It’s not a mirage or a beautiful dream that will melt away when you open your eyes. You are awake, the sky is a glittering blue and catamaran boats are beached on the amber sands beyond the tide. The air is scented with topical flowers, while palm trees and casuarinas whisper drowsily, throwing shifting feathery shadows and the sunshine is like melted gold.

The scene might be any Sri Lankan beach – south, north, west or east – which girdle the island’s seaboard. Conveniently rostered climatic patterns ensure fine, high-season weather from November to April in the south and west coasts and from May to October elsewhere.

Some of the island’s best and most accessible tropical beaches lie along the southern and western coasts, strung in a line, a few kilometers away from each other, some a short drive away from the international airport and Colombo’s city center. Each resort has it’s special attractions and distinctive charm and hinterlands of exceptional natural and human interest. Many are fringed by colorful underwater coral reefs and have numerous submerged shipwrecks, which offer premium diving opportunities.

Mount Lavinia, Sri Lanka's oldest beach resort, has an agreeable vintage sophistication and is a few kilometres south of Colombo.

Nilaweli and Uppuveli, 16 km and 6 km north of the city of Trincomalee respectively, are among the best beaches in Sri Lanka. Knee deep shallow seas spreads out hundreds of meters towards the sea. An ideal place for sun bathing and snorkelling...

Beruwela, where Sri Lanka's "Gold Coast" begins, is adorned with a cluster of tiny, protected bays, which offer a bonus of year-round, safe sea- bathing. Five kilometres south, Bentota, Sri Lanka's largest beach resort complex, dreams on a picturesque watersmeet of sea and river, offering unending options of enjoyable aquasports on its sweeping double waterfront. Further south, Hikkaduwa offers a magical submarine wonder- land of coloured coral and jewel-hued fish in its marine sanctuary. As many as ten submerged shipwrecks, some hundreds of years old, lie off the southern/south-eastern coasts, including the s.s. Malabarand and a
20-gun Portuguese man-of-war, from which a horde of silver coins was recovered. South again, other prime resorts include Kosgoda, Ahungalle, Ambalangoda, Galle, Koggala, Weligama, Dikwella, Tangalle and Hambantota.

As elsewhere on Sri Lanka's beaches, the charms of sun, sea, reef and sand come with attractive value additions. Fishing villages, where age-old traditional sea-craft still put out to sea, dot the coast. At Ahungalle, stilt fishermen perch on high poles standing in sea-shallows, to fish with rod and line

Most beach resorts have well-developed infrastructure and professional services for all varieties of water sports. Facilities, state-of-the-art rental equipment and professional training courses (including PADI) are available at a number of aqua-sports marinas and centers on the southern and western coasts.