About 60 km (36 miles) from Colombo is the beach town of Beruwala and 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. The area is also the island’s main Ayurveda centre. Most of the hotels here offer Ayurvedic and Spa treatments in dedicated Ayurveda centres, and there are also a few specialist Ayurveda resorts that offer specialized treatment packages along with your stay.

A couple of kilometers north of the resorts, the scruffy town of Beruwala is the

oldest recorded Muslim settlement is Sri Lanka, and is still has a large Muslim population. The town’s most significant landmark, out on a rocky headland on the north edge of town, are the white minarets of the Kachimalai Mosque, believed to be the oldest in the island and also an exquisite location from which to watch the sunset, with stunning views overlooking the bay and the lighthouse.