Not that long ago, we had an opportunity to visit the magical island of Sri Lanka...and we still feel the incredible energy and the vibration that we absorbed during our two-week exploration of Sri Lanka’s incredibly diverse and impressive wildlife and nature.
Sri Lanka is quite possibly one of the most beautiful destinations we've ever visited.
Sri Lanka is an island located in South Asia, just a bit southeast from India and a bit northeast from the Maldives.
Its unique geographic location and natural wealth made it of great strategic importance from the time of the ancient Silk Road all the way to the modern times.
Being a land of many diverse riches such as spices, coffee, gold, gems, tea etc. Sri Lanka had suffered greatly as one of the colonial lands of the British Empire. The echoes of these horrifying times still remain…but many of the local people that we came across happened to be one of the kindest that we’ve ever met.
We have mentioned that Sri Lanka is located relatively close to the Maldives, but one shouldn't expect the same level of exotic solitude and crystal clear waters found on the Maldives.
Of course, this absolutely doesn't mean that Sri Lanka lacks in its own charm, impressive historical heritage and immense and specific natural beauty. Actually, it’s quite the opposite.
Sri Lanka represents one of the most important spots of biodiversity in our world.
Many endemic (land or sea) species are found only here. In addition to that, there are several and quite large natural parks such as Yala and Udawalawe where you can do elephant, bird and jaguar safaris - but more on that a bit later.
Once we start thinking about all these amazing things and wonderful moments, it’s very hard to choose a starting point in our tale about the wondrous island of Sri Lanka.
But since we are in fact talking about an “island”, where better to start than with the basic characteristic of any exotic destination: THE BEACHES.
THE BEACHES
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If you ever decide to go to Sri Lanka, you will probably read online or hear from your guide or travel agency that the best beaches in Sri Lanka are located on the southeastern part of the island. This is quite correct.
We had an opportunity to visit almost every beach in this part of Sri Lanka and the most famous ones are:
Negombo, Kalutara, Beruwala, Bentota, Hikkaduwa, Unawatuna, Weligama, Mirissa, Dikwella and Tangalle beach.
The most famous beaches on the east coast of the island are Passikudah and Arugam beach, which are great for surfing, especially the Arugam beach.
All these impressively long “gold” and sometimes almost orange like sand beaches have their own unique and specific beauty. But there is a definite difference regarding the activities and "the vibe" that each beach has to offer.
Our first “beach” encounter in Sri Lanka happened in Negombo, a small town located just a bit north from Colombo – the capitol of Sri Lanka. So this is where we will start to unravel the mystery of this distant and ancient land.
NEGOMBO TOWN/BEACH
Negombo town is located in the middle of Sri Lanka’s east coast.
Negombo represents one of the most largest and most popular cities in Sri Lanka and the town is very well known for its centuries old fishing industry. For all you early birds out there, the main fish market opens around 6am and it’s a must for all passionate fish eaters.
The city is quite westernized and has many exclusive resorts and really good local and international restaurants.
It also has a huuuge sand beach stretching for miles. Here you will find many traditional fisherman catamarans (oruvas) and adorable stray dogs resting by the beach… Some of the fishermen may offer to take you on a fishing tour. Once we were offered such a tour, naturally, we’ve accepted it straightaway and had great time. Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to get any fish (because the tour was in the afternoon) but we DID manage to catch one snake – so our fishing expedition was a success!
As the catamaran takes you further from the shore the water gets much clearer and you can go swimming. The fisherman can even hand you a rope and let the catamaran pull you as you enjoy the warm Laccadive Sea.
These kind of boat tours are perhaps a best way to explore Negombo beach.
Upon our arrival, we were really and sadly surprised when we noticed large piles of trash as we went down the beach.
Unfortunately, we’ve learned that Sri Lanka has a huge problem regarding its poor sanitary condition.
The luxury resorts have, of course, cleaned the small areas of their part of the beach but the rest of this really large beach can get quite dirty – which is an incredible shame.
HIKKADUWA BEACH
Hikkaduwa is a wonderful beach located in the southeast part of the island, just a bit north from Unawatuna beach. This beach has great but quite challenging waves thus making it a great place for more experienced surfers.
The beach got famous in the backpack comunity during the 70’s and has still remained as one of the most favorite and beautiful beaches in Sri Lanka. In spite of its popularity, Hikkaduwa still has a really calm vibe to it and it’s a perfect place to crash after a long day of surfing or inland exploring.
This part of Sri Lanka’s Laccadive Sea is crystal clear and the water temperature is just perfect, almost like swimming in thermal pool. There’s a coral reef relatively nearby and turtles are said to be easily spotted in these waters. You can also visit the Hikkaduwa Turtle Hatchery just a bit north from the beach. This is where baby turtles are nurtured and hatched in captivity before being released into the sea.
For those interested in surfing, renting a surf board is about 5$/1h. Private surf lessons are about 20-25$/1h.
UNAWATUNA BEACH
About 30min. ride down south lies Unawatuna beach which is, according to many, the most famous beach in Sri Lanka. Many different types of accommodation densely surround the banana like shape of Unawatuna beach thus forming a small town split in two parts by one main road.
Unawatuna beach had suffered greatly after a devastating tsunami impact back in 2004. After the impact half of the beach was gone but the town was quickly rebuilt and all of the hotels and apartments are functioning properly.
There’s a large number of restaurants and beach bars that turn into night clubs as the sun goes down- transforming Unawatuna into a perfect place for nightlife enthusiasts.
We decided that this beach will be our “base point” due to its perfect strategic location in southern part of Sri Lanka.
The beach itself was nice but, in our opinion, it was way overcrowded and had many tour boats that made constant and irritating noise. We remember the omnipresent smell of boat gasoline as we went for a swim and we also noticed several boats almost hitting some people that were swimming in the bay, even though it was a swim friendly area.
The good thing about this beach is that it has many options regarding the accommodation.
During the high season (winter months), it’s possible to find really nice double bed rooms for only 30-40 euros per day that are located almost by the beach. Of course, you can find much cheaper accommodation among many different guesthouses located a bit further from the beach.
If you plan on staying somewhere in Unawatuna beach, renting a scooter is a really good idea because then you will have a much easier time exploring many nearby and wonderful beaches such as Hikaduwa, Marissa, Tangale, etc.
NOTE: I would have posted more photos of Unawatuna beach, but I lost the SD card where I had them.. Check out this link if you would like to get an impression of how this beach looks like.
WELIGAMA BEACH
Weligama beach is located some 23km east from Unawatuna beach.
It’s a really long sand beach and it has almost the same “banana” shape as Unawatuna beach.
The sea isn’t so clear in this part of Sri Lanka, but the beach got widely popular thanks to its specific surfing conditions.
This beach is perfect for beginner surfers as it has relatively small waves and shallow sea.
The waves usually brake far away from the shore – which is perfect for newbies as they have time to calmly prepare and adjust their position before the waves reach them.
Weligama beach is truly a place to be if you are determined to learn how to surf and happen to be in Sri Lanka!
There is a huge number of surf rentals standing next to each other in almost each and every part of the beach. This beach is also a perfect place to polish you bargaining skills as you will constantly be “attacked” by the local surf boys that will give you “THE BEST POSSIBLE OFFER”.
Like we’ve mentioned before, renting a surf board is about 5$/1h. Private surf lessons are about 20-25$/1h. But the competition is much higher in Weligama beach then in Hikkaduwa or any other beach, so it’s possible to find surf boards for as little as 3$/1h and private surf lessons for 15$/1h.
Be very careful in taking the private surf lessons as the local "instructors" sometimes don't speak any English and some of them just tend to leave you all by yourself after they finish with their 5min. "lesson".
If you manage to stick trough the hard and challenging beginning part of surfing and find a way to stay on that surf board and feel the wave – you will experience a totally new and deeply profound level of freedom and AWESOMENESS!
MIRISSA BEACH
We left Weligama beach as real surf pros (almost, lol) and kept heading along the southeast shores of Sri Lanka and have arrived at our next stop – Mirissa beach.
This beach is quite similar to Unawatuna beach but it’s waaay cleaner, more calm and less crowded then Unawatuna. It is possible to do surfing in Mirissa beach and the waves are said to best during the early morning hours.
Thinking about and comparing some other beaches that we’ve visited before coming to Mirissa beach, we could describe this beach as some sort of mixture of Hikkaduwa, Unawatuna and Weligama beach. This mixture makes Mirissa beach the most “complete” beach in Sri Lanka and we found out that many people would mostly agree.
But what makes this beach so special is the possibility to go whale watching.
We found out that the best time to do whale watching is usually from mid-December until the end of March. Some of the whale species spotted near Mirissa beach include: Blue whales, Sperm whales, Fin whales and Orca. With a little luck, it’s also possible to spot several different species of Dolphins and turtles.
There are many whale watching tour agencies all over the beach and we just couldn’t wait to book our very first whale watching experience.
We must say that we took the advertisement bait completely and became hypnotized by the billboards displaying large numbers of whales circling around few boats – a true and complete exotic experience, right ?!
But when the day of our tour had arrived we found out that there were at least 12 more boats departing at the same time and heading at the same spot for whale watching… Some of the boats were making so much noise and were polluting the sea with engine oil that we couldn’t help but feel that we made a really big mistake in choosing and therefore supporting this type of whale watching.
Looking at all that rusty metal and noise that we humans were making made us think just how bizarre of a species we are. How our glorious technology impacts and damages the world and life around us. As we approached, the whales probably must have thought to themselves “Great, here we go again…and just when we thought that we’ve seen the last of these ignorant fools”.
Seeing this many noisy boats moving as a group, we were almost certain that any living creature would avoid us. We were wrong. Suddenly and out of nowhere a huge fin had emerged from the deep sea followed by a glorious splash before it disappeared. The same scenario repeated several times and each time the whales were being spotted further and further from our cluster of metal and rough engine sounds. The fin was the only part of blue whales that we saw but that was more than enough to make us incredibly happy.
Coming back from this tour we felt a strange mixture of happiness and sadness. At one point you feel extremely happy that you have an opportunity to be so close to these truly magnificent and impressive creatures, but then you also feel sadness upon realizing that the majority of this creatures are facing extinction due to our destructive influence.
It would be so great if tours such as this could be organized via already mentioned traditional catamarans (oruvas). In this case three would be no sea pollution whatsoever and it would treat the incredible marine life in a much more meaningful and respectful way.
CONCLUSION
According to our personal experience, we may say that it’s absolutely true that the best beaches in Sri Lanka are located in the southeastern part of the island.
We had a wonderful time exploring all of these beaches and we really miss our long walks across the warm “golden” sand along the distant shores of Sri Lanka… We miss being drifted away in the warm Laccadive Sea…and we certainly miss riding its waves.
As we were moving from one beach to the other, we discovered many wild and “no name” beaches.
These beaches were a perfect example of true exotic solitude without a single soul to be found miles and miles along the way…except, of course, some giant sea turtles which occasionally payed them a visit.
We came across some other beaches as well (Bentota, Kalutara, Tangalle, Dikwella etc.) but we didn’t have enough time to properly explore these beaches as we were slowly preparing to go deeper into this wild and ancient land – a story to be continued in our next article about the mysterious land of Sri Lanka.
I hope that you enjoyed reading this article as much as I have enjoyed creating it.
All content in this article is my original work.
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See you out there!
Love,
Damijan