In this post, we share all our favorite beaches on the south coast of Sri Lanka. In general, Sri Lanka has many beautiful beaches to offer, but those are the best beaches in Sri Lanka from our perspective and from what we know so far. Some of them are more touristy, but you can always find a beach which is quiet or which you can even have to yourself, something we appreciated a lot about Sri Lanka.
One more thing we like is that most beaches in Sri Lanka are clean. We hope this will stay that way, so please, if you visit a beach (no matter where you are in the world), don’t leave anything behind except for your footprints in the sand.
8 Best Beaches in Sri Lanka
Talalla Beach
When we arrived at the south coast of Sri Lanka, the first place we stayed at was Talalla Beach. It is a stunning paradise beach with almost no people. We stayed at Talalla Retreat, which is a lovely yoga and surf retreat with fantastic food, and we had a very relaxing stay there.
Tangalle Beach
Tangalle Beach is one of the beaches we liked the most. It’s a very long beach with many cute beach restaurants and accommodations at the beginning, and the further you walk to the end of the beach, you get to places which you can have totally for yourself. We liked that mix of having the beach to ourselves in the morning and later having a delicious lunch and some watermelon smoothies at a place somewhere close.
Hiriketiya Beach – best vibes of the best beaches in Sri Lanka
This little beach was one of our favorite places in Sri Lanka, mostly because of the vibes. There are a lot of surfers and many cute small restaurants along the beach.
Best beach town in Sri Lanka – Hiriketiya Beach
Secret Beach Mirissa – hidden gem of the best beaches in Sri Lanka
Unfortunately, we didn’t like Mirissa beach that much. It is a very touristy beach and very crowded. But in Mirissa, we loved the famous coconut tree hill as well as the so-called “Secret Beach Mirissa”. It is about a 20-30 minutes walk from Mirissa’s main beach, and worth the walk. When you get there, you’ll find a cute little dreamy beach. There is a small restaurant if you need food or a toilet. Also, a man is selling you coconut’s, which was all we needed.
Ahangama
We loved the beaches in the area of Ahangama. There are cute and small beaches which you can have all to yourself as well as also a bigger beach where you can go for a surf even if you are a beginner or you can just watch the more advanced surfers which are further out in the ocean.
The Kip Sri Lanka – Boho Hideaway in Ahangama
Weligama Beach
If you are a surf beginner, we highly recommend you to stay in Weligama. This is the perfect beach to learn surfing because the waves are very easy. There are many surfboard rentals at the beach where you pay only 0.50$ for renting a surfboard for one hour.
Celebrating surf culture at Ceylon Sliders in Weligama
Dalawella Beach – Our favorite of the best beaches in Sri Lanka
Our favorite beach in the area of Unawatuna was Dalawella Beach. Unawatuna beach itself is also one of the very touristy beaches, which is fun if you feel like having a sunset drink at a beach where something is going on. But we liked Dalawella Beach much more. Also, this is the beach where the famous beach swing is located. This swing was so much fun even though it was more exhausting than we expected.
Read more: Top things to do in Galle Fort, Sri Lanka
