10 unmissable beaches on Sri Lanka's South Coast

Byioana.ferdoschi

Is Sri Lanka a beach destination? YES!Definitely yes!

It can only be visited for the heavenly beaches it enjoys and you won't go wrong. Of course, I highly recommend following our itinerary and getting to the center for the culture and scenery. Most of the beaches are wild, with huge waves and impressive palm trees surrounding them. They are not crowded at all and there are beaches to suit all tastes, with plenty of activities, the most common being surfing. And the Indian Ocean water is very warm, with waves for all swimmers and extremely rich marine life

How did we get here and how long did we stay?

After an extremely busy week full of culture and adventures, we decided to dedicate our last 7 days to relaxing at the beach. So we split our stay on the south coast into two main places, and from there we went exploring by scooter. The first 3 nights we stayed at Starlight Cabanas, very close to Tangalle beach. Then we moved in Unawatuna, for another 3 nights, at Birds Paradise Cabanas.

Just as we are used to, and this time the accommodations were far away from anything that means crowded and mega touristy. Both were peaceful, gave us a continual state of vacation and relaxation, we could hardly get out of there.

See at the end for my honest opinion of these two areas and which was my favorite beach of the ones I'll feature. If you want to see them in another format, click here for the video on Instagram.

Tangalle beach

  • extremely long (goes all the way to the town of Tangalle), wild, authentic, never crowded, waves a bit big (not sure how swimming is recommended), with some very nice small bars/restaurants
  • turtles can be seen laying eggs, and there are places where the eggs are kept safe and released controlled into the ocean (there is a fixed center on the beach that organizes these activities in exchange for donations...but, how ethical can it be to release baby turtles at 6pm daily? Or to look for the mother turtle laying her eggs with 10-20 other people around who don't have a red light on and stressing her out...we didn't participate, instead we searched on our own in the evenings for turtle tracks and if we were lucky to see any, fine. If not, next time)

Silent beach

  • very beautiful, like Tangalle in the waves, much wilder, even fewer bars, very authentic, there are a few accommodations on the beach, but they have not demarcated the area to make it private, 100% exotic scenery

Kudawella beach

  • Same authentic and wilderness vibe, only here it's a good surfing area, you can rent boards and there are instructors to help you. We didn't see too many bars around here and we found the beach a bit dirty, but not annoying

Hiriketiya beach

  • more of a cove where the waves are much quieter; much narrower and quite crowded; full of bars and small restaurants and places to rent surfboards
  • We found it a bit commercial and touristy, but the scenery is heavenly and has a nice vibe; the area near the beach is very western, the food more expensive and only souvenir shops with high prices.

Dickwella beach

  • stretched out on the part where the waves are bigger, but it also has a mini bay where all the restaurants and bars are; a bit narrow here and the water rises a lot in the afternoon, but the bonus is that here the turtles come very close to the shore and you can swim with them. There are also staff who warn tourists not to touch them or stress them, which is appreciated.
  • a common practice here: if you're going to eat at a restaurant on the beach, you don't pay for the sun lounger. And the restaurants invite you to join them, but they're not at all annoyed if you don't want to sit at theirs. After all, there's room for everyone

Rekawa beach

  • is very close to Tangalle beach, only in the opposite direction; basically the beaches are connected and you can walk to it. So the same authentic and wild scenery as Tangalle, well known for its turtles, but we don't know if we counted 5 accommodations near the beach. It's much more local

Goyambokka beach

  • although it's full of tourists and smaller, I didn't find it ultra-crowded or commercialized at all; it's the same vibe as the others, just more restaurants and it's safer to swim here. You can even rent a body-board and you'll have a great time

Coconut Hill beach

  • after you get down from Coconut Tree Hill (which, from my point of view, is worth a stop, although I have heard different opinions: the scenery is very beautiful towards the beaches and the area of Mirissa, the idea of a reddish hill with a few palm trees towering very high seemed to me a typical image of an exotic island) you'll find this little beach.
  • you have the view right at Coconut Tree Hill, you don't have a sun lounger or a place to leave your things because the water goes up to the wall, but you can stay for an hour for snorkelling and the view is really beautiful

Mirissa beach

  • is perhaps Sri Lanka's best-known beach, it's touristy but also beautiful; you can hire body-boards, although the waves are much calmer here than at the others. The food is Western and more expensive

Koggala beach

  • the most beautiful sunsets I've seen here, the sun can be seen just as it goes down into the water, it's full of locals in the evening, there are a few more rustic bars here, I didn't see many sun loungers, and the waves are a bit big. I thought it was a bit muddy, but there were people cleaning up.

Quiet beach - bonus no 11

I also come with a bonus beach, which has nothing special in terms of scenery compared to the others. But here I caught an activity of the locals that I never thought I'd have the chance to see: we caught them collecting the freshly caught fish and bringing it to the beach, and the boat left for the next round of fishing. There were the two of us and probably the whole village nearby! I loved it so much that I didn't even look at the beach anymore, I was super attentive to the people, how they interacted. It's very close to the Rekawa beach, but I don't know how often it happens what we caught, but you can heed the recommendation at least for a quiet walk.

Recommended restaurants

How did I find this area? PARADISE! I felt at home, I was very local, especially on the beaches mentioned.

As areas: I highly recommend the Tangalle area, it was gorgeous, prices extremely decent, food fresh and tasty (the fish was amazingly well cooked) and really clean on the beach compared to what we found on the streets or in the tea plantations.

I loved the accommodation in Unawatuna, especially because it was like being in the jungle, we had cats, monkeys, squirrels, lots of birds and huge lizards. But as for the beaches...very, very commercial everything. We went to two nearby beaches and didn't like them at all: too touristy, very high prices, you paid one price for scooter parking at 9am one price and at 12 noon it was double that...the turtles were extremely stressed because the tourists were like a zoo on them, the food left something to be desired. Maybe better pick Mirissa or somewhere else.

Let me tell you which one I liked the most...actually I have a top 3

3 – Silent beach - wild and authentic
2 - Tangalle beach - first impact with the fascinating beaches from here and the most beautiful sunrise we have ever seen
1 - Goyambokka Beach - because we had super fun body-boarding like 2 kids and it was more about us

But Tangalle and Goyambokka are two beaches I would definitely go back to! What do you think, have I convinced you with these beaches? Follow me for more unique places and travel itineraries!

If you want to see the listed beaches, check out this video below :)

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  1. Pingback: Itinerar Sri Lanka: 2 săptămâni de explorare și atracții esențiale - Travel Tales with Ioana

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