Hotel See Kandy

Perched high above Kandy Lake, Hotel See Kandy is a tiny five-room hotel whose whole reason for being is the view: from its hilltop perch the city, the lake and the Tooth Temple spread out below, and every room has a furnished balcony facing the panorama. The air-conditioned rooms come with refrigerators, LED televisions and bidet bathrooms, and the property adds a small outdoor pool, a restaurant and coffee shop, 24-hour room service, Wi-Fi and parking, with a continental breakfast each morning.

Guests overwhelmingly praise the location and the outlook, with early-morning breakfasts in the garden with the lake below a recurring highlight, alongside friendly, helpful staff who arrange tuk-tuks for the steep run downhill. The same reviews are frank that this is a small, older property: some note dated fittings, occasional damp or odours and a compact pool, so it suits a night or two of view-led sightseeing rather than a long pampered stay. The Temple of the Tooth, the Kandy Viewpoint and Wales Park are the standard sightseeing draws in this part of the city.