De Silva Wind Resort Kalpitiya - Kitesurfing School Sri Lanka

It’s the first ‘premium’ accommodation option I have come across where the hot water cuts out unless there’s bright sunshine - not something, of course, that’s mentioned on their website. The rooms themselves are completely basic. A kettle, but no teabags. No fridge. Unpleasant drain smells coming from the bathroom, which didn’t drain properly. Air conditioning which has one setting - “Arctic Tundra” - which is an issue when you’re provided with barely any bedding. The WiFi is laughably unreliable. The bedside light had the wrong plug so was useless. If all of this makes you want to spend time outside the room, then why not hang out in one of the communal areas? Well, there is a bar, but there’s never anyone manning it, and apparently they don’t have a full licence to operate it (again, not something they mention on the website). There is of course the communal pool table, but in the evenings this is reliably occupied by one of the members of staff who can be found lounging across the sofas on apparently never ending video calls - not exactly a welcoming environment. As for the food, when we arrived we were told that there was basically none left and what they did have would take over an hour to prepare, so we may as well not bother. The breakfasts and dinners are overpriced and under-provisioned. Finally - the reason we’re all here - the activities on offer. There’s no discount on offer if you’re staying at the accommodation and the rates are pretty steep. We did windsurfing and had a really friendly, knowledgeable, and good-natured instructor. However, that’s about as far as it goes. There is no safety boat out on the water - when we got into trouble on a windy day we had to shout to the shore for assistance (which came in the form of said helpful instructor on a paddle board). This is just downright dangerous and irresponsible. I once asked if I could try wing-surfing as opposed to windsurfing, and was told with a nonchalant shrug that there was only one instructor and he was busy out with the kite surfers. All in all, a thoroughly disappointing experience which left us with the feeling of being utterly ripped off (with the exception being the windsurfing instructor Sam, who was great). We did complain to management at the end, so hopefully they take all of this on board.

The resort is amazing for windsurfing & relaxing, it has a great pool.The Sri Lankan food was absolutely delicious, the food was some of the best food of our whole trip.the staff is super friendly and helpful, thank you De Silva Team 🙏🏻we come again.

Our group of 30 kitesurfers from Greece visited De Silva Windresort late February for 10days. Our experience with the team there was amazing. Upul, Kathy, Baba, Nalika and the rest of their staff were all very accommodating to us all, made us all feel very welcome and part of their team. Being a big group, I was surprised on how they could keep up with all of us from our accommodation stay though out our daily kitesurfing experience in Kalpitiya. Had great downwind trips through Kalpitiya waters, great scenery. Kite school is very well equipped, great drinks and chill out areas. The place is great for someone who wants to kite all day and relax in the evenings. We had full board meals though out our stay, very taste and lots to choose from. They planned daily events which made us feel special :) Visit DeSilva in Kalpitiya, only positive vibes :)