Mirissa: The South Coast at Its Most Beautiful

Mirissa is a small beach town on the south coast that has spent the last decade becoming known in a way it was never entirely prepared for. The beach itself is a beautiful curve of pale sand with a rock promontory at one end where people gather for sunset and a coconut grove at the other that gives the whole bay a theatrical, almost too-perfect quality. It looks exactly like what people imagine when they imagine Sri Lanka, which is both its gift and its burden.

The beach is best in the early morning before the sun is high and before the restaurants have set up their sun loungers across most of the sand. Walk the length of it at 7am. The light is extraordinary, the water is calm, and the fishing boats are coming in from their overnight trips. Buy fish directly from the boats if you want to understand where dinner comes from here.

The Secret Beach, a short walk west of the main bay, offers what the main beach used to: quiet, rocks to sit on, no restaurant umbrellas. It is not a secret anymore but it is still considerably less developed. The swimming here requires more care as the water moves around the rocks, but the reward is a stretch of coast that feels like you found it yourself.

From November to April, blue whale watching departs from Mirissa harbour before dawn. This is the main reason many people come — the blue whale sightings in the deep water south of the peninsula are among the most reliable in the world. Go at least once. Whatever else you do in Mirissa, go at least once.