Heritance Kandalama

Geoffrey Bawa built this one into the side of a rock face above Kandalama tank, then let the jungle take it back. Thirty years on the strategy has worked, the corridors are open to the air, roots and creepers run over the concrete, and monkeys treat the walkways as their own. The result is a hotel that reveals itself slowly rather than announcing anything, with Sigiriya rock floating in the distance from the pools and upper rooms. It sits in 211 acres of protected forest in the Cultural Triangle, so mornings can start with a dawn climb up Sigiriya or Pidurangala, or a shorter walk into the Dambulla cave temples. Back at the hotel there is a spa, three pools, an eco park and dining that moves around the property, including a cave dinner. It has form on sustainability too, the first hotel in Asia to be certified by Green Globe and the first in the region to earn LEED certification.