The water is warm, the sand is silky, and there are huge palm trees to read your book under. As far as we’re concerned, Sri Lanka’s beaches are exactly what a tropical island paradise should look like.
We have spent the better part of a month travelling the islands coastline. From the more remote upper east coast to the touristic south west, this country has a bit of everything. Something that unifies all of the beaches though, is how overwhelmingly great they are. Some were greater than others though, so here’s our run-down of the best.
Our first coastline stop was Trincomalee, on the north-east coast. We had not initially planned to come here (in fact, we didn’t even know about it), but our guesthouse host in Sigiriya (see Three Days in Sigiriya) suggested we go. There’s a train line that connects Sigiriya and Trinco directly, so it’s an easy two and a half hour trip through the dense inland jungle. The town of Trincomalee itself doesn’t have a great beach, but Nilaveli Beach and Uppuveli Beach beach are both within a
Nilaveli was definitely the remotest beach we went to in the whole of Sri Lanka. I won’t write too much about it here though, as it wasn’t the most amazing beach we went to. Despite being long, with tall palm trees and white sand, the waves were quite big. A small section of the beach has lifeguards, but it didn’t make for comfortable swimming. Around the corner though, is a truly epic little beach…
Marble Beach.
Marble Beach is a 30min drive from Trincomalee town. We rented a scooter, though this could easily be done by
The ‘tourist beach’ was practically empty and the water was warm with only the smallest of waves.
The next stop on the beach trail was:
Arugam Bay
This famous surf spot heaves with tourists in July and August, but when we travelled in March, the waves are smaller, and the surfers stay away. Baby Point, on the southernmost end of the beach, is perfect for swimming all year round. When we were there, the only people in the water were a few locals and the odd beginner surf lesson. By travelling in the low season, you can get amazing accommodation for a fraction of the high-season rates, and the food is still mercifully cheap (Blue Ocean and Hakeem’s Place being our top food highlights). The place has a quiet, chilled out vibe (complete with yoga classes and the odd smoothie bowl) without feeling inauthentic or tacky.
What’s more, Arugam Bay is situated just above Kumana National Park, which is also known as Yala East. This national park joins directly onto Yala, and the animals move freely between the two parks. Unlike Yala however, it’s not crowded with jeeps – when we did an early morning shared jeep (5000rs per person), we saw perhaps 5 other vehicles the whole time we were there. Which meant when we met a leopard, perched in an overhanging tree, it was an experience all to ourselves.
Arugam Bay was easy to reach from Trincomalee by bus. We stopped for one night on the way down in Batticaloa (another beach, but not worth writing about here). You can make the whole trip from Trinco to Arugam in one day, but you need to change buses and would be looking at roughly 6-8 hours in total.
After three nights in Arugam, it was time to head to Ella, and after that:
Talalla Beach
We hadn’t known about Talalla before we came to Sri Lanka – but after two rave reports from people we met in guesthouses, we knew we had to make our way there. And it did not disappoint. Talalla is situated between the more popular beaches of Tangalle and Mirissa, and can be reached by any bus heading to Matara. It’s a 1km stretch of pure heaven. Seriously. We’ve been to beaches in Raratonga and Fiji (and New Zealand, obviously) and this beach outstripped them all.
Silk-soft white sand, fluttery palm trees, warm swimmable water and endless space. There were a few wooden sun loungers out on the beach (they probably belonged to a resort) but because there were so few people there, nobody minded when we spent all day parked on them, reading our books. In fact, there were probably only six to ten other tourists on the beach at any time. We originally intended only to spend three nights here, but ended up staying for five nights. Each day was spent at the beach, alternating between sunlounger and sea, with dinner at one of the two small beachfront restaurants, plastic tables sprawled out onto the sand. A whole red snapper cooked in garlic and lemongrass set us back $9 NZD (6 USD) while we watched hundreds of bats fly overhead.
Finally, we ended up at Unawatuna – though Unawatuna beach itself is not worth writing home about. It’s grainy and crowded with overpriced restaurants. A 5 minute scooter ride from Unawatuna beach is:
Jungle Beach
Jungle Beach lives up to its name – it’s just a short stretch of white sand that’s surrounded by thick jungle. A coral reef is submerged just a few meters offshore, which gives the beach its reputation for excellent snorkelling.
We rented snorkel gear from Seahorse Divers (setting us back 1,500rs for the entire day, for mask, snorkel and fins for the both of us) and headed over to Jungle Beach for the day. There happened to be a lot of churn and movement in the water on the day that we went, which meant that the snorkelling visibility was low. We still managed to see a few tropical fish grazing on the leftmost edge of the reef. I imagine on a clear day though, that it would be beautiful.
There’s a small fruit shack on the beach, and lots of small nooks to lay your towel down. Be careful taking your eyes off your belongings through – the monkeys that live here are the boldest we saw in the whole of Sri Lanka, and have no problem going through people’s things.
30 minutes north of Jungle Beach/Unawatuna was the last stop on our beach trail:
The Turtles at Hikkaduwa Beach
Hikkaduwa is undoubtedly the most touristic beach we went to (we did not go to Tangalle and Mirrisa, though I understand they are the #1 and #2 tourist beaches respectively). There wasn’t any space to lay your towel and we breathed a sigh of relief that we had just scootered there for the day, and weren’t planning to stay.
The reason Hikkaduwa makes the hot list though, is the turtles. At the southernmost end of Hikkaduwa Beach, the waves meet in a kind of shallow choppy lagoon, and massive sea turtles hang out here to graze on seaweed. And you can just walk into the water and hang out with them. They largely seemed unconcerned by the presence of so many humans, and with strict signage not to interfere with them, most people are respectful. For those that weren’t, a local turtle guard was hanging out in the water, yelling at people who got too touchy. (Though I did get mad at the amount of turtle-touching that some people got away with – leave them alone guys.)
As this beach becomes more popular, I don’t know how much longer people will be allowed in the water with them. For the near future however, it’s a magical experience. By grabbing a handful of the matted green seaweed yourself, you can feed the turtles directly from your hand.
