Resplendent Ceylon founder Malik Fernando is creating incredible high-end experiences that have changed perceptions about travel to Sri Lanka.
We interviewed Malik to discover exactly why Sri Lanka is a great Indian Ocean destination. It’s a place for relaxed adventure, now also offering a level of luxury and comfort our clients demand.
Introducing Sri Lanka
In a 2018 interview with Bloomberg you said “it’s time to stop underselling Sri Lanka.” Do you still believe that?
The narrative then was of a war-torn country and I was highlighting that Sri Lanka has these amazing boutique hotels and experiences.
People still have concerns. Is Sri Lanka safe? Does Sri Lanka have luxury? Is it easy to get around? The answer to all of those questions is yes, but we’re not good at getting the message across.
Sri Lanka has everything. Mountains and trekking and waterfalls. Beaches and leopards and elephants. Vintage train rides. Tea plantations. Biodiversity. Culture. All on an island that’s smaller than Ireland or the Czech Republic.
Sri Lanka is really an underrated gem, we have a serious issue of poor destination marketing.
I’m doing a lot to profile the destination and help change perceptions. Our properties are getting good coverage in Vogue, Tattler, Conde Nast, obviously helped by the fact they’re Relais & Châteaux.
If I had a hotel in Paris or the Maldives it would be easier to sell because everybody knows the product. Sri Lanka is like a restaurant that has amazing chefs and bad marketing, so not many people discover the food.
What types of travellers are discovering Sri Lanka and your properties?
We have 120 rooms across five properties and we get a very cosmopolitan mix of travellers. People with good taste, we don’t get flashy or show off type of people.
Our clients are not oligarchs, they don’t flaunt their yacht on Instagram. Our clients are looking for authenticity, for something raw and unspoiled.
Sri Lanka is for people who want to appreciate true hospitality in beautiful surroundings, who care less about Champagne on arrival and want to actually connect with our culture.
Over recent years the average age of our travellers has dropped. Earlier it was more chairman of companies and so on, now with the wealth transfer to younger people we get a lot more young people.
When we started, a lot of guests were Brits. Now we have guests from everywhere. At Ceylon Tea Trails you meet a few other guests, almost like you’re at a friend’s home, people from London, Sydney, New York, all over.
The Story Behind Resplendent Ceylon
Your father founded Dilmah Tea, a brand that’s globally celebrated. You ventured into hospitality in 2004. Why?
When my father was selling tea he was selling Sri Lanka. There was conflict going on and Dilmah Tea was the flagship for Sri Lanka, it made Sri Lankans proud. They can find it as far away as Patagonia or when they fly on Emirates.
Showcasing the best of my country, whatever the product, was built into me by my father.
I saw these historic, somewhat dishevelled plantation houses on our tea estates and I thought why not restore them? Guests could stay and I could showcase Sri Lanka through tourism and tea.
Travellers came and loved it, so I fell in love with this whole tourism thing.
What do you remember most from the early days?
Some of the houses didn’t have roofs. There was cattle walking through what is now a Relais & Châteaux property.
I love design, I love travel, I had experiences from top hotels around the hotel. But I didn’t know anything about operations. My early memories were about fumbling for solutions and making every mistake in the book.
We had every wild idea back then, like delivering food with tuk tuks from a central kitchen. Soon we cottoned on to what the travellers wanted.
Our first property was Ceylon Tea Trails and I always think of it as an unhotel – no check in, no front desk, no room key.
The early days were all about one-on-one engagement with guests, incorporating their advice and continually improving. This still is our way.
Talk us through your evolution as a brand.
Tea Trails got us established and when the conflict ended in 2009 there was a lot of demand. It became the place to stay in Sri Lanka and was booked out a year in advance. It has become an icon and was the first Conde Nast Traveller Gold List resort in Sri Lanka.
All the feedback from guests led me to create a series of small-scale lodges, not big hotels, with this very personalised service across all of them.
We’re a family company, we have a passion for tea, tourism and Sri Lanka. We’re not private equity funded so I can only make one property at a time!
Cape Weligama is our flagship beach property. We started construction in 2012 and it opened in 2014. Cape is currently being renovated and will open in early December, reborn as the jewel of the southern riviera.
Then we started on Wild Coast Tented Lodge in 2014, opening it in 2017 to an amazing reception. It has 28 cocoon type tents in the middle of the jungle, great sloth bear spotting, elephants, leopards.
These three make up the main Resplendent Ceylon circuit: tea, beach and jungle, all Relais & Châteaux properties, the only ones in Sri Lanka.
In 2023 I opened two boutique properties, Ahu Bay and Kayaam House, under a new collection Reverie, both by the ocean on the south coast.
Now we’re developing a property in the cultural triangle and looking at another one on the east coast, to extend the Relais & Châteaux circuit with Resplendent Ceylon.
I keep them all independent, I don’t want a brand standardisation,. Each property retains its originality, so when you do the circuit you have this beautiful journey to unique places.
Which is your favourite?
My favourite is the one I’m working on right now!
Tea Trails is particularly special because of Dilmah Tea and the family connection. It’s where we started and it’s where everything slows down. It’s tea and chill.
Now I’m in love with Cape Weligama because we’re renovating, including adding a very special kids club called the forest school, plus a vibey beach club.
I’m not making five properties at a time, doing copy and paste. Here, small is beautiful, I’m making one at a time and thinking a lot about every detail.
Your Holiday in Sri Lanka
Malik, when is a good time to visit Sri Lanka?
It used to be that the best weather was between December and May, which is generally considered the best time to visit Sri Lanka. But honestly, Sri Lanka is a year round destination. The weather anywhere isn’t predictable like it used to be.
During May and June there’s some rain and monsoon. July and August are generally good.
Rain comes from the northeast in October and November, but it’s not impacting everywhere in the country. During the rainy season it generally rains at night. If there is a sudden shower in the daytime, the sun comes out soon after.
What does a day at a Resplendent Ceylon property look like?
Sri Lanka is a relaxed adventure. From walking the tea fields to leopard spotting there’s so much to do. It’s the prospect of adventure even if you decide just to relax.
It’s very easy to move around as well, whether by road or train or seaplane.
Each of our properties has 20 or so experiences you can do privately, you can choose them ahead or on arrival.
For Tea Trails you arrive by seaplane and land in front of your bungalow. You’re in a bungalow looking over emerald fields. You can have a tea experience each morning with our tea planter in residence, who shows you how tea is grown and processed.
Then you might do a kayak trip, walk with a naturalist, or just kick back, breathe in the fresh air, enjoy good company and food. It’s gentle, slow travel, you’re not pushed to do a ton of stuff.
To reach Wild Coast it’s a 30-minute flight, or a four-hour drive which stops at an elephant orphanage on route.
There you would do a game drive, like on an African safari, have nice sundowners on the beach.
At Cape Weligama you can just enjoy the gardens, ocean views and chill. Or you can be really busy, going into the towns, surfing, cinnamon plantations, whale watching ,low country tea estates, a historic fort with great dining and shopping.
All the properties are in beautiful settings, non-urban, non-congested, amazing views. You totally destress when you arrive, you can just enjoy the design and food and views. Or you can do more.
Is Sri Lanka more for couples or families?
Sri Lanka caters for each traveller group. About a third are families, 40% are couples, with solo travellers and bigger groups comprising the rest.
Sri Lanka is very much a family destination, we’re great with kids and our properties have lots of facilities for families.
We cater for the older crowd, younger crowd, culture lovers, wildlife lovers, beach lovers. We have everything.
When you move between our properties it’s like you’re travelling to different countries. They are so very different, as is their environment and surroundings.
Come to Sri Lanka and it’s like you’ve experienced a continent on a small island.
