Honeymoon Places in Sri Lanka
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Honeymoon Places in Sri Lanka, Coast by Coast
Here is the list of 12 Honeymoon Places in Sri Lanka
1. Galle: Boutique Hotels Inside a Dutch Fort
Known For : Galle Fort Sea Turtle Hatchery Centre, Mahamodara Galle Lighthouse
Galle Fort is the one place in Sri Lanka where the hotel is the honeymoon. Inside the ramparts, Dutch merchant houses have been turned into eight and ten room stays with courtyards, plunge pools and rooftop dinners, and you can walk the full sea wall at sunset in an hour. It is 119 km south of Colombo, under two hours on the Southern Expressway, so it works as a first or last stop. Packages built around Galle average around Rs 47,000 per person, above the Sri Lanka average, because the fort hotels are small. Dry season here is December to April.
Best Time: December to April
2. Mirissa: A Bay You Can Walk End to End
Known For : Sunset Walk at Coconut Tree Hill Whale Watching in Mirissa Sunset Cruise in Mirissa
Mirissa is the south coast bay for couples who do not want a resort. Guesthouses and small hotels sit on the slope behind the sand, dinner is grilled fish at a table on the beach, and the bay is short enough to walk end to end after dark. It is 150 km from Colombo and about an hour from Galle, so it slots in as a second stop rather than a separate trip. The shore break and the shelf change through the season, so ask locally before you swim. Best December to April.
Best Time: December - March
3. Ella: Valley-View Rooms and the Hill Train
Known For : Nine Arches Bridge Little Adam's Peak Ella Rock
Ella is where most couples spend their hill nights, and the reason is the rooms. Small guesthouses on the ridge above town sell a bed facing straight down the Ella Gap, so you get the view from under a blanket with morning coffee. The train in from Nanu Oya takes about three hours through the tea and is the better half of the line, so board there rather than losing a whole day riding up from Kandy. Nights are cool without being cold. Cloud fills the gap from May to September, which is the trade-off if your dates have sent you to the east coast.
Best Time: December - March
4. Bentota: The Resort Coast Closest to the Airport
Known For : Bentota Beach (Ventura Beach) Bentota River Safari Ayurvedic Spa at Bentota Ayurveda Center
Bentota is what you pick when you do not want to spend the first day of a honeymoon in a car. It is on the west coast, about two hours from Colombo airport, and the hotels are large: spas, pools and sea-facing rooms, a very different proposition to Galle's ten room fort houses an hour further south. The Bentota Ganga river runs behind the beach and is calmer than the sea. Season is November to April.
Best Time: November - April
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5. Tangalle: The Quiet End of the South Coast
Known For : Tangalle Beach Bundala National Park Hiriketiya Beach
Tangalle is the quiet end of the south coast, about an hour and a half east of Galle and past the surf towns. What it sells is privacy: low-built villas and four or five room hotels on separate coves, with long stretches of empty sand between them. The trade-off is that there is almost nothing to walk to after dark, and the main bay has a strong shore break and a steep shelf, so take local advice on where it is safe to swim. December to April.
Best Time: April to July
6. Nuwara Eliya: Cold Nights and Tea-Estate Bungalows
Known For : Seeta Amman Temple Horton Plains National Park Gregory Lake
Nuwara Eliya sits at 1,868 m and it is the only stop on a Sri Lankan honeymoon where you will want a fire lit. Tea-estate bungalows and old hotels around the town rent whole houses or single rooms with a fireplace, a cook and a garden, which is a genuinely different night from a beach room. Pack something warm: the annual average is around 16 degrees Celsius and December and January nights run far colder. It is two hours from Kandy, and Nanu Oya, the station for the Ella train, is 8 km away.
Best Time: February - April
7. Kandy: The Lake, and Where the Hill Line Starts
Known For : Kandy Esala Perehera Festival Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic (Sri Dalada Maligawa) Kandy Lake
Kandy is the sensible first stop inland: about three hours from Colombo, at 500 m, warm by day and cool at night. Couples stay in the hotels on the ridges above Kandy Lake, which look down on the water and the Temple of the Tooth Relic rather than on to a main road. The hill line starts here, but the full run to Ella is close to seven hours, so most couples ride only the upper half. Two nights is enough.
Best Time: December to April
8. Trincomalee: The East Coast Base, May to September
Known For : Koneswaram Temple Fort Frederick Shri Badrakali Amman Hindu Temple
Trincomalee is the base for an east coast honeymoon, which is the right call if you marry between May and September, when the south and west are wet. It is a long transfer, roughly 260 km and six hours from Colombo, so commit to one coast rather than trying to see both. The town gives you the Koneswaram temple on Swami Rock above one of the world's largest natural harbours, and somewhere to eat; the beaches you actually stay on are 6 to 16 km north.
Best Time: May - October
9. Nilaveli: The East Coast's Resort Strip
Known For : Pigeon Island National Park Nilaveli Beach
Nilaveli, 16 km north of Trincomalee, is where the east coast keeps its resorts, and the reason to choose it over Uppuveli is simply that the hotels are bigger: pools, sea-facing rooms and space between properties. The water off this stretch is shallow and usually flat in season, but conditions change month to month, so ask at the hotel before going in. Season is May to September.
Best Time: November to May
10. Uppuveli: Quieter and Cheaper Than Nilaveli
Uppuveli is the nearer of Trincomalee's two beach villages, 6 km north of town, and the cheaper one. Instead of resorts it has guesthouses and seafood grills a few steps off the sand, which suits couples who would rather put the money into a longer trip than a bigger room. It is quieter than Nilaveli out of season and busier in the evenings in season. May to September.
Best Time: December to March
11. Yala National Park: A Two-Night Safari Add-On
Yala earns two nights if you want one day of your honeymoon that is not a beach. Couples base at Tissamaharama or Kataragama on the park edge, about an hour and a half from Tangalle, and take a jeep out at first light. The park covers 979 sq km and its Block I is often cited as holding one of the highest recorded leopard densities anywhere, though nothing is guaranteed on a single drive. Viewing is best from February to July, and Block I usually closes for several weeks around September.
Best Time: February - July
12. Negombo: The Night You Book Beside the Airport
Known For : Negombo Beach Negombo Dutch Fort Negombo Lagoon
Negombo is not really a honeymoon destination and it is worth saying so. It is 10 km from Bandaranaike International Airport, which makes it the sensible place to sleep if you land near midnight or fly out early, and beach hotels here cost less than anywhere on the south coast. A Dutch-era canal and the morning fish market will fill half a day, and then you move on.
Best Time: February to April
Most couples land at Colombo, sleep near the airport, then run one loop: Kandy and the hill country, two nights in a park if they want one, and the rest on whichever coast is in season. Seven to ten nights covers it without a long transfer every second morning. If you are still choosing a country, see our honeymoon destinations from India.
This post was published by Harshitha
FAQs on Honeymoon Places in Sri Lanka
Our wedding is in June. Which part of Sri Lanka should we honeymoon in?
The east coast. Sri Lanka has two dry seasons on opposite sides of the island: the south and west coasts run roughly December to April, the east roughly May to September. A June or July honeymoon points at Trincomalee, Nilaveli and Uppuveli, with the hill country as the inland stop. A December or January wedding points the other way, at Galle, Mirissa, Bentota and Tangalle. October and November are wet almost everywhere and are the two months to avoid.
Should a Sri Lanka honeymoon be one coast, or coast plus hills?
Coast plus hills if you have seven nights or more. A comfortable split is four or five nights on whichever coast is in season and two or three in the hills at Ella or Nuwara Eliya, which also breaks up the heat. Under six nights, pick one coast and skip the hills: inland transfers run three to five hours and they eat the days you came for. Do not attempt both coasts in one trip. Colombo to Trincomalee alone is about six hours.
What does a Sri Lanka honeymoon cost for two?
Sri Lanka packages average around Rs 32,000 per person, so a couple should budget roughly double that before flights. Package rates are almost always quoted per person, which is the most common budgeting mistake honeymooners make. Among short overseas honeymoons from India, only Nepal usually comes in cheaper. The saving is not only in hotels: the flight is short, and drivers, food and internal transport are all inexpensive.
What is the visa position for Indian couples travelling to Sri Lanka?
Sri Lanka has been running an online travel authorisation that visitors apply for before departure, and both the process and any fee for Indian passport holders have changed more than once in recent years. Apply through the official Sri Lankan government portal rather than an agent site, do it well before the wedding, and check the current position close to your travel date, because arrangements announced as temporary have been extended and withdrawn at short notice.
Quiet or lively: which Sri Lankan coast town suits a couple?
Quietest are Tangalle on the south coast and Uppuveli on the east, both small hotels and empty sand with almost nothing to walk to after dark. Liveliest, meaning restaurants and people rather than clubs, is Mirissa, then Galle inside the fort walls. Bentota and Nilaveli sit in between: large resorts where you mostly stay on the property. Choose Galle if you want to eat out every night, Tangalle if you would rather not leave the room.
Should we add a safari or a rainforest to a Sri Lanka honeymoon?
One park at most, and only if you already want it. Yala is the practical choice because it sits on the south coast route between Tangalle and the hills, so two nights there costs no extra travel. Go at first light, expect to share the track with other jeeps in high season, and treat any sighting as luck rather than something you have booked. The rainforest reserves are hard work in the wet months and a poor use of a short honeymoon. Skip anything offering rides, bathing or contact with captive elephants.
When is Sri Lanka most expensive for a honeymoon?
The fortnight from around 20 December to the first week of January, which is peak season on the south and west coasts and also the most expensive travel window of the Indian year. Rates at the Galle fort hotels and the tea-estate bungalows run well above the rest of the season, and the good rooms go months ahead. If your dates can move, late January through March gives you the same dry weather at lower rates and thinner crowds.
