The Best Beaches in Sri Lanka

So, we spent the last week of 2018 in the tropical paradise that is Sri Lanka. Our trip was a fairly short one – and was a combination of wildlife safaris and beautiful beaches. I will talk about the safaris in a later post. For now, let’s focus on beaches.

Now Sri Lanka has a lot of beaches, it is an island after all. So, we selected a particular portion of the coastline and did quite a bit of beach-hopping. Which leaves me ideally positioned to tell you the best beaches to visit in Sri Lanka (south and south west coast).

First up, here’s a map of Sri Lanka that you can use to map the places I am talking about to its destination.

We approached the Sri Lankan coastline from the eastern end driving down from Yala. Technically, our very first glimpse of the sea was during our safari in Yala National Park. The coastline there is stunning, but because we were on a safari, we didn’t have the time to hang there.

Tangalle

Driving from Yala, the first significant beach we saw was Tangalle. Tangalle was originally a small fishing village, and fishing is still the main income for many of the locals. Tangalle suffered grievously from the tsunami in 2004, and rebuilding has been very slow. The beach we saw at Tangalle was not exactly packed with tourists and was very peaceful. It’s also quite possibly the most beautiful beach we saw.

Snubnose and I wanted to spend some time here. However, K and Piglet were dog-tired after our morning safari in Yala and weren’t inclined to get out of the car. There will be better beaches further on, they said. Our cab driver looked at us as if we were nuts.

Our cabbie was right. Although the later beaches were beautiful, they didn’t really match up to the beauty of Tangalle.

Mirissa

Mirissa was our halt for the next couple of days. This place is known for whale watching, and that’s why we opted to stay here. But there were so many mixed reviews on the internet that I started having second thoughts. What if we spent hours on boat and didn’t see anything? How about if the sea was rough and we got seasick? Eventually we decided to scrap whale watching, and just do some water sports in the area.

This turned out to be the best plan. Our inn keeper was super-helpful in terms of recommendations and pointed us to the Mirissa dive center (my review of it here). We spent the whole morning scuba diving and snorkeling and had the best time.

After our diving and snorkeling adventure, we moved on to Secret Beach, which was another magnificent experience. Secret Beach is a little hidden gem just around the corner from the main beach in Mirissa. I wouldn’t call it a secret beach as such (after all it’s searchable by Google), but it is still fairly secluded. The road leading up to the beach is winding and extremely narrow (so beware if you are going in a cab, only a tuk tuk can manage it). You then have a longish climb to get down to the coast.

But once you get there, my my my!

The great thing about the Secret Beach is that you don’t have to pay an entrance fee. Instead, there is an established beach bar where they will try to sell you drinks and food. They also have snorkel sets and day beds for rent for 500 rupees. However, it is not mandatory for you to buy their services in order to enjoy the beach. Nor do they guilt-trip you if you don’t buy.

We had a blast swimming in the tidal rock pool in the beach. It’s perfect for a lazy swim without the disturbance of crashing waves.

Also, the sunset from Secret beach is amazingly good.

I don’t have a better sunset picture to share with you (because I am so lazy, and have yet to download and edit all my pics), but I think this is good enough to convince anyone that Secret beach is a must-visit.

Weligama

Weligama is a lively fishing town. We drove through it without stopping because we wanted to visit the beautiful beaches in Unawatuna instead. While passing through, I saw lots of surf schools and surfers on the beach. I loved what I saw of Weligama , and if we had one extra day, I would have liked to stay and try my hand at surfing.

Our driver told us this is one of the best spots for surfing (another is Arugam Bay) especially if you are a beginner. Definitely a spot I need to earmark for another visit.

Unawatuna

Unawatuna is the ultimate beach town. It has three pretty famous beaches. The main Unawatuna beach strip, Jungle beach, and Wijaya beach.

Wijaya beach is famous for its huge giant swing that you can climb on to and swing over the ocean. Unfortunately, our cab driver didn’t seem to know it at all. We went back and forth multiple times trying to find the place on our Google maps before ditching it and heading for Jungle beach.

Jungle beach is a bit hidden so a lot quieter than the main beach. It’s about a 10-15 min drive from the center of Unawatuna town. You go up slope, and stop in what looks like a jungle (hence the name), and then climb down a steep cliff to get to the beach.

Yes, this beach (and Secret beach) is not the least bit accessible for people with disabilities. I hadn’t really dressed for a trek and I found the climb somewhat difficult in my flimsy flip-flops.

But once we reached the beach all hot and sweaty, all discomfort just vanished from my mind.

This was the best beach for swimming in my opinion. The sea was warm and calm. I found the sand unbelievably soft (it felt like Kinetic sand). We spent a couple of hours there, just loving the feel of the sun on our limbs.

This was also the last beach we visited.

As we continued our drive toward Colombo, we were less impressed by the coastline. The best beaches on the west coast seem private (except at Hikkaduwa, which is great for water sports).

Beach Summary

So to summarize, this blog post is a list of beaches we visited and were impressed by. All the beaches featured are in south Sri Lanka and are easily accessible by day trips.

Keep a base in Mirissa or Unawatuna, and you should be ideally placed to visit all these beaches and be back at your hotel by nightfall.

Have you visited Sri Lanka? Do you have any beach gems to share with me?