'Paradise' is the word guests most often use to describe this unique, mountain-ringed haven in the heart of Sri Lanka. It's a secluded hideaway where you live in elegant simplicity, close to nature, in adobe houses nestling among flowers and trees, swim in a lake half-smothered in tiny water lilies, and eat delicious food lounging on cushions like an emperor.

As a foodie, one of the great joys of Ulpotha is its food. The main meals are eaten in a white, Sri Lankan manor house where jewel colors set off the carefully placed antique furniture and works of art. It was featured in 'The World of Interiors’, and its elegant simplicity and use of color make it look almost like a film set.

Ulpotha is a garden and a farm all in one, but everything is done the traditional way, with no chemicals and no machinery. The bedrooms are little adobe houses in separate clearings among the lush mingling of tropical trees and shrubs, which produce the farm's fruit and nuts. The sandy paths are shaded by coconut palms and fringed with brilliant hibiscus, and the vegetable plots are bright with sunflowers and marigolds.

Above all, it is a place to relax and find peace, and the only rule seems to be that there aren't any rules—unless you count an unwritten rule to treat everything and everyone with gentle respect and tolerance.

One of Ulpotha's unique features is that guests get one free 60-minute massage with our international therapists per week's stay and a free consultation with our resident Ayurveda doctor. As space is available, you can use the Ayurveda steambath and sauna and book additional treatments throughout your stay.

Join Melissa as she offers twice-daily yoga—a vibrant, mindful flow class in the morning and a restorative session in the evening. Melissa’s offerings are both therapeutic and focus on building strength and flexibility. Her classes will combine slow, strong flow with modifications for injuries or sensitivity in the body, finishing with long-held prop-supported postures (restorative yoga). Learn to listen to the body through the marriage of breath and movement as we explore moving through postures with grace and strength. These sessions will intertwine mantra, pranayama, mindful vinyasa flow and finish with restful postures.

In the evenings, Melissa will offer a combination of Restorative Yoga with Yoga Nidra and meditation or guided Thai Yoga Massage and partner yoga. A restorative yoga practice is one of receiving rest to build stores of energy. Experience luxuriously long-held postures that are supported by props for your body’s needs and complete the practice with an extended Yoga Nidra, which is a meditation that walks you through intention, a body scan, observation of sensations, and enables the body to move through the subtly of relaxation in a supportive way.