Hikkaduwa has a reputation, and that reputation is accurate as far as it goes. The coral reef is real. The surf is good. The beach road on a busy December weekend is exactly as loud and colourful as everyone says it is. But the coast on either side of the main strip, the lagoon systems and mangrove channels and shoreline temples that sit just beyond the range of the average beach holiday, is a different place entirely. Quieter, older, and considerably more interesting if you know where to look.
This is a journey for the traveller who wants the south-west coast without the beach bar soundtrack. Five days moving between the reef and the lagoon, the surf town and the turtle beach, the ancient temple built directly on the shoreline and the conservation community that has been protecting nesting turtles for decades without making a tourism product of it.
Day 1 — Arriving in Hikkaduwa
The train from Colombo to Hikkaduwa takes about two hours on the coastal line and arrives at a station so close to the beach that you can smell the sea before you step onto the platform. Take the train. The coastal railway south of Colombo is one of the great short train journeys in Asia, the track running along the shoreline for much of its length with the Indian Ocean visible from the window a few metres away.
Arrive in the afternoon and resist the temptation to immediately join the beach road circuit. Instead, walk south along the shore away from the main strip. Within fifteen minutes the guesthouses thin out and the beach recovers a quieter character, the fishing boats drawn up on the sand and the nets spread between poles in the late afternoon light giving the southern end of Hikkaduwa a working coastal quality that the northern end has largely traded away.
For accommodation, Neela’s on the beach road is a long-established guesthouse with a loyal following among repeat visitors to Hikkaduwa. The rooms are clean and simply furnished, the location is good, and the owner’s knowledge of the surrounding coast is worth more than most guidebooks. For mid-range comfort, Citrus Hikkaduwa offers well-designed rooms with a pool and a beachfront restaurant that handles fresh seafood competently.
For dinner on the first evening, Refresh Restaurant on the beach road has been serving grilled fish and rice to Hikkaduwa’s visitors and residents for long enough that it has stopped needing to try particularly hard, which in this case means the food is consistently good and the prices remain honest. The seer fish with garlic butter is the dish most locals point visitors toward.
Day 2 — The Reef and the Temple Shore
The Hikkaduwa coral reef, protected as a national park since 1979, sits a short distance offshore in water shallow enough to snorkel without equipment beyond a mask and fins. The reef suffered significant bleaching damage in 1998 and again in subsequent years, and its current state is a partial recovery rather than a pristine ecosystem, which is worth knowing before you enter the water. What remains is still good, the fish diversity high and the water clarity on a calm morning excellent. Glass-bottom boat operators along the beach road charge around one thousand five hundred rupees for a forty-minute trip over the reef, which is the correct way to see it if snorkelling is not your preference.
After the reef, spend the afternoon on the temple shore. The Seenigama Muhudu Viharaya sits on a small island about two hundred metres offshore, reached by a short boat ride from the beach. The temple, dedicated to the god Devol Deviyo, is one of the most unusual sacred sites on the south coast, its island setting giving it an atmosphere of genuine isolation despite its proximity to the beach strip. The boat crossing costs about two hundred rupees return and the temple is open throughout the day. Remove your shoes at the water’s edge before boarding.
Further south along the shore, the Hikkaduwa Buddhist Temple complex on the inland side of the coast road contains a large reclining Buddha figure and a series of painted murals depicting scenes from the Jataka tales in a style that mixes traditional Kandyan painting with a directness that suggests a local artist working without excessive reference to convention. It is never crowded and is worth an hour of quiet attention.
Day 3 — The Lagoon and the Mangroves
The Hikkaduwa Lake, a brackish lagoon system that extends behind the coast road for several kilometres, is one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the south-west coast and one of the least visited attractions in the area. The mangrove channels that thread through the lagoon support an excellent population of wading and water birds, the water in the calmer inner sections clear enough to see the fish moving through the roots.
Arrange a boat through Hikkaduwa Boat Safari operators near the lake entrance for around one thousand two hundred rupees per hour. The better operators take you through the narrow mangrove channels where the vegetation closes overhead rather than keeping to the open water, and the difference in experience between the two approaches is considerable. A two-hour morning trip covers the main channel system and arrives back at the jetty before the midday heat makes the open sections uncomfortable.
For lunch after the lagoon trip, Rotty Stop on the Galle Road serves a good kottu roti and a freshly made coconut roti that the surrounding neighbourhood relies on daily. It is a small, cash-only establishment that does not appear in most visitor guides and is better for it.
The afternoon is well spent cycling the back roads inland from the lagoon. Bicycle hire is available from several shops on the beach road for around five hundred rupees per day and the roads behind Hikkaduwa, passing through small villages and rubber smallholdings, have a quiet, unhurried quality that the coast road does not.
Day 4 — Telwatta and the Turtle Beach
Telwatta sits about ten kilometres south of Hikkaduwa, a small coastal village whose turtle conservation programme has been operating since the early 1990s with almost no visitor infrastructure and considerably more ecological credibility than most of the commercial hatcheries along the south-west coast.
The turtles that nest on the Telwatta beach are primarily green turtles, with occasional leatherback and olive ridley nesters in the right season. The community conservation group that protects the nests and monitors the beach operates on a volunteer basis, funded partly by small donations from the visitors who come to watch the nesting between March and August. Contact the programme through Telwatta Turtle Conservation directly for arrangements, which typically involve arriving at the beach after dark and waiting with a local guide for nesting activity.
The wait itself, on a dark beach with the sea audible and the village lights distant behind you, is part of the experience. When a female comes ashore it happens without announcement, and the protocol is the same as at Rekawa: no torches, no flash, no approach until the guide signals. The eggs arrive in a steady stream into the nest chamber she excavates with her rear flippers, and when she is finished she turns back to the sea without ceremony. The whole process leaves you with the particular feeling that comes from witnessing something that has been happening on this coastline for millions of years and has no need of your presence to continue.
For accommodation near Telwatta, Cantaloupe Levels between Hikkaduwa and Telwatta is a beautifully designed boutique property with sea-facing rooms and a kitchen that takes its sourcing seriously. For a budget option, several small guesthouses in Telwatta village offer basic rooms at around two thousand rupees per night and the owners can arrange introductions to the turtle conservation group directly.
For dinner near Telwatta, The Fish restaurant on the Galle Road serves a grilled catch of the day that changes with what the boats bring in, accompanied by a coconut rice that the kitchen makes better than most places along this stretch of coast.
Day 5 — The Slow Return
Use the final morning for the stretch of coast between Telwatta and Ambalangoda, about five kilometres north, which contains one of the more unusual cultural attractions on the south-west coast. The Ariyapala Mask Museum in Ambalangoda is both a working mask-making workshop and a display of the traditional Kolam and Sanni masks used in the ritual dance theatre of the low country. The carvers work in a room adjacent to the display area and the combination of finished masks on the walls and masks in progress on the workbenches gives the place a vitality that a pure museum display lacks. Finished masks are available for purchase at prices that reflect genuine craft skill.
The Ambalangoda Fish Market on the lagoon edge operates through the morning and is one of the more active on the south-west coast, the variety of what arrives from this stretch of sea giving it a different character from the Hikkaduwa beach sales. Buy a bag of dried sprats from the processing section if you are heading back to Colombo. They travel well and are considerably better than the supermarket version.
The train back to Colombo from Ambalangoda station runs hourly through the late morning and takes about two and a half hours along the coastal line. The journey north has the sea on the right side this time, and the afternoon light on the water, coming through the train window as the coast moves past, is a quietly satisfying way to close five days on a stretch of shore that rewards exactly the kind of attention you gave it.
Practical Notes
The best time for this route is between November and April when the sea is calm and the turtle nesting season is approaching its peak. The Hikkaduwa reef is best visited in the morning before the wind picks up and reduces visibility. The Telwatta turtle programme requires advance contact and does not operate on a walk-in basis. Bicycle hire in Hikkaduwa is widely available and the inland roads are flat enough to cover ten to fifteen kilometres comfortably in a morning.
