After India’s hustle and bustle and our budget blowout we needed somewhere cheap to hide from the world. Again we were in a country with no planning, research or guide book. All we had was knowledge of a couple of places we wanted to see; the first was “one of the world’s top beaches”, Unawatuna. We knew we could catch the train or a bus from Colombo but we ended up taking a private car straight there, saving one of our precious 9 days in Sri Lanka.

The decision to come here first was one of our better ones. Whilst I doubt it’s in my top 10 beaches it’s a great spot and reasonably cheap ($20 AUD will see you housed on the beach and fed). It also has some really good surf, although my shoulder was still not strong enough to show the locals not every Australian can surf well.

We were so relaxed we stayed here half of our time in Sri Lanka, reading, lazing on the beach and eating. We also spent a day heading into the historic town and transport hub of Galle and beautiful stroll through antiquity. The old fort area is amazing and contains some amazingly beautiful historic Dutch colonial hotels.

We had been catching local buses which are fun. Getting on and off is an adventure in its own right. If they stop at all it is briefly. Adams tip is to not be last in line or you’ll have to run after the bus to get on. We didn’t leave Galle until after sun down and went well past our stop. A nice passenger helped us get a bus going back the other way and told the driver to stop at our hostel.

All in all Unawatuna is a great place to visit and relax. The whole south and eastern coastline is worth a visit. Unawatuna is the main beach on the tourist map is more expensive, but the little unknown beaches have cheap guesthouses on the beach and great surf. Definitely a place to come back to and road trip.