By Paul Topping

It is the second visit to another top villa in Mirissa, right on the beach. They must think, however, that I’m a British tourist, they try and charge me 75 $ per head for dinner with a few drinks. The sea-facing town sits between Weligama and Matara, along the southern coast road of Sri Lanka. Traffic, especially buses with blaring horns, hurtles through the town and is a real menace.

Mirissa is generally a budget seaside resort catering to backpackers, package holidays, and homestays, with lots of tired old hotels. 4,000 rupees is the average double room rate in town. Double that for a three-star location. Whilst there are many beaches, bays, and headlands, the town is noted for having the largest fishing port on the south coast of the island. Try the local tuna, mullet, snapper, and butterfish, great seafood from a barbie on the beach is our amazing experience. Avoid, however, swimming in the sea can be quite treacherous, especially in the so-called “off season”. Tourism here began in the 1980s, with dramatic growth in the 1990s.

On my first stay in Mirissa with “The African Group”, we rented a villa for four nights. Scrumptious food and service. In this group, there were seven Sri Lankans and me, the token white boy originally from Africa. We used to regularly go on holiday to central Africa. The  COVID period stopped our big trips. We sat on the Mirissa beach watching a humongous building going up, with hundreds of workers. Three years later, it’s being called the Ritz Carlton, with 230 bedrooms. 2027 is the unofficial opening.

It’s a leap of faith, but I’m sure a mega luxury hotel in this average location will create dramatic change and growth in the area. It happened in Weligama with the Marriott Hotel.

On this trip, I’m with my nephew and family from the UK. They were advised by a UK medical centre to have rabies injections before visiting Sri Lanka. Not the same advice given to our Canadian friends prior to their visit this year. One lady, whilst on the beach, got a minor nick from a playful strayish dog with three legs, called Tripod. Four rounds of injections followed. Stray and roaming dogs on beaches are a growing issue in Sri Lanka.

Mirissa is now a hotspot for tourists going whale watching and for large catamaran coastal tours. Many of these “cats” are made in Mirissa, using local skilled workers and young town folk developing their skills. On the next trip to this town, we’ll take a catamaran from Colombo on a four-day cruise. Mirissa is a well-located, cheaper base option for touring the coastal areas of southern Sri Lanka. The town itself, however, is worthy of only a two or three-day stay.