Facelift for Queen's Hotel Kandy

Kandy has several hotels with over 800 guest rooms, but there is only one place that is located close to the Sri Dalada Maligawa, the Queen's Hotel. It is within a stone's throw from the Temple of the Tooth and within walking distance to the main attractions of the town.

The hotel is unique. Opened in 1844 (20 years before the Galle Face Hotel opened in Colombo), the Queen's Hotel is the oldest hotel in Sri Lanka.

Now part of the Galle Face Hotel Group, with its Ceylon Hotels Corporation properties, The Queen's is undergoing a rapid transformation. This is part of the policy introduced by the group's chairman, Sanjeev Gardiner, to make the hotel more attractive to domestic and foreign tourists.

The refurbishment project has been entrusted to a team headed by Senior Vice President, Chandra Mohotti, a veteran hotelier.

Once the pride of Kandy and the cynosure of all eyes for decades. The hotel is returning to its former glory. It has its quirks, however.

Everyone of its 80 bedrooms is different in design. Most have wooden floors and antique furniture, and all have a television, air-conditioning and a fan, a mini-bar and a tea/coffee making facility.

The hotel's rambling corridors yield surprises such as a Chinese restaurant on the first floor with a magnificent lake view.

A display cabinet on the landing shows artefacts from the bedrooms before plumbing was installed. Wander downstairs to discover a museum of hotel cutlery, crockery and menuse and black and white photographs of the hotel over the years.

Step out from the arches of the museum you find a sparkling blue swimming pool in the garden courtyard. It is a contrast to the hotel's appealing vintage charm, which has somehow survived various restoration programs during its 167 years.

Probably due to its location, many bedrooms provide amazing views of the Temple, lake, city and surrounding hills, or inward looking to the courtyard garden pool. On demand, a suite on the first floor, called Lake View, has been converted into a conference room for small workshops and meetings.

The banquet hall can accommodate 250 guests and is often booked for private functions and corporate conferences.

The hotel has its own parking facility behind the courtyard. There is also valet parking.

Due to Kandy's one-way traffic system, visitors arrive at the hotel's front entrance by turning right at the corner where D S Senanayake Veediya meets Dalada Veediya.

A uniformed doorman welcomes guests and ushers them into a hall, with a high ceiling characteristic of colonial properties, to the reception counter.

A grand staircase leads from there to the rooms, while great doors open to reveal the ballroom where guests dine. Since the hotel usually operates at high occupancy, most meals are taken as lavish buffets. On Saturday evenings there is a barbecue by the swimming pool.

There is access down one of the corridors to another treat within the hotel, the pastry shop. It is open from 6am - 10.30pm and serves a variety of short eats, pastries, hoppers and curries. It has become popular with Kandy residents due to its competitive prices, good quality, and ease of access from the covered shopping arcade running the length of the hotel.

Adjoining is the Pub Royale, a genuine colonial pub that was the haunt of tea planters in bygone days.

It has the oldest, original bar counter in Sri Lanka with carved wooden façade, a marble counter and brass foot rail.

Bottles are stored on an elaborate antique backdrop with mirrors, and ancient wooden blinds roll down at night to close the bar counter. To pause there for a drink or a snack is to relive the grandeur that for colonial guests was typical of Kandy.

For today's visitor, the Queen's is just across the road for a gentle stroll around the lake, as well as being poised at the pinnacle of the shopping streets. From the entrance, it is in close proximity to the Temple of the Tooth and the temple museum or to walk to the four devales associated with the Sri Dalada Maligawa.

There are steadfast reminders of the British presence in Kandy. The Prince of Wales fountain, built to commemorate the visit of the Prince of Wales in 1875, is a delight of rococo cherubs spouting water. It was made in Glasgow.