren’t fond of the monkeys because they damage crops, but they were fun to watch and not aggressive like monkeys in some other Asian countries. A whole troop of monkeys and some really huge peacocks used my hut roof to jump into the next garden and woke me up early on many days. Still, those beautiful animals often sat or landed within a meter of me on the terrace, so I got to know Sri Lanka’s wildlife up close. I’ve seen complaints about parties nearby, but I think there may be a misunderstanding. There’s a fairly large Buddhist temple right behind the place, and on every Puja, the fullmoon holiday, they celebrate all evening and night. That’s part of the area's culture, so I don’t think people should complain about it. They’re Buddhist. If someone can’t handle another culture, maybe they should stay home. But don’t stay home. Embrace other people’s interesting culture. Go to Mirissa and stay with this sweet family in their beautiful garden and guesthouse!