Top 10 All-Inclusive Resorts in Sri Lanka

·Strong all-inclusive evidence

Wild Coast Tented Lodge is a Relais and Chateaux safari lodge of 28 tented suites where the jungle meets the sea at Palatupana, on the edge of Yala. It carries a 9.4 with us, one of the highest scores in our catalog, and it earns that on service, food and design rather than on anything a beach resort would recognise. Suites run to 55 square metres, and the pool suites add a plunge pool of their own.

·Excellent calm-water beach.

The Bay is a 48-room resort on Pasikuda Bay, on Sri Lanka's quiet east coast, and the bay is the reason to come. It is shallow, reef-protected and about as easy to swim in as anywhere on the island, which guests mention more than anything else. Rooms are generously sized, from 54 square metre studios up to a 149 square metre suite and a 316 square metre beach villa, and there is a thirty-metre pool.

·Beautiful clifftop and beachfront setting in a coconut estate.

Anantara Peace Haven is a clifftop resort in a coconut estate at Tangalle, for travellers who want the quiet end of Sri Lanka's south coast. It is about an hour from Mattala's airport and roughly three from Colombo, with 152 rooms and villas, a 25-metre infinity pool above the ocean, a children's pool, four restaurants and a large spa. All-inclusive is a rate plan some channels sell rather than the resort's own product.

·Excellent Yala National Park access and guide positioning.

·Small, quiet, high-space resort.

·Large room and villa inventory with private-pool options.

Anantara Kalutara is a design-led resort on the peninsula where the Kalu Ganga meets the sea, for travellers who want architecture and space. It is about 90 minutes from Colombo's airport, with 141 rooms, two pools including one for adults only, four restaurants and a kids' and teens' club, on a site whose buildings trace back to a Geoffrey Bawa design. All-inclusive is a rate plan some channels offer rather than the resort's own product, and that is the first thing to check.

·24-hour all-inclusive product

·Convenient airport-adjacent beach setting.

Sentido Heritance Negombo is a beachfront five-star 25 minutes from Colombo's airport, and its best use is the first or last night of a Sri Lanka trip. It has 139 rooms, a pool above the beach and five restaurants, with the town walkable from the gate. All-inclusive is a rate plan some channels sell rather than the hotel's own product, and the sea here is rough enough that the pool does the swimming.

·Beachfront setting with ocean-facing rooms.

Heritance Ahungalla is a landmark beachfront hotel on Sri Lanka's south-west coast, for travellers who want a heritage building on the sand. All-inclusive is an option rather than the rule. It is about two hours from Colombo's airport, with 152 rooms that all face the ocean, two pools, three restaurants and three bars, and a design that belongs to the island's modernist tradition rather than to any resort chain. It is a hotel with a beach, not a resort complex.

·Verified all-inclusive availability

Club Hotel Dolphin is a family beach resort at Negombo, for families who want big pools 35 minutes from Colombo's airport. It has 154 rooms, three pools including one for children, two restaurants and three bars on the Negombo shore, and part of its usefulness is that airport: this is the resort people book at the start or the end of a Sri Lanka trip. All-inclusive is a rate plan or a paid upgrade rather than the default, and that is the thing to pin down before arrival.