Taxi from Weligama to Colombo Airport, fixed price private transfer

The A2 to the Kokmaduwa or Godagama interchange, then the E01 and E03 to the terminal. One hundred and seventy kilometres, two hours fifty-five, tolls included in the price shown. For a 01:30 flight, a pickup around 19:05; for a midday departure at 12:00, around 05:35. The expressway is the great majority of it and it does not queue, so this is a departure you can plan to the quarter hour.

Weligama’s beach road runs the length of the bay with the railway immediately behind, and the accommodation splits between the town end near the fish market and the quieter western end towards Mirissa. They are two kilometres apart, five minutes by car and a long haul on foot with cases, so the property name matters more than the town. Sea-side hotels are entered directly off the A2 across the oncoming lane, which at dawn is trivial and at five in the afternoon is not. The fish market at the eastern end works early and congests the road around it until mid-morning, which is the one predictable delay on this run.

If you bought a board here, and a good number of people do, it needs the comfort van with a row folded flat; nothing shorter than seven feet is a problem in any of our vehicles. Tell us at booking rather than at the door, because a board that will not fit means a second car and a lost hour on the day you can least afford it. If you learned on school boards and are flying home without one, ignore all that: the economy sedan is right for two people, the comfort sedan for four with luggage, and the comfort van for five or six.

Weligama has its own station and the coastal train to Galle is forty minutes of sea views for very little money. It is one of the best short journeys in Sri Lanka and we recommend it without hesitation — for any day except the one with a flight on it, when it means Colombo Fort and thirty-five kilometres still to arrange. Expressway buses to Colombo are quick and cheap and stop short in the same way. For a departure, the car is the only version that ends at the terminal.

Any hour is workable and night departures are the quickest, with a surcharge between 22:00 and 05:00. The fish market congestion until mid-morning is the only routine delay. From November to April the bay and the town are full and the beach road slower; from May to September the monsoon empties both and puts occasional heavy rain on the expressway, which can slow it briefly. If you have a late flight and a morning check-out, the car can wait while you spend the afternoon in Mirissa or Galle rather than sitting in a lobby.