Negombo — what to see, what to do, Negombo beach

Although Sri Lanka's only international airport formally belongs to the city of Colombo, it is still more than an hour's drive from the airport to Colombo. That is why many arriving travelers choose to stay in the beach town of Negombo, which is a 10–15 minute drive from the airport. That is what we did too.

Negombo, Sri Lanka

Negombo is perfect for spending a couple of days looking around, getting into the rhythm, and, without rushing, buying a SIM card, renting a bike, planning the rest of the route, and swimming at its only beach. It is not good for anything else: there is no point in staying here for more than 2 days — there are no sights as such, and a hotel beach vacation is not for us, right?

Negombo beach

Speaking of the beaches of Negombo, it is worth mentioning the only one, which bears the town's name: Negombo Beach. It is a fairly wide sandy beach that stretches for several kilometers along the town. As for things to do, there are various water activities and the chance to go diving to a sunken ship.

How to get to Negombo from the airport

There are several ways to get from the airport to the center of Negombo:

• A regular bus. It runs until 21:00, so it did not work for us. It is the cheapest option, about 120 Rs (Sri Lankan rupees), but it also takes the longest because of the many stops.
• A taxi. They ask from 1400 Rs. We did not find out how much room there was for bargaining, since we chose the next option.
• A tuk-tuk. That is what we took. To use this option, you need to leave the airport building, walk past the pushy taxi drivers, and go out to the road, where the tuk-tuks will already be waiting for you. As always, we bargained. At night they quote higher prices. At 23:00 we bargained them down from 1000 Rs to 700 Rs for a 15-minute ride to the center of Negombo.

Staying in Negombo, hotels, guesthouses

We booked a room in a guesthouse for 3 nights through Airbnb. With the $25 discount that everyone who signed up by invitation (like ours) got at the time, it came to about $15 a night. A great room in the house of a wonderful family, who helped us a lot to quickly get our bearings and get everything we had planned done.