Taxi in Dickwella, private transfers at a fixed price

We collect in Dickwella, Hiriketiya, Wellawatta and along the A2 in either direction. For the properties above Hiriketiya bay, tell us the name and we will confirm whether the drive is passable for a van or whether we should send a smaller vehicle — that question is worth asking in advance here, because the lanes behind Hiri are steep and several of them are not made for a nine-seater with luggage on board.

The A2 coastal road passes through Dickwella and the turning down to Hiriketiya is signposted and steep. From Colombo airport allow about three hours and a quarter via the E01 and Galle. The bay itself is a loop road with limited parking and a lot of tuk-tuks; a car can get down to most properties but the last stretch to some of the jungle-side places is narrow. Matara, fifteen minutes west, is the nearest town of any size and the end of the coastal railway line.

Season is November to April, and Hiriketiya is now busy enough that January and February book out months ahead. The bay is small: at peak times the water has more surfers in it than the wave can comfortably hold, and early mornings are the answer. Dickwella town has the practical infrastructure — pharmacy, ATM, market — that the bay does not. If you want the same coast with far fewer people, Tangalle to the east still has beaches you can have largely to yourself.

Hiriketiya bay is the draw and it is genuinely lovely early in the morning. Beyond it, the Hummanaya blowhole is ten minutes away and is the second largest in the world when the swell cooperates, which it does not always. Wewurukannala Vihara at Dickwella has a fifty-metre seated Buddha and a corridor of vividly gruesome depictions of Buddhist hells that children remember for years. Tangalle and its beaches are twenty-five minutes east.