Name: Primate Centre
Address: Smithsonian Field Research Station, New Town, Polonnaruwa, 51000 Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka, Polonnaruwa, Polonnaruwa, Polonnaruwa, 51000, Sri Lanka
Rating: 9

Air conditioning

Smoking areas

Smoke-free property

Newspapers

Express check-in/check-out

Garden

Private check-in/check-out

Outdoor furniture

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Non-smoking rooms

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Family room

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Linens

Mosquito net

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Iron and board

Laundry

Safe-deposit box

Luggage storage

Wake-up service

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Diet menu (on request)

Restaurant (buffet style)

Packed Lunches

Bottled water (at extra charge)

Meals

Internet access

Internet

Car rental

Transfer

German

English

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Tourist services

Bike rental

Hiking

Picnic area

Fishing

Sun Deck

Recreation

Offsite parking reservations required

Parking

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Pool and beach

Cycling

Sports

Family/Kid Friendly

Kids' TV Networks

Kids

Pets Not Allowed

Pets

Location

At the hotel

Room amenities

Sigiriya Slaf Base

Primate Centre

Polonnaruwa

child-bed

child-bed-fee

external-private-bathroom

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limited-time

lounge

treatment

no-window

bay-view

bosphorus-view

canal-view

city-view

courtyard-view

garden-view

golf-view

harbour-view

inland-view

lake-view

land-view

mountain-view

ocean-front

ocean-view

oceanside

panoramic-view

park-view

partial-ocean-view

partial-sea-view

partial-view

pool-view

river-view

sea-front

sea-view

street-view

sunrise-view

sunset-view

water-view

with-view

annex

basement

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not-guaranteed

wired-internet-access

smoking

sauna

duplex

safe

mini-bar

breakfast-for-1

breakfast-for-2

pets-allowed

wi-fi

kitchen

We throughly enjoyed our short stay at the Primate Center. During our time, we were paddled around "Bird Island", I took a cooking class with wonderful Nilu, we had a nighttime walk to see the Slender Loris, and we strolled among the monkeys at Polonnaruwa. The meals at the Primate Center rivaled those at luxury hotels. The room was comfortable and the staff exceptional.

A most fascinating 2 nights and 3 days at the Primate Center

Absolutely the BEST way for small kids to experience 'boring old ruins' of ancient kingdoms is to bring them to life by walking through them with local monkeys. Accompanied by Primate Researcher Mr. Sunil from the Smithsonian Primate Reserach Center which has been studying these monkeys for 45+ years, this tour is much more than simply a social media selfie post opportunity!  Both adults and kids learn so much. Mr. Sunil tailored his talk beautifully for the smaller kids ( who were obsessed with Monkey poop!) and showed us the incredible understanding that years of research have created between man and monkey. It's like having your very own Attenbrorugh experience! You realize just how amazing Mother Nature is.  Even if you are not a monkey nut like me, I would strongly recommend this tour as a truly unique travel experience.

Walk With Monkeys in Ancient Ruins of Sri Lanka

What a view from the front yard. The lake (Parakrama reservoir), an island with thousands of birds, sometimes elephants. Things to do - Monkey tours, Lorris tours, Boat ride to the Island. Only 5 km to the Archeological site. 
This morning three elephants were in the water 20 meters away from us. Then started swimming across the lake to the other side of the lake. 
Very tidy and clean rooms and washrooms. Friendly staff and great food. Homely atmosphere.

What an experience

We are a family of 5 with 2 tween boys. We had a fantastic experience in the Primate Centre and stayed at the Lodge for one night. The magic started with the night excursion to watch the loris. Though the price was a bit on the high side, the experience with Sunil and his assistant were superb. Sunil was very knowledgeable and patient with us. We spotted 4 loris that night.

Lodging was not luxurious as it is a research centre but very comfortable with the necessary essentials. Dinner and Breakfast were traditional Sri Lankan and wonderful.

We did the primate tour at the temple ruins the next day and Sunil's knowledge was impeccable. He did not rush us during the tour and encouraged our boys to be groomed by the macaques. The grooming experience made our boys' day!

We learned so much about the primates, all thanks to Sunil!

Memorable magical experience!

We participated in "Human Family Meets Monkey Family" offered by the "Primate Centre Lodge", a guided tour early in the morning during which we saw three different type of monkeys.

It was so great to get personal explanation of a guide about the three types of monkeys. The guide was very knowledgeable!

Our daughter loved it to be groomed by the monkeys

Human Family Meets Monkey Family

As day visitors to the centre we were guided by Mr. Sunil Rathnayake (Resident Manager) who gave an excellent account of the lifestyle and habit of the different non-human primates we observed. We also saw giant squirrels, hornbills, snake and interesting trees. He is an extremely knowledgable and patient man, who with the support of Samil, enabled us to see the different species. It was such a pleasure to spend time there and appreciate the stunning setting and scenery. Highly recommended. 

Amazing morning spent here

We have been two days in this primate center lodge and the experience has been great.
We did a night excursion to see loris and a day excursion to see different primates (langur, macaque).
Rooms are very comfortable and clean.
Staff is very friendly and food was very good.
Nice place to spend some days a learn what they do for the primates.

Nice experience 

Staying at the Primate Centre Eco Lodge is a unique and absolutely fantastic experience. It was a privilege to hear Dr Dittus discuss his extensive research into a population of toque macaque monkeys in Polonnaruwa spanning over 40 years and three generations of monkeys. We enjoyed visiting the monkeys in the Polonnaruwa ruins with Sunil, an excellent and incredibly knowledgeable guide who has worked with Dr Dittus for over 10 years. He knew many of the monkeys’ individually and described their social behaviour in detail and the differences between the macaques and grey langurs - it was a really fascinating morning. Vatsala Dittus is an incredibly warm, caring, welcoming and attentive hostess who went above and beyond to look after us during our stay. The rooms at the Lodge were spacious and comfortable and the food was delicious. I would highly recommend this experience to anyone travelling to Sri Lanka. It was one of the highlights of our trip.

Fantastic experience - highly recommended!

We booked a nights stay with 2 days of tours with the naturalists as we wanted to learn more about the macaque monkey and have a very eco-friendly way of visiting these animals that was not intrusive or abusive to the animal - this is very important to us when we are booking animal experiences.
Not only was the team wonderful, knowledgeable and extremely kind and friendly, our naturalist Sunil was amazing at explaining the interactions of the primates - including not only the Macaque but also the Langurs that live within the ruins reserve. He was extremely patient with us and allowed us to stay for as long as we liked to look at the monkeys and never tried to hurry us along. Sunil did both our monkey tours (we did the evening one and again the next morning) and both of the tours were different from each other and we learned so much in each. He has over 10 years experience and you can tell the monkeys know him, feel safe around him and he cares for them very much. We simply observed and followed the monkeys when they moved, they were comfortable and even inquisitive of our cameras and the lenses that they could see themselves in. 
The loris tour at night was great as it was amazing to see these endangered animals in the wild and again, we never disturbed them, only observed. 

Lastly the accommodation was beautiful and the team at the centre were also wonderful. The room we stayed in was clean, spacious, quiet and nestled in nature. When I saw a kitten there and mentioned it to one of the beautiful staff they went out of their way to bring her to me for a cuddle (Maggie, the local kitten at the centre).
Vatsala and Wolfgang were extremely gracious, friendly and knowledgeable hosts and coming from biological backgrounds both my partner and I had great discussions with them both about animals. 
You can tell they are passionate about the welfare of these creatures they have studied for over 40 years and it was so amazing to see such a well put together and well run, thorough research facility.

The only downside for us is that we couldn’t stay longer!!! 

Thank you all so much and we look forward to coming back when we next come to Sri Lanka!

An experience we will never forget!!

Situated alongside the lake an outbuilding provides a great escape into real nature. The caretaker also does guiding in the Polonnaruwa site where 3 kind of monkeys live. The many years of research already gave lots of information which the guide loves to share during 2 hours morning or sunset observations. The guesthouse food is prepared by the guides wife and is very good. The rooms are spatious and very clean. Last morning I did an optional boat ride to birds Island and I was so lucky to come close to swimming elephants as well. This place is a real treat.

Primate Centre

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