Club Oceanic essence of what an old fashioned beach holiday is all about

By Royston Ellis

If Club Oceanic didn’t exist, it would be impossible to invent it now. Built beside the broad strand of golden sand beach on Sri Lanka’s east coast, 4kms north of Trincomalee, it is an anachronism in today’s up-market boutique-hotel culture.
Over 30 years old - and thoroughly renovated post-tsunami - Club Oceanic preserves the essence of what an old-fashioned beach holiday is all about: affordable with good food, good fun, and no pretence. Its architecture is practical, its rooms comfortable; there are no interior designer flourishes that push the room rate into the stratosphere. That the Hotel Club Oceanic is officially graded as a two star property disguises its five-star charm.

Getting to this forgotten gem is easy now: a seven-hour drive on good roads via Habarana and a couple of efficiently run checkpoints. The scenery is impressive, especially along the bund of the Kantale Tank with water on one side and bright, fertile plains on the other. Grey rocks in the distance turn out to be grazing wild elephants and peacocks scamper across the road like chickens.
The road to Club Oceanic turns left outside Trincomalee on the way to Nilaveli and the entrance lane is clearly signposted. This leads to a gate where smart security guards welcome visitors who drive through the entrance garden, past a tennis court, to the hotel’s lobby. There is a glimpse of the sea beyond, a welcome cold towel and soft drink during the registration process at the reception desk.
The top accommodation is in one of the 16 beach chalets built in four blocks with balcony rooms upstairs and rooms with direct beach access from a private veranda on the ground floor.
These are spacious, floored with cooling blue tiles and furnished with warm-coloured fabrics. Each one is air-conditioned, with a ceiling fan too, and have a table and chairs for relaxing, as well as TV and mini-bar. The bathrooms have showers with hot water and soft, fluffy towels.
Forty other rooms are in the main block reached by stairs and corridors from the reception lobby. The only difference, apart from price, in standard and superior rooms, is the view: standard rooms overlook the garden while superior rooms have beach views. All are air-conditioned and have private balconies and attached bathrooms.
As well as its simplicity and dedication to sheer holiday, Club Oceanic differs from south and west coast beach hotels in its blissful tranquillity.
The only people on the beach are other hotel guests or teams of fishermen hauling in a great net with the practised steps of a chorus line. While there is organised snorkelling and diving available, lazy swimmers spend leisurely hours in the sea that, during the season of May to October, remains the same shallow depth for some 200ms from the beach.
There is a beach bar with stools at its counter, and a beachside piazza for snacks, between the sea and the hotel’s (now fashionably retro) swimming pool.
There is a kiddies’ playground at the other end of the park-like garden which runs down to the beach. For the energetic there is gym; for Internet surfers a cyber café; for shopoholics a souvenir and gem shop.
For wellness therapy the OM Ayurveda Spa has herbal baths, massage, reflexology for feet and palms, and natural oil or gel treatment for sunburnt skin.
It’s not just the infrastructure that is traditional, the eagerness of the hotel staff to please guests reflects genuine, old-style hospitality.
There is no fuss and staff members seem to be enjoying themselves as much as the guests. This shows in their positive attitude to requests whether it’s for jumbo prawns to be served in a beach chalet, or mixing a special cocktail not on the list. Menu prices, incidentally, are Nett, which means no extra taxes or service charge.
Meals are buffets with counters set up in an air-conditioned room adjoining the open-sided dining pavilion. And what buffets! Breakfast is a feast in itself with curries and traditional western fare. The famous signature dish of the hotel is a delicious Crab Curry, of which there seems to be an unlimited supply at lunch. On Saturday evenings dinner is served as a barbecue on the beach.
In another link with hotels of the past, the food at Club Oceanic is neither fusion nor pretention, nor is it outrageously over-priced. If the idyllic beach setting and the keen attention of staff weren’t enough to entice guests to take a truly relaxing beach break, the food alone could make a holiday visit to Club Oceanic memorable...and worthwhile.
Room rates from Rs4,700 for a standard double, room only, to Rs12,000 for a beach chalet for two with all meals. (www.johnkeellshotels.com)