NorthGate Jaffna

Amazing hotel - it's located right next to the train station. The family room had a double bed and a single bed, all very comfy. The rooms have AC which is a must in Jaffna. Bathroom was also good with a large shower. Tea and coffee facilities are available in the room and water bottles are also provided, which are topped up each day. Rooms also come with a mini fridge. Staff were excellent, who provided us with a cool drink on arrival and a wet towel. The restaurant is also excellent - great selection for breakfast with all the main local dishes all cooked in the open kitchen. Can't fault the lunch buffet either, which consists of rice and several curries and sides and a dessert. The dinner at the hotel was again excellent with a great atmosphere and good menu options, and having tried both local and western dishes, I highly recommend it.

One slight downside would be storage - there wasn't a whole lot of space to store clothes, other than a closet which is a good size, but it could have done with more shelves. The TV didn't have a lot of channels, and the picture quality wasn't great for the channels that did work, but that didn't bother me too much as we didn't watch TV a lot.

Lovely welcome and spacious cool rooms, the restaurant was exceptionally good, make sure you have an evening meal there, the food, service and choice was outstanding. The curries were so good I asked for the recipe! Reception staff are very friendly and courteous. We did not have high expectations but they were exceeded by this hotel. The pool area allows for a relax at the end of the day too

The staff are very friendly. We made a last minute request at 9 pm for a makeup artist for the next early morning and they were able to get a contact and arranged for an excellent person. Food was great at the hotel

I would not recommend this hotel 😏 It’s trying to be a high end hotel but failing. It’s just a bit run down, everything is just a bit tatty. Beds were made with no blankets, the AC is either on with windy ice or off, there is no in between, lights flickering, dripping AC. Unfortunately the pictures are heavily filtered and do not reflect reality. The restaurant has had a face lift and is lovely - the rest of the property has just not been kept up, the toiletries provided were not labelled and not good quality. The pool water tasted really odd and walls around the pool were cracked and damaged needing a lick of paint. The first morning of our stay there was an incessant doorbell ringing along our corridor then a ring at our door and a male member of staff behind the door, who apologised when I opened the door and abruptly left. I wouldn’t have minded if it were a cheaper hotel, but at $650USD for a family of four for 3 nights I was expecting more. We had had much nicer accommodation outside of Jaffna for a fraction of this cost. We went for dinner at the Fox Resort which is a similar price bracket but on a completely different level (was fully booked when we were looking for Jaffna accommodation). The positive was the staff. They were all very nice and as lovely as they could be and the food was excellent, with a good breakfast. The young, sweet, keen waiting staff looked nervous and scared of their older supervisors in the restaurant, though. I've rated the hotel as fair rather than negatively as I do appreciate that Jaffna is only recently post conflict and staff are really trying hard, the poor upkeep/modernisation of the building is likely more a reflection of this.

As above.