La Pentera

La Pentera is the gateway to three national parks. We took a canoe ride just 100 meters from the resort, which was awesome. We even saw some elephants bathing in the lake! We had a nice breakfast on the boat at the lake, arranged by the resort. Highly recommend!

Exceptional tree house experience at La Pentera resort! The tree houses are well-designed and provide the best experience I've ever had. The food is delicious, and the proximity to the lake enhances the overall charm. The genuine hospitality of the people adds a special touch to the stay.

this place was amazing.the tree house was really a good experience.we spent two nights there.One of the greatest experience we ever had.a calming place forenjoy nature.food was amazing.staff was friendly.love to be there again.thwnk u la pentera.

This is an extraordinary place. This nature actually restores. I want to recommend a tree house. My childhood dream came true. I want to return to this place again and again Service, attitude are all at the highest level. Thank you very much 🤗 Love forever❣️

My wife and I recently had the misfortune of staying here a week or so ago. We booked in for the 'honeymoon package' (fancy I know). Which is priced online 550 USD. Even if you stayed at this place for a month they shouldn't have the right to charge anyone $550. This is a 1-2* hotel at best so if that's what your after by all means go ahead and book this terrible excuse of a Srilankan hovel. Let me get to the good bits - Firstly, the day before the little toad (manager) says he won't be at the hotel so all communication is done via WhatsApp, ok I thought... bit odd. So we are met after quite some time trying to find the hotel due to bad signage, by a man brought in from the local village who didn't speak a word of English. There is no front desk or 'check-in' here, you are just given a key and pointed to your treehouse. It is a little odd the whole set up, made even more so by the fact we were the only people here. ZERO other guests at the hotel and by the reviews this place has really really struggled. In fact the cook even told our driver that NO-ONE was coming to stay here. It really showed, everything was so run-down and dirty. The bathroom was riddled with limescale, the jacuzzi bath I don't even think a prisoner of war would have got into :( However after checkin we tried to stay positive and we had booked a canoe ride, another guy the manager probably paid peanuts arrived and pointed for us to move towards the lake. We followed and we came across this rickety old canoe and we set off. The lake itself is amazing, we saw an Elephant and plenty of amazing birds, crocodiles, Id just recommend going to 'Banyon camp' who had 4 canoe rides out on the lake and was clearly doing much better then La Pantera. From the uneasy welcome, dirty rooms and the fact we were the only ones in this hotel, having booked a x2 night stay we decided we would stay one and leave the next morning. We had dinner, there is no menu, or restaurant as such, (just a set of wooden tables in the camp area) I was told its A la carte, this isn't the case. The non speaking member of staff tried to ask what we wanted for dinner, we heard curry and went for that. There are no choices of drink, just water. Food was actually OK, cooked by a lady from the village. My wife started to feel unwell, plus we had made the decision to not stay another night, I text the owner and said we would be leaving in the morning and had an early night. We woke up to a volley of abuse from the toad (manager), who took this quite personally. We had packed our bags and went to pay, we were fully prepared to pay for x2 nights. We woke to the front gates being shut which again was odd and so it transpired we had been locked in. We were just waiting by the kitchen as there is no front desk and someone appeared. It was the same guy from the night before who didn't speak English, we asked to pay. The toad (manager) was on the line and shouting incoherently down the phone. The li

I advise, please DO NOT stay here. We booked having been recommended by a friend who stayed in 2019. The pandemic has had a serious impact on many hotels/the hospitality sector as a whole, I can see how this place could be great but sadly I was shocked. On arrival, the bathroom was dirty, there was no one else staying- it clicked later on why(!), it is a good 45 min drive to the national park entrance & unfortunately, the 2 staff members spoke no other language than Sri Lankan (Sinhala or Tamil). We felt uncomfortable & wanted to check out after one night (having booked 2) and requested if this was possible via WhatsApp to the manager, who isn't actually onsite. I woke up to a long stream of abusive WhatsApp messages & the gates to the site had been locked, as you can imagine it was scary & I was beginning to feel quite panicked. My husband and I asked the 2 people onsite to pay the bill & this time, the manager was screaming down the phone to me, my husband & also our driver (who had to climb through a bush in order to get into the property to make sure we were okay...) Things kept getting worse, the card machine didn't work, I had to try to use the card machine myself as the people working their didn't know how to use it, the manager screamed at me again and accused me of refusing to pay & that my card was the issue (it worked previously on our trip and at the next hotel). The manager demanded we get cash out - amazingly, my card did work at the local ATM :) After we paid the invoice for 2 nights & left (yes, the gate was finally unlocked!), the manager continued to send harassing and abusive Whatsapps/emails/text messages for the next few days- he is an aggressive man, threatening to contact the immigration police (although I had paid my full invoice, so I'm not sure on what grounds). We also were told that the 2 'employees' were actually local people (i.e. not in hospitality) & are paid very little by the manager, they explained to our driver that they are being used and not fairly paid. Avoid at all costs is my only advice, we sadly learnt our lesson!!