Payments made by partners impact the order of prices displayed. Room types may vary.
The listings of booking offers for each property take into account the compensation paid to us by our partners. Prices shown may be for varying room types. Prices displayed are the lowest available, corresponding to the least expensive room type available, as provided from our partners as of the time of the user’s search.
Tripadvisor gives a Travellers’ Choice award to accommodations, attractions and restaurants that consistently earn great reviews from travellers and are ranked within the top 10% of properties on Tripadvisor.
Pepper is situated meters from Hiriketiya Beach. This property offers amazing ocean views from room balconies and the communal rooftop terrace. There are A/C and non-A/C rooms available, either King bedrooms & Family Room. Free surfboard rental for guests no a delicous breakfast included which is served at "Salt", the Sister property very close by. Yoga is on offer for guests at Salt.
Places to stay are graded on a 0-100 scale. The higher the grade, the easier it is for travellers to find restaurants and things to do within walking distance.
Before posting, each Tripadvisor review goes through an automated tracking system, which collects information, answering the following questions: how, what, where and when. If the system detects something that potentially contradicts our community guidelines, the review is not published.
When the system detects a problem, a review may be automatically rejected, sent to the reviewer for validation, or manually reviewed by our team of content specialists, who work 24/7 to maintain the quality of the reviews on our site.
Our team checks each review posted on the site disputed by our community as not meeting our community guidelines.
We enjoyed our stay, it was very close to the beach so easy to pop home during the day. We didn’t spend much time at the room as it was quite tiny, and the power kept cutting out so the fan didn’t work ( this wasn’t the hotel’s fault, it happens across the town). When it was working, it would continually switch from low to high, wouldn’t stay on high. It was always very hot inside. I was hoping for a more luxury feel, it doesn’t quite live up to the pictures online -eg I thought the balcony room would have a private balcony but it’s a table and chairs on a shared balcony that all the rooms are accessed from. And yeah, the rooftop area is still under construction but they have made efforts to make it comfy. We did enjoy using the facilities at Salt, taking the yoga classes, the breakfast, and cooling down by the pool. We ate there for dinner once and thought the food was great. Staff at both Pepper and Salt were friendly and courteous. Overall a good stay, just be aware that if you want more luxury in Hiriketiya you’ll need to pay a premium! At Pepper you’re really paying for the location.
Read more
Date of stay: March 2019Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Amazing location right next to the beach. The photos on airbnb make the rooms look more spacious/nicer than they are but you cant beat the location. Food at Salt is ok but there are plenty of amazing options close by too! I would for sure stay here again as the location is amazing and there is a beautiful rooftop.
Read more
Date of stay: February 2019
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Trip type: Travelled with friends
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Pepper is a few rooms off the main property “salt” which is a very short walk away. Salt is where you get breakfast, where reception is and yoga etc. This made for a very quiet stay at pepper but also gave it a clinical feel. The breakfast buffet at salt was great! The room was a pretty high standard and the views from the balcony are fabulous. Towels could do with some updating. However they seem to have gotten rid of the roof top bar to build more rooms and placed a pretty shoddy unfinished version above that which was pretty disappointing. However they have a couple of loungers up there and the view is awesome.
Read more
Date of stay: February 2019Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from salthouse2017, Manager at Pepper Hiriketiya
Responded 13 Mar 2019
HI there, Thanks for the kind words about Salt & Pepper. We hope to continue with more renovations and upgrades this off season, Lets hope for an even more fabulous property in late 2019!!
Read more
Report response as inappropriate
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Fantastic location but disappointed overall for the price. Couldn’t organise towels for our family each day for the beach and room - they were always at the laundry! Wifi average to bad. Breakfast was geared for adults (and was very good) but it was challenging for kids to find something other than pancakes. On leaving bill was grossly over charged despite what they had quoted in writing.
Read more
Date of stay: December 2018Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from salthouse2017, Owner at Pepper Hiriketiya
Responded 13 Mar 2019
Hi there. Sorry for the delays with laundry over the Dec period. We were very much struggling with water abnd power cuts in the village and surrounding suburbs over that period. We have now invested in a nearby property with a WELL so we can get a more constant supply regardless of Govt quotas! I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed our breakfast buffet. I hope that your bill was adjusted and corrected on your checkout. Regards Rob
Read more
Report response as inappropriate
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Initially we wanted to stay in this hotel for 5 nights and booked it because of the yoga lessons but we left after 1 night.
We stayed at pepper which is 5-10 minutes by foot to salt where the garden, the small pool, the breakfast/dinner area and the yoga lessons are. Pepper is just a building with rooms and a terrasse, no garden. We paid 70 USD/night which is very expensive for this poor infrastructure.
When we arrived it was rainy and the road from pepper to the beach and to salt was very muddy. There was no possibility to move into the pepper house. Another guest we met there did it after one night at pepper.
Further, the wifi did not work in our room (we stayed in the last room on the 2nd floor). We informed the reception and the reception lady said that they can’t fix it.
The room was clean, but very basic. In the bathroom the shower was open and located between the toilet and the mirror. When we took a shower the whole room was wet (incl. toilet).
Our biggest issue with the room were the insects. We had some in the room and a lot of them on the balcony. We could not turn off the light on the terrasse and due to that it wasn’t dark in our room, we could not sleep well.. The terrasse was full of insects during the night and the floor was totally covered with them when we woke up and wanted to watch the sunrise, it was disguisting. The floor was black and we needed to step on insects in order to get to salt to have breakfast in the morning..The hotel staff should turn off the light during night time. There was nobody of them around during evening/night hours at pepper and it was heavily raining.
We had dinner at salt and it was very expensive and nothing special. I would not call white bread with a few spinach leaves healthy food. It was rather fast food with a few healthy ingredients. The breakfast was similar: white toast bread with jam and a few spinach leaves. Not comparable with healthy European food.
We did not visit the yoga lesson but a guest who is practising yoga back home told us that the lessons are for beginners, very slow and nothing special.
This place seemed to be a good choice for Australian hipster surfers who appreciate the opportunity to rent surf boards for free to eat “healthy” food an do “yoga” and just to present themselves. We expected a place to relax and enjoy the beach and were disappointed.
Hikirentiya is very expensive for good food in general but has some plastic chairs on the beach and many local guys who watch the girls surf and swim.. As a woman I didn’t feel comfortable there.
If you’re totally into surfing and don’t care about rubbish on the beach, bad roads and high prices you might like the place. Australian beaches look so much nicer and are much cleaner, we didn’t understand why Aussie surfers stay there.
You won’t get a Sri Lanka experience there, not even the food is authentic..
There’s not much to do except of being on the beach there. If the weather is bad you can’t do anything. The pool at salt is tiny and rather for kids.
We hotel staff was the worst we experienced during our Sri Lanka trip, rather rude, except of the lady at the reception who ordered a taxi to Galle for us.
Read more
Date of stay: October 2018Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We really enjoyed our stay at Pepper. The location is unbeatable and it is quiet.
Pepper and salt are brother and sister accommodation, owned by the same Australian couple. There are pros and cons to staying at both...
Firstly, Everything is at salt house. Breakfast, yoga, meals, swimming pool, bar, coffee etc... this would make salt very convenient to stay, but for us, it is why we loved staying at pepper. It was only a 1min ' walk to salt, and we had all the benefits of being salt guests, yet we didn't have any noise from salt eg. the pool, people eating lunch etc, if we wanted some quiet for a nap in the day or an early night. pepper was quiet the whole time, whereas we were glad that we didn't stay at salt where there was a family of 5 with 3 young noisy kids around.
Pepper is not quite "finished" in its construction. There are two floors complete, and one to go, plus the rooftop needs finishing but was actually a place where we loved spending time. The fact that it wasn't finished didn't bother us (no building noise) but the place will be more complete once it is done as it kind of felt like the neglected sibling. This is only because its new. We loved spending afternoons and on the rooftop, as there were very few others guests around we always had it to ourselves. From the rooftop, the view of the bay is outstanding and we loved watching people surfing etc.
Breakfast was very healthy and tasty. Toast, pancakes, fruit, muesli and eggs as standard things, but then there were also so many healthy options like salads, spinach, health juices etc also at breakfast which really suited those mega healthy yoga people in the mornings. The lunch and dinner options were good, averaging about 1200rs for a meal, and all things we tried were very tasty.
Note, that not all rooms at Pepper are airconditioned and we nearly stuffed this up. AC is essential, its hot. Make sure you check. Our room was nice, with a large indoor bathroom, but had a very strange pillar right in the middle of the room which made moving around the room a little awkward...
Overall, we reckon we hit the jackpot by staying at Pepper and highly recommend that you do too!
Read more
Date of stay: September 2018Trip type: Travelled as a couple
Room Tip:Check if your room has aircon. Make sure you understand that breakfast, yoga etc is 150m down the...
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from salthouse2017, Owner at Pepper Hiriketiya
Responded 16 Oct 2018
Wow, thanks for all those complements. It means a lot to all of the team. Pepper is a great chilled out property and we plan to make the rooftop a real HIT this season....You're right; It has possibly the best views in Hirketiya! Certainly AC is preferred by me, and you're smart to mention that people should definitely check that before booking! Regards Rob.
Read more
Report response as inappropriate
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
We stayed at Pepper for a month and had a wonderful time there.
Pepper is a new hotel related to Salt. Both properties are owned by the same couple (Crystal & Rob). Yoga, breakfast and food generally are at Salt, which is a short walk from Pepper along the beach.
Salt / Pepper are in our view the best places to stay on the beautiful surfing beach of Hiriketiya.
The owners and the staff (shout out to Helen, Pepper’s manager, Melanie, at the front desk, and Ishara, on the restaurant team) really made us feel at home, were very attentive to our needs, and do a great job running the place! If you need anything (scooters, food recommendations, travel questions) - you’re in very good hands.
The hotel facilities were great too. The building at Pepper is new so looks great, with lovely views of the bay on the second floor and rooftop. Beds are large and comfortable (with mosquito net). There’s also a nice communal kitchen in case you want coffee, tea, or just want to prep yourself something (we made mango lassis!). Rooms are refreshed every day and kept very clean. The owners have a great vision and constantly improving the place - during our stay, they were building a swimming pool at Salt which will be no doubt a great addition. In Salt, there’s a great yoga studio and lovely courtyard to eat or work.
The restaurant at Salt is also in our view the best place to eat in the bay. Great vibe, great menu, really great food. Congrats to the chef & thanks to the staff for taking care of us! The breakfast buffet is excellent too.
The beach itself is lovely, good mix of young people, families, and locals. There is good surf for beginners and intermediates, though it tends to get pretty crowded in the water... Some pretty good restaurants on the beach serving seafood.
We’re probably forgetting a lot of things, but really only have positive things to say! Thanks again Crystal, Rob and all for a wonderful stay and time!
Read more
Date of stay: January 2018
Value
Rooms
Service
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from salthouse2017, Owner at Pepper Hiriketiya
Responded 6 Feb 2018
Thank you guys, for being awesome guests! A month in our little neighborhood has given you a great insight and we are so pleased you enjoyed it all. I will pass on your thanks to the team and I will miss our political chats...See you again we hope.
Read more
Report response as inappropriate
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
The beach is the best we’ve been to so far, small and secluded with great surfing and swimming.. the accommodation is very limited and most times heavily booked. We tried to get a room @dots but it was fully booked. They suggested Pepper at the opposit end of the beach.
There we got a family room. Firstly.. The staff were great and so friendly like people in SL in general.
The roomconsisted of a double and single bed and small fridge, bathroom, breakfast and nothing else. The breakfast wasn’t great and better options are available at surrounding cafes for less than half the cost they quite for their breakfast..
The air condition did not work properly due to low electricity voltage.. common throughout SL but most Hotels have backup generators... not Pepper. The fans could only just turn.. so picture hot and humid .. at night it was cooler outside the room.!
We were offered a discount for the inconvenience but even then the price was way over compared to what we have been paying so far. Room rate normally for a family room quoted US135 discounted to US100.
Average we have paid is US65 which provided great aircon.. really fast fans, fridge, bottled water and breaky.. rooms cleaned everyday.
Sorry Pepper but look at it as constructive criticism.. The problems are pretty easy to fix
Read more
Date of stay: April 2019Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Nice rooms near the beach but this place is in need of some TLC. We checked in at Salt and were taken to Pepper in the most decrepit tuktuk we had seen in Sri Lanka. This was a sign of the attention given to maintenance and repair. Although recently constructed, fittings are falling off the walls in the bathroom, the stairs leading to the rooftop lounge are unfinished and the furniture in the common areas is too old and worn to have been purchased for the property. It would not take much to make this a really nice place but someone has to pay attention and care otherwise things can only go downhill from now.
Read more
Date of stay: February 2019
Value
Cleanliness
Service
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Pepper is about 200m walk from the main Salt complex, you actually have to check in and out at Salt and also get breakfast there. The room is basic but the location is great. The building itself is not finished, if they get the rooftop area fitted out with furniture and even a bar (as inferred by the photos), it will be insanely good.
Read more
Date of stay: February 2019
Value
Location
Service
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
There are more places to choose from in the Dikwella area.
LOCATION
Sri LankaSouthern ProvinceDikwella
NUMBER OF ROOMS
6
Prices are provided by our partners for one room, with variable occupancy rules as provided by the property, and reflect nightly room rates, including all taxes and fees known to our partners. Please see our partners for more details.
Is This Your Tripadvisor Listing?
Own or manage this property? Claim your listing for free to respond to reviews, update your profile and much more.
