Sri Lanka's Wild Side: Swimming with Sea Turtles in Unawatuna

Without a doubt, one of the most amazing parts of visiting Sri Lanka is the incredibly diverse wildlife.

The jungles are packed with wild leopards, elephants, sloth bears, and more types of monkeys than I could count. The best part is that the country is filled with opportunities to see these animals in their natural habitat - even if a bit crowded by human tourism.

I knew that Sri Lanka has a wild side to its nature but one encounter caught me completely off guard and made me fall in love with Sri Lanka… Sea turtles!

In the heavily touristed southwestern coast of Sri Lanka, I stayed in a small town outside of Galle called Unawatuna and I’m convinced that this was the best decision of my entire trip to Sri Lanka.

At first glance the town was pretty small and quiet. There were some decent touristy restaurants next to the beach and I stayed in a hotel with a small pool which always had langurs swinging playfully above. It was a a nice relaxing atmosphere, which is exactly what I wanted. From Unawatuna I was easily able to do day trips to Galle, Matara, and Mirissa by cheap public bus - usually $1.50 per ticket or less.

When hanging out in Unawatuna, while scrolling around for places to visit nearby, I noticed a pin on the map called Dalawella Beach and saw some folks commenting and saying they saw sea turtles during their visit.

I’ve never seen wild sea turtles in real life so I decided to check it out. Some of the reviews mentioned locals charging tourists to access the beach (which is not legal, by the way), and mentioned another entrance nearby where locals don’t hassle tourists. I walked 25 minutes or so to get to the beach in the evening and, sure enough, the free entrance was open and accessible (I’ll include a Google Maps link below).

I walked over to Dalawella Beach and what looked like huge stones on the sand actually turned out to be enormous sea turtles chilling on the beach! There were probably 20 or so people at the beach, swimming, feeding seaweed to the turtles, and enjoying the view while 6 giant turtles floated lazily, looking for seaweed, washing up on the shore, going back into the water, and floating some more.

The sea turtles were enormous - well over a meter in diameter, with huge heads that they’d poke out of the water to take a deep breath before going back under. It was amazing to watch the way that they drifted with the waves and floated gently where the water carried them.

The sun set and I decided to come back in the morning.

I got back around 7:30 am and the sun was shining. I dipped into the water for a bit, always keeping a watchful eye on the enormous turtles gliding past me. They kept just as intense of an eye on me, checking to see if I had any seaweed to offer them.

There were zero tourists on the beach at this early hour but 6 giant turtles still swam all around me as I enjoyed this moment in the sun.

Some other tourists started showing up and vendors who sell seaweed for feeding the turtles began to arrive as well before I said goodbye to the turtles and walked back home.

This was honestly one of the most incredible encounters I’ve had with wild animals - right up there with the wild elephants I saw at Khao Yhai National Park in Thailand.

10/10 recommend making the sea turtles a priority during your next visit to Sri Lanka.

I encourage everyone interested to check out this beach but please keep a few things in mind when visiting: -my personal rule is to not touch or feed the wildlife because I want to ensure that the wildlife is not disturbed or negatively affected by my visit. -be careful with positioning of the turtles because the waves can quickly crash them into the beach and if you’re standing behind a turtle when the waves carry it toward the beach, the weight of the turtle could absolutely break a bone or at least cut your skin! -while you’re in a location like this, if you see trash and plastic floating in the water (in Sri Lanka, you will), you should remove it from the water to keep the space clean for the animals. -there are many turtle beaches around this part of the country and the coastal road is convenient to travel thanks to ride hailing apps like PickMe and an abundance of affordable public buses. You could stay anywhere in this region and get around easily to find turtle beaches like this one, just do a little research about which town is best for your stay!