Beruwala, Sri Lanka
About 60 km (36 miles) from Colombo, Beruwala is the heart of Sri Lanka’s package tourist industry. The beach here is wide and beautiful, an alluring swathe of sand backed by a string of densely packed resort hotels which cater mainly to the European package-holiday crowd; particularly popular with German tourists during the northern winter. This is the Sri Lankan coast at its most developed and commercialized, with little of the laid-back charm of beaches further south, although many of the hotels here offer luxurious accommodation and excellent facilities which continue to make it the most popular beah destination in Sri Lanka.
The region is also the island’s main Ayurveda centre with most of’ the hotels here
offering Ayurvedic and spa treatments in dedicated Ayurveda centres, and there are also a few specialist Ayurveda resorts, such as the long-established Barberyn Resort. There are many old Ayurvedic family that have lived in the region for generations and specialize in their own respective disciplines. If you are looking for a specific cure, its best to scout around and ask for the families that specialize on your particular aliment.
A couple of kilometers north of the resorts, the disheveled town of Beruwalais the oldest recorded
Muslim settlement in Sri Lanka and still has a large Muslim population. The town’s most significant landmark, out on a rocky headland on the northern edge of town, are the white minarets of the Kachimalni Mosque, believed to be the oldest on the island and also an exquisite location from which to watch the sunset, with views over the bay and lighthouse.