Weligama

PLACES TO EXPLORE

Sri Lanka compresses an astonishing diversity of landscape and culture into a landmass smaller than Ireland. Within a few hours’ drive you can move from ancient kingdoms carved in stone to rainforests dripping with endemic birdlife, from surf towns to elephant corridors, from colonial forts to cloud-wrapped tea estates. Each region holds its own character, rhythm and reason to arrive slowly.

The wide, gently-breaking bay at Weligama is widely regarded as one of the best beginner surf breaks in all of Asia – the wave shape is forgiving, the depth is consistent and the town has grown a surf infrastructure of genuine quality without losing its fishing-village roots. The famous stilt fishermen of Weligama, balancing on cross-poles driven into the coral shelf, remain one of Sri Lanka’s most iconic visual signatures.