By Kathleen Rapp
Does anyone know if there is good snorkeling in Southern Sri Lanka? We’re heading there in December 2025 and are looking for honest information on snorkeling south of Colombo. Places such as Matara and Hikkaduwa have been suggested but I’ve learned it can all be sell by outfitters. I am hoping that some of you might have first hand experience there.
Thanks in advance!
My wife and I went snorkeling at Hikkaduwa in Sri Lanka in spring 2024. We were told that it was a great place to snorkel because of the protective reef. We found the area inside the reel to be too shallow and too crowded for decent snorkeling.
Instead, we hired a boat (inexpensive) to take us out to a rocky outcropping a couple hundred yards off the coast, outside the reef. There we found schools of larger fish and a sea turtle. Most of the coral was in sad shape with a few exceptions. It appeared that new coral was starting to grow over dead areas. Tsunami related?
Interestingly, the beach itself is mainly populated with Russian citizens on vacation and hiding from the war.
We were in Sri Lanka in February 2024 and searched exclusively for beach/shore snorkeling.
Hikkaduwa’s beach near town is the main attraction. It’s a sanctuary, on the shallow side, and can get crowded. We snorkeled it 10+ times and ultimately saw many sea turtles, moray eels, octopus, lots of puffers, and many reef fish. Note, the reefs all along Sri Lanka were devastated in the tsunami and a few are only now starting to bounce back.
Polhena Beach was a total strike out. Unawatuna was also disappointing. We tried both the main beach and jungle beach there.
Near Mirissa just to the west side of Parrot Rock was a small, nice spot but you have to be very experienced as the tidal energy can be high.
Google Maps does show some “coral reef” spots off the coastline in places like Unawatuna but we didn’t take the trips out.
Other random things to do:
– Take the coastline train out of Colombo.
– Out of Mirissa, we did a whale and dolphin watching tour. While we didn’t see the former we saw many species of the latter and were very satisfied with the all day adventure.
– Ella was the unexpected highlight for us. If you enjoy hiking, consider adding it to your itinerary.
Good luck and safe travels!