Cantaloupe Aqua ☆ Unawatuna Sri Lanka

Cantaloupe Aqua is a stylishly designed boutique hotel that stands on the beautiful beach in the east of Unawatuna, Sri Lanka. My family and I enjoyed our 4-night stay at Cantaloupe Aqua. I was very pleased with it. In this post, I will honestly tell you my observations and experiences. I took many photos so that you can see the environment of the hotel and I hope they will help you figure out if it is something you are looking for.

This post is written voluntarily. I was neither asked to write nor received any benefit for writing. In fact, Cantaloupe Aqua team has no idea that I will publish this post as I write this. We spent our own money for the entire accommodation. Thus, you can trust that all my opinions are of my own and I will be honest with you.

I left Cantaloupe Aqua wanting to stay longer. I miss our time at Cantaloupe Aqua.

The Reasons We Chose Cantaloupe Aqua

1. One Room For Us
With our 3 young children my husband and I prefer staying in one room at a hotel or in a villa. It is very common in Asia that hotels ask you to get a second room if you have a third child which becomes costly. Cantaloupe Aqua was one of the few hotels that allowed us to stay in one room with an additional fee to have an extra bed. Their prompt responses gave me a good impression as well. In fact, they were the fastest when it comes to responding to my email inquiries.

However, if my children were slightly older, the room we stayed would have not worked as it would not be big enough.

2. More People
I almost picked one very nice villa that received high rate, but I decided to go for a hotel because our youngest is small. I knew that the beaches in Unawatuna except for Jungle Beach, Unawatuna Beach and a small part of Dalawella Beach, have big waves that are not suitable for little children. As a mother to 3 young children, I wanted to be around with more people so that there are more sets of eyes to see kids even if they are not watching. Cantaloupe Aqua was great for that.

3. Design
You can see my photos. The design is very modern and stylish and everything is in white, my favorite color with black and other beautiful accent colors in decoration. Their website is also beautiful and aesthetically pleasing. I was sold.

4. Reasonable
I compared prices. There are other beautiful hotels in the area that looked really nice, but they were either more expensive or did not allow us to stay in one room. Cantaloupe Aqua rate became more reasonable to us.

5. Gorgeous Water
You can see the photos. My photos did not do justice to the beauty of the ocean. The real water was prettier.

AQUA ZEN ROOM

Coming from Japan, the room size was just fine. It felt spacious to me. Since the furniture was designed with straight lines, it was easy to tuck some furniture pieces under other furniture to create more space. To my tall Texan husband, on the other hand, it felt a bit small with 3 children and I can see that. I was simply grateful that we could all stay in the room together.

If I could add one thing about Aqua Zen, the room we stayed, that was not so positive, that would be about the bathroom. It was very small. The toilet flush was weak and the shower water came out and made the floor wet every time someone took a shower. Other than them, I loved the room especially the loft bed!

If I may give one small suggestion to Cantaloupe Aqua, it would be nice to have a “do not disturb” and “please make the room” sign to hang on a door nob outside in each room so that the cleaning staff would know when the guests are out.

VIEW FROM OUR BALCONY

BEACH BY THE HOTEL

There is a small staircase to go down to the beach from the hotel. This photo below shows the water right in front of the Cantaloupe Aqua.

This is the look of the beach on the left of the hotel.

If you walk 50 meters to the left of Cantaloupe Aqua and look back to the hotel, this is the view. You can see the railing of the stairs to the beach from Cantaloupe Aqua in the distance.

The waves depending on the time of day were big. They were perfect waves for body surfing. My first child who loves beaches could have and would have stayed there all day long body surfing if my husband and I allowed her.

WHAT I LOVED ABOUT CANTALOUPE AQUA

1. Pool
It was very small, so frankly I was a bit sad about it at first. However, it was actually a great size for my toddler and my feelings changed. I did not have to worry about him even if I left him for a bit with my first, 11-year-old child. We could even see the pool from our room, which was nice. No, I did not leave him by himself in the pool and went back to my room. Don’t worry. The view of the ocean from the pool was gorgeous, too.

We loved having the swimming pool at Cantaloupe Aqua. My son started learning how to swim with the arm floats during our vacation in Sri Lanka, so he was very keen on playing in the water. The ocean water in front of Cantaloupe Aqua was not suitable for a toddler, so the swimming pool was a saving grace. It’s also nice to jump in the pool water after playing in the salt water for a while. You feel so refreshed!!

2. Good Size
I am forgetful. Plus, with kids, there were many times I had to run back to my room to get something that kids needed. Especially my middle one was sick as you can tell from the photos, it was very convenient. (She picked up a stomach bug back in India before leaving. She started her symptoms on the first day in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Yes, it was a bummer…)

3. Service
Everyone was friendly and helpful. They were very accommodating. If I asked for something, they took care of our requests promptly.

Here is one incident. On the first night, I ordered a glass noodle beef salad, but my plate was still not ready even after the rest of my family had finished their plates. My husband was not pleased. I was okay as I ate my kids’ and husbands’ food and I actually became full. There was apparently an issue in the kitchen and I could understand. There were many customers in the restaurant. We asked one staff to cancel my order of the dish even though it was already being prepared. He was very apologetic. When I ordered ice cream for my daughter and myself to share later, the same staff brought the ice cream and told us that it was complimentary for their apology. I was pleasantly surprised! On following days, the same staff was very attentive and helpful to us since he remembered. I hear that people of Sri Lanka are very service oriented like that and I believe it.

4. Design
I thought that the hotel was as attractive as in the photos on the Cantaloupe Aqua website in person. It felt a tiny bit smaller than in the photos on the web, but I would say that the photos on their website are accurate.

5. Beautiful Water and Quiet Beach
Cantaloupe Aqua has a beautiful beach on the left side of their building. The beach on the right looked beautiful, too, but we could not get to it as there was water. You could have the quiet deserted looking beach all to yourself with the sound of the waves in your background. When the sun was shining, the water was in pretty aqua blue and the sand was soft and golden. The beach had hardly any people except for a few guests in our hotel and one next to us. The beach had yellow sand, blue water and green palm trees lined up as far as your eyes can see. It looked like a paradise to me.

6. Good Food
We enjoyed the food at the restaurant inside where we had our dinner everyday. The prices were reasonable, which was very nice for a hotel! Sri Lankan curry is recommended. My children loved their cheese risotto.

HOW THE WATER LOOKED WHEN WE ARRIVED

When we arrived at Cantaloupe Aqua on the very first day after we had finished lunch at Wijaya Beach, which was located about a 5-minute drive from the hotel, the storm was rolling in. It was getting darker and the wind started to get stronger. My first child really wanted to go out to the beach to play in the water, but to my disappointment the hotel staff urged not to swim. I assumed at first that it was always like that. Then I learned that it was only because of the weather at that time. I was relieved. When I saw the water in front of Cantaloupe Aqua on a sunny day, it made me very happy!!

I hope you enjoyed my photos of Cantaloupe Aqua and my thoughts!! If you ask if I recommend the hotel, I would definitely say yes. Would I want to stay there again? My answer would be yes.

Thank you, Cantaloupe Aqua, for your hospitality!!

CANTALOUPE AQUA

Cantaloupe Aqua
127 KM Post,
Palutugaha Junction,
Habaraduwa, Talpe
Sri Lanka
PHONE: +94 91 720 0500
EMAIL: frontdesk.aqua@cantaloupe.lk