Explore The south
Five kilometres southeast of Galle, the ever-expanding village of UNAWATUNA is now firmly established as Sri Lanka’s most popular resort for independent travellers and remains a pleasant spot to while away a few days, even if rampant commercialization and ever-growing hordes of visitors have now significantly eroded the village’s former sleepy charm. If you don’t mind the increasing hustle and bustle, there’s still plenty to enjoy, including a decent, if heavily developed, stretch of beach, a good selection of places to stay and eat, plus varied activities ranging from surfing and diving through to yoga and cookery classes, while in recent years Unawatuna has begun to compete with Hikkaduwa as Sri Lanka’s beach-party capital, with noisy discos thumping out beats along parts of the beach during the season. The resort also remains busy all year round, making it a good place to visit if you’re on the west coast during the monsoon.
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The beach
The beach
Unawatuna beach is small and intimate: a graceful semicircular curve of sand, not much more than a kilometre from start to finish, set snugly in a pretty semicircular bay and picturesquely terminated by a dagoba on the rocky headland to the northwest, while the sheltered bay gives safe year-round swimming, and a group of rocks 150m offshore further breaks up waves (though it can still get a bit rough during the monsoon).
Unfortunately, the devastating effects of the tsunami allied to years of unchecked development before and after have now destroyed much of Unawatuna’s former appeal, while a massive government-sponsored clearance of illegal structures on the beach in late 2011 has left parts of the bay looking (for the time being at least) a complete mess. The western end of the beach, around the Hot Rock café, is now lined with the skeletons of half-demolished cafes and huge piles of debris, although hopefully by the time you read this the rubble will have been cleared away and the beach hereabouts restored. In the meantime, most of the action has shifted east, to the area around the Full Moon and Happy Banana, which remains lively and loud until late most nights.
At the northern end of the beach, a footpath leads up to a small dagoba perched on the rocks above the bay, offering fine views over Unawatuna and north to Galle.
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Diving, snorkelling and surfing at Unawatuna
Diving, snorkelling and surfing at Unawatuna
Unawatuna has a modest range of diving, snorkelling, surfing and other watersports on offer, with two good diving schools: Submarine Diving School, at the western end of the beach, and Unawatuna Diving Centre, around the bay to the east. Both offer the usual range of PADI courses, plus single and introductory dives and wreck and deep dives (there are no fewer than eight wrecks in the vicinity, including an old wooden English ship, the Rangoon, lying at a depth of 30m), though they’re rather more expensive than in nearby Hikkaduwa. Diving is best between October and April.
You can snorkel off the beach at Unawatuna, although it’s not wildly exciting; you might see a few colourful tropical fish, and there’s a little patch of live coral where the waves break in front of the Submarine Diving School. The best two snorkelling spots are Rock Island, about 1km offshore, and around the headland facing Galle at Jungle Beach, where you’ll find live coral and fish. For the former you’ll need to hire the Submarine Dive School’s glass-bottomed boat, which can also be used to reach Jungle Beach. Alternatively, Jungle Beach is reachable by tuktuk, or by foot (though it’s a convoluted 45-min walk, and very easy to get lost; ask for directions locally). Submarine rent out expensive snorkelling equipment, as do a couple of cheaper shacks on the beach nearby. Check all equipment carefully, as there are plenty of dud masks and snorkels in circulation.
A lot of locals surf at Unawatuna, though the waves aren’t nearly as good as at nearby Hikkaduwa or Midigama. Boards can be rented at the Submarine Diving School.
