Orienteering

Taru Villas, Bentota, Sri Lanka A completely private getaway by the sea, on a beach with perfect weather - it's an archetypal dream destination. If it also happens to be inspiringly stylish and blessed with great service, it becomes somewhere you're tempted not to tell your friends about. Taru Villas is exactly that. Located just outside the town of Bentota and a three-hour drive from Colombo's international airport, it's the kind of place you can imagine staying for long enough to write a book.

Apart from the very tangible benefit of being affordable, Taru's convincing combination of style, sand and service make it worth the flight to Sri Lanka. But Taru Villas was discovered not by visiting sunseekers but by a cosmopolitan crowd from Colombo.

Nayantara Fonseka (better known as Taru) is a flamboyant creative figure in the Sri Lankan fashion world. For years, she and a few carloads of friends would make the two-and-a-half-hour trek from the city on a Friday evening to spend a relaxed, idyllic weekend on the coast. This became such a fixture in Taru's life that she pledged to take any opportunity she could to pursue her passion for the property and its location. One day it went up for lease - and that's how Taru got into the hotel business.

Even though the site itself was awkwardly long and narrow, the original architect had been clever with the use of space, and the buildings were arranged to avoid giving the impression of being in a tunnel. The villas, set along a single wall, are subtly oriented so that all of them face different directions. This ensures total privacy, and for guests it's like having your own house.

To this already successful establishment, Taru has brought her sense of style and hospitality. Taru Villas now has the colour, warmth and character that is so often lacking from an architect's disciplined vision. Walls painted a musty shade of pink are juxtaposed with plenty of white, and bright saffron yellow is combined with black and white (a traditional colonial Portuguese combination). More than anything, though, Taru Villas is a triumph of simplicity. It's not easy to make a place look good with very little, but that's exactly what Taru has done to distinguish this little bolthole on the beach. It's a blend of good choice of colour, interesting selection of furniture and the omnipresent avoidance of clutter.