Saltwater Crocs and Hollywood Actors – a Guide to Sri Lanka’s Star-Studded Beaches

We knew it would be hard to top the beaches of South Goa during our travels. The serene, natural and quiet beauty of the rustic beaches and small coastal towns took our breath away. In a lot of regards, we were right… so far. But South Sri Lanka and its stunning array of beaches and vibrant towns spanning the shoreline, all offering something different, give South Goa a good run for its money.

If you want to hear about my four standout beachside spots as well as stories of running from Saltwater Crocodiles and mixing with Hollywood A-listers, keep reading.

Untouched bliss, Tangalle

Tranquil Tangalle

We’d been recommended Tangalle by a couple who explained how it reminded them of how South Goa was like ten years ago. A very small coastal village with one road running parallel to the sea, a couple of kilometres long, and only a handful of shanty-style food and drink shacks and a few beach bars and restaurants.

Tangalle's one coastal road

A very peaceful area with few travellers and westerners, it was the perfect way to relax after some busier travelling. The one road was easily walkable from one end to the other and provided stunning views of jungle and lagoons on one side and the unspoiled beaches on the other. Travel east to where the road ends and nip through one of the small resorts to reach the relatively untouched part of the beach... you will not be disappointed.

A slice of paradise appears through the trees, Tangalle

If you’re looking for some of the most authentic Sri Lankan food you will ever eat, then don’t be afraid to wander inland from the beach, further into the back streets where several small, family run restaurants serve freshly caught seafood (most of the time caught by the father of the family that very day) and Sri Lanka’s famous rice and curry.

Sri Lanka's national dish, rice and curry

Although, beware of the waves. Along the beach there are a few designated swimming spots where manmade wave defences break the ferocity of the oncoming waves but other than that, the sea is mainly not swimmable.

Tangalle’s rawness

Heavenly Hirikitya

I can understand why Hirikitya might not be everyone's cup of tea. It is small and quite built-up, despite most of the rapid development happening over the last couple of years.

We absolutely loved it, however. At this current moment, it balances a vibrant travelling atmosphere with spaces for young digital nomads to live and work whilst maintaining an authentic cultural backdrop. We noticed that most cafés, bars, restaurants and shops were owned and run by locals, including our favourite bakery where we returned every morning for our freshly baked focaccia, Wild Bakery.

Nirvana, Hirikitya

This provided a reassuring sense that despite the clear injection of money and development, the corporate displacement from local to Caucasian persons hadn’t happened yet, unlike most popular spots in South East Asia; Phuket, Koh Samui, Pattaya are just a few examples of many.

Hirikitya beach was busy, but looking out to sea, it was postcard worthy. The town had ultimately become so popular in recent times because of the nature of the cove bay that allows for perfectly sized waves for surfers of all different experiences to ride. 

Spot the surfers in the distance, Hirikitya

Bizarrely, as someone who has no coordination when it comes to dancing, skateboarding or anything that requires looking smooth, I took to surfing like a duck to water. It was no doubt largely to the knowledge and skill of our instructors, who have become so comfortable on the waves that some of them can perform headstands on their boards whilst descending. At the rate I’m going, I’ll have that mastered next week.

Similarly to Tangalle, Hirikitya offered many top-class food spots, with the rice and curry buffets the most popular. This consisted usually of four or five different pots of vegetable curry (aubergine, potato, pumpkin, beetroot, okra, etc), turmeric spiced lentils, rice and poppadums. You could help yourself as many times as you liked and it cost about £2 a head.

Local life, Hirikitya

Dangerous Dikwella

Dickwella is a beach just around the corner, literally, from Hirikitya – about a fifteen-minute walk. Dickwella was probably the most beautiful beach we visited in Sri Lanka. Similar to Agonda, Goa, it is one long sweeping beach with most of the bars and food spots on the eastern side.

Dickwella Beach

If you had looked into the future and told Kea and me in the morning what our day ahead would look like, we’d have laughed and said it sounds like a weird fever dream. We hired a scooter and spent the morning visiting a couple of popular spots – a tiny hidden island and a powerful blow hole – and then took ourselves to Dickwella for the afternoon. We arrived, parked up and grabbed some lunch at a small seaside café that had good reviews. The mixed seafood fried rice was outrageously good.

Exploring a hidden island, Hirikitya

A young English family and two older English women sat to our left and a young English couple to our right, all taking a moment to rest from the direct sunlight, have some food and a cooling drink. Suddenly, whistles and shouting broke the peace as swimmers leapt out of the sea and sunbathers jumped to their feet to see what was going on. Lo and behold, a ten-foot Saltwater Crocodile had fancied turning up for an afternoon swim, or worse, to find lunch. This provided great entertainment for the English contingent as we all ran to get a closer look.

The croc was hard to spot at first, it sort of looked like a big piece of driftwood until the odd wave would bring it closer to the surface and its menacing eyes, long snout and bumpy nose would almost wave at you. Thankfully, one of the women had a pair of binoculars on her so we all managed to get a good look.

As things crept back to normality, Kea and I moved to the sun loungers on the beach. We were told the croc had moved on, so we risked paddling in the sea. Not long after we’d settled, I noticed an English-looking girl looking at me. I looked away, and back, and caught her eye again – weird, I thought. Only then did I think to myself that she looked remarkably similar to a famous Hollywood actor, Florence Pugh.

A whisper to Kea, a quick bit of investigative work and there you have it, she was travelling Sri Lanka with her boyfriend. Like a rabbit in headlights, Kea became instantly star-struck and began plotting what to say and how to say it. Determining whether to say hello or to let them enjoy their holiday without us bugging them became our next decision, to which we went with the latter.

A beach fit for A-listers, Dickwella

I thought to myself, either I just got eyed up by Hollywood’s next biggest star or she was thinking to herself, “Oh, for goodness' sake, we’re definitely about to get spotted, noticed and harassed by that strange looking bloke that keeps staring at me.” Definitely the former.

We didn’t speak to her but I had a good conversation with her boyfriend, Finn Cole, who played Michael Gray in one of my favourite TV shows, Peaky Blinders, about what else? The Crocodile of course.. Turns out, it is quite common for the Crocodiles to get lost and find themselves in the sea when the rivers overflow after tropical storms and heavy rainfall.

This guide to beaches got slightly lost there. Nonetheless, quite a good story, I think! And fear not, despite getting chased out of the sea (as the croc hadn’t actually gone!), we did not become its lunch.

Altruistic Ahangama

Maybe referring to Ahangama, as a whole, as altruistic is not quite accurate. It is a small town that’s very different to Hirikitya in the sense that the development has been isolated to massive holidaymaker resorts and upmarket restaurants and bars on the seafront. However, take a step away from this and the town is still very hustle and bustle and full of authentic Sri Lankan life. A starc lack of intended integration compared to other coastal towns of Sri Lanka. Did you consider what defines a holidaymakers, a tourist, a traveller, a settler and so on and what could make them different?

Surfs up, Ahangama

Ahangama is another popular spot for surfing, with many surf schools available along the coastline. We surfed again but massively failed this time, for without our previous instructors and daring to go out alone was a bad idea. I’ll have to put the headstand hopes on hold, I think.

What was altruistic in principle was our hostel, Omnia. A wonderful new hostel with the kindest staff, wellbeing was truly at the heart of what they do. There were free yoga sessions every morning run by a lovely German woman we became friends with and on Sundays they provided breath-work sessions and a cold plunge in an ice bath, all complimentary for guests.

Away from the resots was a lovely little beach called secret beach, which ironically had become far from secret. A short walk from the main town, secret beach offered clear and calm waters and a small crescent shaped beach.

Glowing secret beach, Ahangama

A few days here to focus on mindfulness before flying to Thailand was just what we needed, even if we didn’t know it yet. In saying that, stay tuned for next week's article, where our lives were shaken like never before. Literally.