For the beach part of our stay in Sri Lanka, we chose to be stationed in Unawatuna and do day trips around the Southern Province.

We booked a room at the Sea Front Villa (through Booking.com), which was  p e r f e c t. It has a private beach and only three rooms, so we had the beach practically to ourselves. Also, the owners were very nice and helpful.

From there we took tuk-tuks to Hikkaduwa (crowded, not so pretty), Mirissa (vibrant, suitable for younger people) and Unawatuna centre (here we also did some souvenir shopping). If we were to visit Sri Lanka again, we would have probably stayed a couple of nights in Mirissa, as we really enjoyed the atmosphere there (Unawatuna is much calmer).

” ]Fun fact: a nice lady on the neighbouring sunbed in Mirissa turned out to be a Slovene, living in Canada, which is quite a coincidence, as Slovenia has a population of only 2 million people!

Sri Lanka is located in the Indian Ocean. You should know that the sea here is quite rough, there are huge waves and it is not so suitable for swimming (mostly you should tend to stick close to the beach). Nevertheless, some of the beach views here are absolutely stunning and definitely worth visiting.

Tip: Sri Lanka has a culture of price haggling. The vendors, tuk-tuk drivers, etc. will always quote a much higher price than the actual worth of the item/service, so you should try to lower the price as much as possible (and remain within your budget of course).

For the last day we decided to rent a car with a driver through Why not getaways again, which was very convenient. I already mentioned this Sri Lanka based tourist agency in my previous blog post and I would really recommend contacting them at least for renting a car with a driver, which is really very useful, the quickest and much less stressful than other possibilities. If you come from Slovenia, Anja will be able to help you in Slovene as well and you can always contact her for any questions.

On our way to the airport we stopped at a turtle hatchery in Bentota, which was a great experience, as we even got to hold a day and a week old turtles. The turtles were very cute and it was a very nice ending to our Sri Lankan adventure.

Unfortunately, we had to be at the airport very early due to some renovations, so we did not have time to stop at Galle (we only did a quick drive through) as we originally planned. Next time, I guess! ☺️