By Tanya Joslin
By the time we reached the mountains of Werapitiya, the world had quieted. The tuk-tuks outnumbered the cars. The air thickened, the landscape a deeper green. Schoolchildren in crisp white uniforms wandered home in small, laughing clusters. The road dipped and curled past rice fields, farms, and the occasional cow. Life here unfolds at its own unhurried tempo, just as I imagine it did decades ago.
By the time we reached the mountains of Werapitiya, the world had quieted. The tuk- tuks outnumbered the cars. The air thickened, the landscape a deeper green. Schoolchildren in crisp white uniforms wandered home in small, laughing clusters. The road dipped and curled past rice fields, farms, and the occasional cow. Life here unfolds at its own unhurried tempo, just as I imagine it did decades ago.
Santani sits on a former tea plantation around an hour outside Kandy, framed by the lush folds of the Knuckles Mountain Range. Its name means “in harmony with”—and that spirit touches everything: the silence, the architecture, the way the mist lifts slowly off the trees and the leaves gently rustle in the wind. The minimalist architecture offers no distraction, leaving space to notice the beauty around you. I was there during Emerald season, when the landscape shifts with the weather, and even the silence seemed alive.
A Design That Unclutters the Mind
I was met by Prasanga, the rooms division manager, who took me to my home for the next two nights: a Mountain View chalet that sat lightly on the slope, all wood and glass and clean lines. There’s no air-conditioning or television, and I quickly discovered that you don’t miss them. The natural ventilation, the absence of noise, and the vast valley views are enough. Even the light here moves slowly.
This minimalist approach is intentional. Everything at Santani—the buildings, the food, the rituals—is designed to unhook you from the chaos you didn’t know you were carrying. The retreat isn’t sterile or austere; it’s soft. Simple. Spacious.
For couples, it’s a place that holds both pace and pause. One of you might be craving full detox mode—daily yoga, steam room, herbal tea on tap. The other might just want to eat well, nap often, and not feel like they’re stuck in a juice retreat with rules. At Santani, both work.
Related: The Ultimate Couples’ Travel Guide to Sri Lanka — tailored escapes for every travel style
At the heart of the retreat is Santani’s main pavilion, a striking yet understated glass structure perched above the valley. Built from a palette of concrete, timber, and steel, it seems to hover lightly over the landscape. Floor-to-ceiling windows on both levels dissolve the boundary between inside and out. Downstairs, you’ll find low-slung sofas, polished concrete floors, art and design books to read in one of the quiet corners while sipping on tea. A small bar is tucked off to the side—discreet but entirely welcome. For couples, it’s a thoughtful touch: one person may rise early for breathwork and herbal tonics, while the other prefers a sundowner before dinner. Both are held here.
Upstairs, the dining room opens out toward the hills, where mist often drapes the ridgeline-like fabric.
There’s also an infinity pool at the resort—set apart on the hillside, with uninterrupted views of the valley below, it feels less like a resort feature and more like a natural extension of the land.
The Spa: Surrender Mode Activated
Santani is home to Sri Lanka’s first tri-level spa, tucked into the hillside and shaped by its contours. At the top level, there’s a consultation space where you sit with an Ayurvedic practitioner or therapist and gently map out how you’re feeling and what could use attention. The middle level houses a steam room, a cedar sauna, and a salt bath warmed to 37°C, all open to the surrounding greenery. On the lowest level, where one can only go with a therapist, treatment rooms are spaced along a quiet corridor, each one partially open to the jungle.
My first afternoon was spent unwinding into an Abhyanga massage—a traditional Ayurvedic therapy using warm herbal oils and long, rhythmic strokes. It began seated, with oil gently worked into my scalp, and flowed into a full-body treatment that left me dazed, calm, and quieter inside. Her hands moved as though smoothing out not just muscles, but static.
The second day brought a Shirodhara treatment—warm oil poured in a gentle stream across the forehead, over the third eye. The treatment follows another massage and is said to reset the nervous system, balancing the body’s energies and calming an overactive mind. Whether or not that’s what happened, I left in a state of deep stillness, a kind of internal quiet I didn’t realise I’d been missing.
After each treatment, I lingered to enjoy the steam room, the salt bath and time on the spa lounge daybeds, sipping herbal tea and watching the wind move through the trees.
Yoga in the Clouds
Yoga is offered daily at 7am and again at 4.30pm in a pavilion near the spa—a serene space that seems to hover above the forest canopy. The morning session is designed to be more active, while the afternoon class invites a gentler pace. Both are led by Rahul, a teacher from Kerala, whose approach is gentle yet purposeful. No playlists, no gimmicks—just real yoga: breath, movement, and the ambient sounds of the jungle. The practice was slow and intentional, but more physically demanding than expected—a pointed reminder of how long I’d been tethered to a desk. One morning, a monkey paused to watch us from a nearby tree, then disappeared into the branches with an effortless leap.
The Food: Gourmet Wellness That Surprises
Here’s what I didn’t expect: the food at Santani is exceptional.
Meals are guided by the Ayurvedic principle of Rasa Haya, which balances the six tastes—sweet, salty, sour, bitter, pungent, and astringent—to reduce cravings and support digestion. That sounds theoretical, but in practice it just means that each plate is complex, satisfying, and beautiful.
Dinner on my first night was a Sri Lankan-style thali: black beef curry, chickpea dhal, root vegetables, red rice, and fiery sambol. Dessert was a green tea crème brûlée—a perfect balance of earthy and indulgent. Breakfast began with fruit and herbal tea (mine: lemongrass and ginger), followed by homemade granola with buffalo curd and stewed fruit, and then eggs with sautéed mushrooms and tomato. Even the jams—served in tiny glass jars—were made in-house.
Lunch one day featured grilled prawns with black rice risotto and pineapple soup. Another afternoon, I was served a cup of beli flower tea, brewed from the sun-dried blossoms of a native tree with calming properties similar to chamomile. A shard of jaggery came alongside it—palm sugar not meant to be stirred in, but nibbled between sips. “Drink, then bite,” the staff told me. A ritual in a cup.
And yes, wine is available if you’d like it. “We do leisure as well as wellness,” one staff member said with a smile.
Not Just Spa Days and Yoga Mats
For couples travelling together—especially when one is more wellness-inclined than the other—Santani offers a rare middle ground. While one half is blissed out in a Shirodhara treatment, the other can explore the grounds, lounge in the salt bath, or simply read a novel in the shade with a pot of tea.
There are guided walks to the Hulu River, and for those staying longer, a full-day “waterfall hunting” excursion that visits five remote cascades with a picnic lunch. There’s also a visit to the nearby Werapitiya hanging bridge for those on a seven-night stay—a quiet reminder that even here, where the pace is slow, there’s still a world to explore.
And if one of you just wants to turn up for the meals and sleep like you haven’t in years? That works too: Santani doesn’t preach.
The Human Touch
One of Santani’s most consistent luxuries is its people. From the restaurant staff who remembered my tea order after one meal to the security staff member lighting the path back to your chalet.
A Reboot Without the Hard Reset
I stayed with Santani on their Spa Getaway Package, which included:
- A private Mountain View chalet
- Three gourmet meals each day
- Two 90-minute spa treatments
- Two yoga sessions daily
- Unlimited herbal teas and fresh juice
- Full access to spa facilities
- Optional nature walks and excursions
But more than what it included, it was what it left behind that mattered: space. Space to hear myself again. The kind of silence that feels rare in this busy world. Restorative space.
At night, I slept lulled by rustling leaves and the sound of the forest. When I stirred at 4am, I noticed the silence, brewed a coffee and prepared to watch the sky shift from indigo to silver as I welcomed a new day. By the end of my second day, I felt more rested than I thought possible in only two days, a person who remembered to breathe and was ready to leave all of those deadlines behind and focus on the week I had ahead of me in Sri Lanka with my husband—rare, precious time to be together in beautiful Sri Lanka with no distractions. And that, in the end, might be the most romantic outcome of all.
Discover more or book your own reset at Santani Wellness Kandy.
