We really liked the easy arrangement of Nisala, plus every room’s direct sea views and the fact that the villa’s open kitchen felt exclusively ours as the chef cooked all (Sri Villas) meals in the staff kitchen. There’s loads of space on the ground floor for dining and relaxing and this made up for the fact that its outside areas had less privacy than the other two villas. We had all three Sri Villas properties to ourselves on our visit, which was fantastic. I liked the fact that I could sit on the shady veranda almost dipping my toes into the shallow section of the pool, but wondered how the ambience would have differed had there been some little paddlers around. However, with its basketful of toys, child-friendly staff and a special kid’s menu, we thought this villa would be ideal for families with young children. Nisala’s location on a quiet stretch of beach that’s more popular with turtles than people was stunning. The houseboy assigned to our villa was very polite and helpful, as were the rest of the staff who took over the cooking, cleaning, securing and beautifying while we relaxed and topped up our tans on the terrace. The food was good (there was lots of choice), the smiles genuine and their experienced system of dealing with guests shone through. I liked that fresh juices were left in the fridge for us to help ourselves to (or brought to us in chilled glasses) and that we could order whatever we liked, when we liked. Typically guests choose to pay their food bills via a grocery system (staff doing the shopping and presenting you with receipts), which we did; however you could otherwise opt to pay $40 per person per day for full-board.