"Pros: Staying at Thanamal-Villa was one of the two best decisions we made in our entire eighteen-day holiday. Right from the beginning the booking had a good "feel" about it... we wrote and asked the proprietor (Prasad) about schedules of public transport from Ella, and he instantly wrote back offering to take this chore off our shoulders (of course, we didn't let him do that, but maybe we should've, as the arrangements we finally chose involved having to deal with a company whose booking sheet was ambiguous and whose phones seldom worked). When we asked about safaris, Prasad offered to arrange that, also, and this time we DID allow him to go ahead, and couldn't have been more pleased with the result (and the price)... we explored Blocks V and VI, and never encountered more than four or five other jeeps (we did encounter a herd of elephants and a leopard, which we tracked for a full forty-five minutes). The accommodation Prasad offered us was quite unique: a private complex built around a tent and a thatched roof, reached via a small bridge over a stream, and looking at open grassland. We wound up eagerly extending our booking by an extra night, and on the second night there was heavy rain; the sounds, around our tent, of birds, frogs and other creatures celebrating the sudden arrival of the rainy season was an experience money couldn't buy. It was at Thanamal-Villa that we really felt that we were part of Sri Lanka! If you stay there, do make sure you take the tent option!" ~Alan