Target Travels blog

Benotota Beach

About a 2 hour drive south of Colombo along the famous Galle Road, is arguably Sri Lanka’s most popular beach resort of Bentota which offer superb swathe of golden sand and a string of luxury resort hotels.  Development here has been more muted than its neighboring Beruwala, with hotels laid out at discrete intervals along the beach and a far more relaxed and hassle-free atmosphere. The southern end of the beach is also home to some of the most appealing top-end accommodation options along the west coast, with a number of delightful boutique hotels and villas hidden amongst the palm trees.

Bentota is also renowned as the watersports capital of the island. Backing the

Beach at Sunset

beach, the calm waters of the Bentota lagoon and river offer the ideal setting for myriad activities ranging from canoeing to jet-skiing, wind-surfing, and more. It’s also possible to arrange eco-friendly boat rides up the river, exploring the Bentota Ganga’s tangled water­ways, mangroves swamps and marine life.

Between the beach and the river, Bentota village offers an interesting slice of local life – although it’s impossible to explore for long before being seized by a local tout. There are a couple of interesting local Buddhist temples here: the kitsch Wanawasa Raja Maha Vihara, and the most atmospheric Galapata Vihara, dating back to the 12th century, which legend claims was built by a min­ister of Parakramabahu the Great (1153-86), the famous ruler of Polonnaruwa. The temple is said to have been linked by a maze of subterranean tunnels to other temples in the area.

Sri Lanka Sea Turtles

At the southern end of Bentota beach, the pioneering Sea Turtles Conser­vation Project (open daily from 6am to 6pm) is one of the most important of the many turtle hatcheries that have been set up along the west coast. Sri Lanka is an important turtle-nesting site, though turtle populations have been severely threatened by the poaching of eggs and disturbance of nesting sites. The project buys eggs from locals, buries them in the sand, then releases the newly hatched turtles into the sea by night, a few days after they have hatched. It’s possible to see the new hatchlings in holding tanks before they arc released, and they also keep a few specimens of each of the five species for a few years for study and exhibition before releasing them back into the ocean. The project was badly affected by the tsunami, which destroyed most of its equipment and washed away most of its stock of turtles, and so is greatly in need of support.

On the far side of the headland from the Sea Turtles Project, the village of Induruwa is home to another fine stretch of beach, even quieter (and notably cleaner) than that at Bentota. Though it is now slowly being colonized by a further crop of hotels and guesthouses, it remains one of the nicest and most soporific destinations along the west coast.

Ayubowan

Three weeks or longer gives you a chance to explore the sites in greater depth and to get off the beaten track. You could easily spend a week exploring the villages of the south coast, or a few days trekking in the hill country, visiting some of lesser visited ancient sites of Northwest and North Central Provinces, or exploring the island’s wildlife and birdlife in greater depth. Accessible once more, the unspoilt beaches and wild country of the east are an increasingly draw for travellers, with laid back Arugam Bay the island’s latest ‘cool’ beach destination or Sri Lanka’s version of Surfers Paradise. You could also see a very different side of Sri Lanka by visiting the Tamil heartland of Jaffna for a few days, which is simple breath-taking and starkly different to the rest of the island.

I strongly recommend a eco trek or visiting a local community. If you are up for it we can organising a stay with a local village family, where you will cook with them, go about their daily lives and even help in the daily chores. This will be organised free-of-charge while you pay for what you feel fit to your host. You will learn so much about their simple existence but in return help them with your knowledge and help them with economically.

A 3 week Tour of Sri Lanka will give you amble time to explore the length and breadth of the island. Ask you travel guide for a suitable itinerary based on your interests.

About 6 km (or 4 miles) from Kandy are the Peradeniya Botanical Gardens (open daily, 7.30am to 4.30pm with an entrance charge), the largest and finest in Sri Lanka. Enclosed in a loop of the Mahaweli Ganga river, the lush 60-hectare (147-acre) gardens are stuffed with a baffling array of Sri Lankan, Asian and international flora.

From the entrance the stately, much-photographed Royal Palm Avenue leads down to the Great Circle at the centre of the gardens. On your left is a handy cafeteria and the Great Lawn, home to a famous giant Javan fig tree, which covers an impressive 1,600 sq. metres (17,222 sq. ft) and is sometimes claimed to be the largest tree in the world. North of here, the gardens become wilder, with troupes of macaque monkeys foraging in the bushes and huge clusters of flying foxes dangling from the trees overhead.

In the ancient times this sprawling landscaped garden was used by the kings as their private pleasure garden. During the WWII  Lord Mountbatten, who was the supreme commander of the allied forces based in South Asia, used this as their headquarters for the South East Asia Command.

The Botanic Gardens date as far back as 1371 when King Wickramabahu III became King and established his court in Peradeniya adjoining the Mahaweli river. King Kirti Sri and King Rajadhi Rajasinghe followed in his footsteps thereafter. A temple was built on this location by King Wimala Dharma, but was later destroyed by the British when they were given control over the Kingdom of Kandy in the early 1800s, the foundation for a botanical garden was formed by Alexandar Moon in 1821. The Botanical Garden at Peradeniya was officially established in 1843 with plants brought from Kew Garden, Slave Island, in Colombo and the Kalutara Garden in. The Royal Botanic Garden, Peradeniya was made more independent and expanded under George Gardner who was the superintendent in 1844. The Garden finally came under the administration of the Department of Agriculture when it was established in 1912.

Today this is a popular stop for all visitors to the city of Kandy and is well worth a visit.