Living Heritage Koslanda with Kids: A Splurge Worth Making
Updated: Jul 21
We'd spent the best part of two weeks travelling Sri Lanka the way we usually do: homestays, rice and curry in local eateries , Siena making new best friends with every stray dog. We love every bit of it but sometimes a little splurge s what you need, and that is exactly what Living Heritage Koslanda is for. This is definitely not what we normally spend in Sri Lanka but it was so worth it.
The 30-second verdict
Living Heritage Koslanda is an eco-luxury retreat tucked into eighty acres of forest in Sri Lanka's hill country, near the famous Lipton's tea estate and an easy hop from Ella. Nine rooms (including tree-houses), an infinity pool over the paddy fields, a private waterfall you hike to, and food grown in its own garden. It markets itself as a romantic, off-the-beaten-track escape, and it is, but it works beautifully for a family whose children are happy in nature. It's an arrive-and-stay place, not a resort, and it's a splurge for Sri Lanka.
Getting there
A quick note on how you travel Sri Lanka, in case it's your first time. Most families hire a driver for the whole trip rather than self-driving, they are will you the entire trip. Drivers have their own accommodation arranged at each stop (sorted and paid by the driver or the company, not by you) it's a thing here, so don't overthink it.
Koslanda sits at the end of an unmarked, bumpy track that makes you briefly wonder whether you've taken a wrong turn. You haven't. That little flicker of "are we lost?" is part of the arrival, and then the forest opens up and there you are.
The villa
We stayed two nights in a Luxury Villa Suite, which comes with its own private plunge pool, a long veranda, and a spacious indoor bathroom alongside an outdoor garden shower. Ours also had its own open-air courtyard, a private walled garden that turned out to be glorious for a bit of morning yoga with nobody watching. It's genuinely lovely: antique furniture, high beams, that built-by-local-hands character the whole estate carries. Koslanda is designed to keep you close to nature. There's no air conditioning, though the rooms do have fans, and they're built to breathe with the hill country climate. The beds have mosquito nets, which Siena decided were the height of princess glamour, and at around 300 metres up it's noticeably cooler and less sticky than the coast, so we slept perfectly well. If you need a sealed, climate-controlled room, this isn't it, and that's by design rather than something they've forgotten to fit.
How we filled the days
You can head out if you want to: the Lipton's tea estate is nearby and Ella is a run up the road. We'd already done all of that on our way through Ella though, so we happily stayed put and let the estate be the whole of it. The team organises activities you can simply opt into. The infinity pool is the headline, and it earns it. It sits right above the paddy fields with the hills rolling away beyond, and we lost hours to it. Lunch arrived poolside whenever we fancied it.
The guided waterfall hike was a family favourite, it's a walk through the forest to a waterfall you can swim beneath, all within the estate, so you have the whole thing to yourselves. One real heads-up: leeches. Lots of them. The guide provides boot covers before you set off, which sounds alarming and slightly is, but we all made it back in one piece and Siena has been telling the leech story to anyone who'll listen ever since.
We also did a cookery class, played a lot of board games in one of the open pavilions (the ambalamas dotted around the estate), and toasted marshmallows on the bonfire after dinner. The fire is a nightly ritual that other guests gather round too, and it's pure Koslanda: flames under a star-heavy sky, grown-ups with a drink, children with sticky fingers.
The food at Living Heritage Koslanda
The food was magnificent, and most of the vegetables come straight from the estate's own garden or the local area. Breakfast is included; lunch and dinner are paid on top. We had breakfast and lunch by the pool and dinner at the restaurant, and not one meal let us down. If you're more into western food, don't worry, they offer a wide variety too.
What Siena loved
Having her own private nature playground
Bug hunts
The waterfall, leeches and all
The bonfire and marshmallows
Diving about in the infinity pool with the whole valley spread out below her
Heads-up for families
Fans, not air conditioning, and open-to-nature rooms. The cooler hill country climate makes it work
It's remote and arrive-and-stay. No kids' club, no shops, no nipping out. If your child needs structured entertainment, this won't suit. Siena was perfectly happy to swim, hike and potter.
The waterfall hike has leeches. Boot covers are provided, but worth a gentle warning for squeamish children (and adults).
It's a splurge. We paid around 900 USD for two nights on a bed-and-breakfast basis, with everything else on top. That's well above our usual Sri Lanka spend.
The verdict: who Koslanda is perfect for
It's perfect for: families with easy-going kids, who genuinely love being in nature. Couples. Anyone who wants to slow a Sri Lanka trip right down for a couple of days. Honeymooners, naturally.
Skip it if: you've got toddlers who need pool railings and a kids' club, you can't sleep without aircon, or a splurge price for an arrive-and-stay stay doesn't sit comfortably with your trip budget.
For us, after two weeks of homestays and winding hill roads, Koslanda was exactly the experience we'd hoped it would be. A definite thumbs up!
Planning the rest of your island trip? Pair this with our guide to where to stay in Sri Lanka for a beach holiday for the south-west coast.
Small disclosure under the button: "We may earn a small commission if you book through our link, at no extra cost to you. We only recommend places we'd happily return to ourselves. This was a paid stay, not a hosted one."
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