Luxury Travel Insider
(Rerun) Resplendent Ceylon | Owner, Malik Fernando: 50 Shades of Green, Sri Lanka's Stunning Diversity, and An Accidental Hotelier
Our guest today is Malik Fernando, Founder and Managing Director of Resplendent Ceylon, a collection of luxury boutique hotels in Sri Lanka.
It’s hard to even call Malik’s properties hotels. They’re more like beautiful places to rest your head wrapped into a full on experience of living life and diving into Sri Lankan culture. From the palm fringed shores of Cape Weligama, to relaxing on a working tea plantation in the mountains, to being on safari at Wild Coast Tented Lodge - you can’t get more immersed than this.
Malik’s father is a famous figure in Sri Lanka, having founded Dilmah Tea which is exported to over 100 countries around the world. When Sri Lanka opened up to tourism, Malik noticed an increasing number of tea drinkers reaching out to ask to come visit… so he renovated some bungalows and invited them to come along.
Today his 3, and soon to be 4 hotels are the top luxury options in the country.
Malik and I discuss why Sri Lanka is such an underrated destination. He also tells insider stories about the building of the lodges, their passion for community development, and why true luxury is about feeling pampered AND being immersed in the local culture.
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