Arugam Bay is a sand road running parallel to a beach, lined with surf lodges, fish restaurants and board hire shacks. It is small, it is seasonal, and between May and September it is one of the best places to surf in Asia.
The breaks
- Main Point — a long right-hand point over rock and sand, working from waist-high to overhead. Crowded in season and not a beginner wave.
- Whiskey Point — 15 minutes north, mellower, good for improvers.
- Peanut Farm — south, two peaks, one gentle and one not.
- Baby Point — right in the bay, small and forgiving, where lessons happen.
- Elephant Rock — a beautiful walk-in break with a viewpoint at the top worth the climb even without a board.
Beyond the surf
Kumana National Park, 25 kilometres south, is a birding reserve with mangrove swamps and lagoons, and enough elephants and leopards to make a jeep drive worthwhile — with almost none of Yala’s traffic. Lahugala, on the road in, regularly has wild elephants grazing beside the tarmac at dusk. And Pottuvil lagoon at dawn, by canoe, is one of the quietest things you can do in Sri Lanka.