Green turtle Snorkelling Hikkaduwa, Sri Lanka

When visiting Sri Lanka and you happen to have the time to stop in Hikkaduwa there is only one thing I would recommend you to do. Snorkelling with massive green turtles! I was there in April 2018 and honestly there are surprisingly little tourists for the fact that you’ll be surrounded by green turtles for as long as you want for FREE. Before you read any further and I tell you all about how to get to those turtles and get some amazing shots with them please keep the following in mind:

Do not touch and do not pick up the turtles.

You will find people trying to push them onto the beach and I’ve seriously witnessed a man trying to pick up one of the turtles to take “a better picture”.  And really when you see somebody behaving this way say something as you will have the support of all the local people who will also be at the beach. So keep reading if you plan on going here and would like to find out how this works, or you just like to see some amazing footage of green turtles (and the baby ones too).

So where do you have to go?

You head down to Hikkaduwa beach towards the HikkaTranz Hotel. You will see a small concrete lets call it peer. You climb the few stairs from the beach or the ocean (depending on high or low tide) and you get to the beach in front of the Hikkatranz hotel. This is where you will probable see a few people standing knee deep in the water, and that’s it you have found the turtles.

What will you find here?

There will be some of the biggest green turtles that you will have ever seen. You will find only a handful of tourist and that is actually the best part about it. This has the potential to become a big attraction and at the moment this is fairly unknown. You will also find many locals who will appear to be interested in you and ask you things like: where are you from? How long have you been here? Where are you going? Etc… But don’t  be fooled, these questions are always followed up by an offer. This could be anything from a tuk-tuk ride to a guided tour but it always happens. Here, they mainly try to sell you snorkelling boat trips to some rock and corals near to shore. We didn’t do this because the turtles are really the main show here. Then there the few tourists there who want to feed the turtles some seaweed and take some pictures with the turtles and when there is only one turtle at the beach it might get a little bit crowded around her. However, it won’t be long before another one will show up and if you go a bit further away from the beach you will be sure to find one for yourself.

When should you go?

The turtles come out at high tide and in the afternoon. We tried to go in the morning but it turned out we got up for nothing as there was absolutely nothing to see. Locals told us it would be best to come in the morning to the beach and I think that they meant it would be the nicest time to snorkel as the sea would be calm and the visibility the best.

Insider tip!

In February many turtles lay their eggs and in the months of March and April some of the turtle hatchlings will be released every day from the Lifeguard post on Hikkaduwa beach. They will do this just before sunset and beginning of April this was at around 5:30. Really something to witness, they are really cute.

If you have any further questions leave it in the comments below!