The southwest monsoon has finally come to an end! While global warming has made most typical weather expectations obsolete and with Colombo being absolutely flooded, the monsoons changing may not mean much, but if you are planning to take a trip down south, now’s the time to do it.
If you are looking to have a quick weekend getaway, an opportunity to dwell in existential dread about yet another year coming to an end, but do it in style, maybe right next to a beach, then taking a trip down the southern coast might be what you need.
Typically, taking a trip can be expensive, particularly when it comes to lodging. It can be quite pricey to book a hotel stay, especially along the southern coast. If you are staying in some of the hotspots like Hikkaduwa or Unawatuna or even as you move further down, things only get increasingly expensive.
Especially during the season, the south is getting ready to welcome hordes of tourists and while it is not the same as it used to be and we are still recovering from our unfortunate times, the south does not seem to be lacking foreign guests, who are taking up all possible overnight stay options available.
However, if you are determined enough to get the best value for your money, then a place crawling with tourists can actually be to your benefit – at least when it comes to lodging, given that the south is famous for backpackers and solo travellers who are simply there to surf.
The majority of surfers are only really looking for one thing – beach access. And if you want beach access, you have one of two options – you opt for really high-end luxury, a hotel with its own strip of beach, or a beach-side shack.
Do not dilly-dally
Given that the season is upon us, The Sunday Morning Brunch decided to take a trip to Unawatuna and explore the best budget-friendly way one can enjoy a beach stay.
As we were planning our trip, we came across our very first problem – things are already getting snatched up. Our endless scrolling on Booking.com proved that you must be quick to book your stay, because just about every place was getting booked up pretty fast. A tip here would be to start looking at least a week in advance.
Getting a place anywhere near Unawatuna was proving to be a challenge, especially since we didn’t want to fork over a pound of flesh, so we chose to look for a beachfront property as close as possible to our destination. To reduce our travel time back to Colombo, we decided to look at the areas around Hikkaduwa, Dodanduwa, Boossa, etc. Hikkaduwa was just as bad as Unawatuna, without a single open slot to accommodate a couple of last-minute travellers.
Boossa turned out to be our saving grace – only 10-15 minutes away from Unawatuna and remote enough that not a whole lot of people have spilled over just yet. One of the best things about travelling to the south is that transport is so easy to come by, so booking a stay a bit away from your destination is not too much of an inconvenience.
Uber and PickMe work just fine in Galle and while the tuktuk culture is not great, with many local tuktuk drivers holding on to a monopoly, scaring away drivers who join these transport apps which offer cheaper rates, we felt that things were a lot better than they are in Kandy.
At the Kandy station, if you are a PickMe or Uber driver, then you are most likely to get severely beaten up if you even think about stepping into the Kandy station and the nearby areas. Things are not so bad in the south and even if you struggle to find a ride through an app, there are plenty of other options – you need only step out onto the street.
There is also the public bus system and because you are simply travelling along the coast, it is a straight road to wherever you are headed. Catching a bus is one of the easiest things you could do when getting around along the coast.
Backpacker hostels
Our primary objective in going to Unawatuna was to visit Angel Beach – a prime Instagram spot, perfect for pictures, with a gorgeous beach.
Angel Beach famously offers access to an outdoor pool and easy beach access but, like most places down south, the prices are catered toward tourists although it is really quite reasonable. However, given our budget circumstances, Angel Beach was a splurge we could afford only if we were able to cut down considerably on our lodging.
Having taken numerous trips down south, the one trick we have learned when it comes to lodging is to always look for ‘backpacker hostels’. These hostels are absolutely ideal for a budget traveller as the prices go as low as Rs. 800 for a night! The unfortunate part is that only foreigners utilise these places as locals tend to be suspicious of ‘hostels’.
It seems that there’s some stigma amongst Lankans when it comes to staying in hostels, especially when the venue feels communal, with yoga and ‘hippie’ vibes. Speaking exclusively to locals, we have to say that you’re missing out.
We booked a place called Miracles Beach, a lovely little hostel situated right on the beach and the experience was near perfect. For just Rs. 2,600 we got a room for two with an attached bathroom, an ocean view, and a spacious balcony.
From the beachfront, the place really doesn’t look like much, propped up by wooden beams and tyres, but when you walk in, it is relatively clean and there’s a fan that works well, while the sound of waves will lull you to sleep.
The place has four rooms and interestingly, the remaining rooms were occupied by a Bangladeshi woman who was backpacking through Sri Lanka alone and a few Indian girls who were having an ‘extreme budget girls’ trip’.
The Bangladeshi national, Shova, shared that having stayed at a number of such ‘backpacker hostels,’ she had noticed that not a single local opted to stay in them.
“I guess the locals possibly think that the white people are doing illegal substances and such, if you know what I mean. It’s not always like that. Many of them just don’t want to go through the administration of hotels and unnecessary luxury for just a one night’s stay where they’ll spend 99% of their stay on the beach.”
The Indian girls shared that they too had not met any locals staying at the hostels. “We have been mistaken for being Sri Lankan many times but we’ve not actually met any locals in the hostels we’ve been staying at. It’s understandable, probably because coastal people have their own homes and people travelling from Colombo seem to prefer luxury. Not a lot of them are surfing either,” they said.
We also had a chat with some of the local business owners about their typical customer base when it came to hostel accommodations and they all shared that locals simply did not stay in hostels.
“Usually the type of people who come to sunbathe and actually enjoy the beach come from Colombo and they tend to be wealthy and choose to stay in hotels or in slightly more expensive dorms. These places are not ideal for families anyway, so we just get a lot of Europeans, Russians, Ukrainians, and Indians as a majority. A lot of them are women because men sometimes even chose to just sleep in their rental.”
It is interesting to see how locals do not often access these accommodations. While hostels can be a hit or miss, especially in terms of cleanliness because they tend to be communal spaces and the low budget means you’re largely responsible for yourself, your stuff, and hygiene, more often than not it is a wonderful experience with just a few mosquito bites thrown in.
Tip
If you have any booking application, you can easily find a backpacker hostel when you set your search to cheapest to most expensive. You cannot expect the usual AC, free Wi-Fi, and sometimes even parking, but if you’re looking for just a roof over your head for the night, a place to change in and out of your bathing suit, and somewhere to rest before you get on with your trip, then we definitely recommend trying out some hostels for a truly budget experience.