Sri Lanka’s Overlooked Coastline

Sanjeewa Padmal (Seerendipity)

4 years ago

Sri Lanka’s overlooked coastline

Sri Lanka is popular for palm-fringed beaches, turquoise water, and gold-coloured, wide shoreline, Sri Lanka’s southern seaboard offers everything that a paradise can offer—sans crowd.

Sri Lanka – the word brings to mind the salty sea breezes, aroma of dozens of spices, and the mild taste of the world’s best Tea. Floating in the electric waters of the Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka has become synonymous with beach holiday spots and honeymoon hideouts. But only a few beaches in Sri Lanka have been able to sneak into the mind of travellers around the world. Bentota Beach, Hikkaduwa Beach, Unawatuna Beach, Mirissa Beach are some of the popular beach holiday destinations in Sri Lanka. So wide is the appeal to these popular beaches that only a few travellers ever pause to consider that there might be more places for beach life in Sri Lanka. But for those in the know, the beaches in southeast Sri Lanka have everything that all other beaches of Sri Lanka offer, except tourists.

Beach Life

5 days Sri Lanka beach tour, Sri Lanka 2 weeks beach tour, Sri Lanka beach tour with safari, Sri Lanka 3 days beach tour packages, these are some popular trips of Sri Lanka. As you see most Sri Lanka trip packages include pristine beaches because most visitors to Sri Lanka like to enjoy the pristine beaches around the island.

When it comes to pristine beaches that are ideal for blissful hammock-lounging beach stays, the beaches on the west coast can teach the south coast beach a thing or two. Pretty much every beach on the western province and hamlets fronts tropical turquoise waters and gold-coloured sandy beaches, and in between are hundreds of other beaches that are frequented by only fishermen.

The west coast beaches of Sri Lanka can be very crowded especially from November to April, making you lay on the beach elbow-to-elbow with strangers. If you think the west coast beaches are too crowded for you, head to 140km south coast beach – it is not on the radar of most travellers and has a fraction of travellers of west coast beaches. The dark green coconut leaves and mangrove forests –interspersed with slips of golden sand, and a smatter of wildlife experience and old ruins — has a go-slow vibe that will seep under your skin.

Hiriketiya Beach

These South Coast beaches tucked away from 150 km from Colombo, need just 2 hours drive from Colombo. It is so easy to reach these beaches that are nestled in the deep south of Sri Lanka, you might feel that beaches in the deep south of Sri Lanka are only a stone’s throw away from Colombo, largely due to the newly opened southern highway. With the brand new highway, it takes only a fraction of time to reach tourist attractions in the south now compared to what we have spent to get there earlier.

The tranquil beaches in the south have an ideal combination of a dreamy Indian ocean vibe, comfortable accommodation as well as tranquillity. It also offers many interesting activities such as snorkelling, diving, surfing, boating, and many other saltwater activities and all fit for a one day trip from Colombo.

Kirinada Beach & is a remnant of the ancient city

The history of Kirinda goes back in time for more than 2000 years, it had been the ruling capital of southern Sri Lanka and had been a wealthy town with a harbour. Kirinda is the birthplace of one of the mightiest Kings of Sri Lanka, King Dutugemunu, who rescued the country from the grip of South Indian invaders way back in 2nd century BC. A part of the mighty kingdom had been unearthed by archaeologists in the recent past, while some areas are still under exploration. Kirinda is not only an important archaeological site but it also shows you the way to a tranquil beach stay.

Kirinda lies in the lap of one of Sri Lanka’s slowly decomposing ruined cities in southern Sri Lanka, with temples, stupas and many ancient constructions, the surrounding temples are believed to be resided by many thousands of Buddhist monks and some of them are still sheltering a large number of monks.

Sri Lanka’s best spot for wildlife tours, Yala national park is just a few minutes away from Kirinda beach look no further for an unforgettable wildlife experience along with your beach holiday. Yala national park safari is a Sri Lanka one day trip for most travellers on the south coast.

Old culture in Kirinda predominantly was built on Buddhist culture, here you still find the reminders of the rich Buddhist culture in form of Stupas, temples, ruined palaces and many other historical monuments by the dozen, as well as the pristine beach, delicious fish supper under the sun as a small fishing harbour with trawlers (multi-day fishing crafts), dancing palm trees, offshore coral reefs and a surfeit of happy, smiling locals.

Fascinating Wildlife

As far as I know, people are not coming to Sri Lanka for wildlife holidays, they are travellers heading to Africa to see the big five. But how about spotting a leopard family? turtles lumbering up moonlit beaches? acrobatic blue whales? Or teeth-gnashing troop of monkeys and flocks of gaudy birds? With world-class marine life experience, a fantastic roll call of birds and a couple of national parks (Kumana national park, Yala national park) Sri Lanka’s southern coast is no slouch in the wildlife department.

However, if nothing but a leopard or elephant will do, then make time to venture into the inland of Yala national park. This is the second biggest wildlife reserve on the island at 978sqkm, and its vast thorn bush-speckled forest is the very definition of Sri Lanka’s dry zone wilderness. Only a part of the wildlife reserve is penetrable for the visitors, there can be big congestion of safari jeeps at a time in the park making you feel that you disturbing the wild creatures.

However, the national park authorities have introduced a few rules and regulations recently to avoid a large concentration of safari jeeps in the park. The new rules are put into practice as the parks were reopened for the people after the Coronavirus lockdown. I do not have an idea of how would these rules and regulations tames the jeep drivers because I did not have an opportunity to visit Yala national park after the lockdown. But, the new rules to avert the sound pollution and disturbances to the wild creatures are certainly a welcoming message to all.