Sri Lanka | Mirissa Beaches – Sri Lanka’s Beach Paradise?

Mirissa is one of the major beach town in southern Sri Lanka. From beautiful beaches, surf waves, whale watching to great bars and restaurants, Mirissa has a lot to offer and has become one of the most visited beach town among foreign tourists. This makes Mirissa a fun-packed hub with many activities to fill your time although it is also quite crowded. If you don’t mind the crowd, there’s a lot of things to do and see here. Otherwise, head to Tangalle for a more quiet vibe.

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Getting To Mirissa 

From Tangalle main bus station, you can take any bus bound for Colombo and alight one hour later in Mirissa. Beware though as the Mirissa bus station is rather not obvious and is merely a bus stand along the main road. It is not a proper sheltered bus station with bus bay, so you will need to keep an eye on the road in case you miss the stop. From the this bus stand, the beaches are just a couple of minutes walk away.  

Mirissa Bus Station

Address: Mirissa, Sri Lanka 

Bus from Tangalle to Mirissa: 1 hour (bus bound for Colombo, ask to alight at Mirissa), LKR 150 per person 

Recommended time in Mirissa beaches: at least half a day 

What To Do in Mirissa 

Secret Beach 

I believe this placed was named secret beach as it was once a place only enjoyed by the locals before tourists sniffed it out. However, as it is still a distance away from the main beach strip, many tourist who just drop by Mirissa without doing any research would probably still miss this, hence it’s still a good choice to break away from the crowd.

Secret Beach

Quite secluded with no one around

Empty

Quiet but the sand was a bit rough

The beach strip is narrow and small

We spent less than half an hour there

It's located near Secret Beach Bar

It’s easy to get to Secret beach and there’s even a sign in the main road that point to its direction. You can easily find it on google map. Otherwise, you can hire a tuk tuk to get you there. Since we went to Dondra with a tuk tuk, we asked the driver to drop us at Secret Beach, so it was easy for us. However, on our way back, we walked from Secret Beach to the main Mirissa Beach, a bit of a walk, but walkable. Alternatively, you can also walk there from Mirissa Harbour after your whale watching, since it’s quite close.  

When we were there, the place was really empty with no sign of any other tourists, but the beach is quite small and we didn’t swim there at all since the wave here is quite rough to me. Besides, I can’t really swim, so I’m basically there to take a stroll. It wasn’t the most attractive beach I’ve seen, but if you want a little quiet corner, this would be it.  

Mirissa Beach

The Mirissa Beach is the main beach in town, and it was beautiful. This is where you would find the crowd, bars and restaurants but thankfully no trash. Despite being crowded, it is among the cleanest beach I have ever seen which is quite impressive. There’s a lot of activities going on here where you can see people surfing, swimming, snorkelling, sunbathing, drinking, and so on. It’s a big contrast against Secret Beach earlier. This is an ideal place for some people watching.  

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