Arriving
Getting to EKA Beach
EKA Beach is at 442 Galle Road, Dalawella, on the coast road between Unawatuna and Talpe. From Colombo's airport it is about 160 km and two and a half hours by road, nearly all of it on the Southern Expressway. From Galle it is ten minutes.
Check-in is self-service, arranged with building staff, so there is no arrival window to hit and a delayed flight causes nobody any trouble.
What to tell a driver
The single most useful thing on this page, and the one that saves the most confusion.
Our postal address says Dalawella. Most guests find us searching for Talpe. They are the same few kilometres of coast, and locals use both — but a driver who has never heard of "EKA Beach" will almost certainly know Dalawella, because the beach there is well known.
So: "Galle Road, Dalawella — past Unawatuna, before Talpe." That gets you to the right stretch. If a driver is using a phone, "EKA Beach" on Google Maps points at the right place.
Agree the fare before you set off rather than after. This is normal practice here and avoids an awkward conversation at the end of a long day.
How long it takes
Driving distances by road. Sri Lankan traffic rarely runs at full speed, so treat these as the best case.
| From | Distance | By road |
|---|---|---|
| Bandaranaike airport (CMB) | 160 km | 2 hr 15 – 2 hr 45 |
| Colombo city / Fort station | 123 km | 1 hr 50 – 2 hr 15 |
| Galle railway station | 6.7 km | 7 min |
| Galle Fort | 7.9 km | 10 min |
| Southern Expressway off-ramp | — | about 10 min |
| Unawatuna Beach | 1.5 km | 2 min |
| Koggala, for the stilt fishermen | 8 km | 9 min |
| Mirissa | 26 km | 29 min |
The ways people usually come
Car or taxi from the airport
The simplest option, and what most guests do. The Southern Expressway runs almost the whole way, which turns what used to be a long coastal crawl into a straightforward drive. Arrange a car in advance or take one from the airport rank; either way, confirm the price and that the fare includes expressway tolls before you leave.
If you land late, there is no need to hurry. Self check-in means arriving at two in the morning is no different from arriving at two in the afternoon.
By train
The coastal line from Colombo Fort to Galle is one of the more beautiful train journeys anywhere — it runs along the shoreline for much of the way, sometimes within a few metres of the water. It is slower than the expressway and the timetable is best checked close to the day, but as an experience it is worth the extra time.
From Galle railway station it is seven minutes by tuk-tuk to EKA. Tuk-tuks wait outside the station.
By bus
Buses run frequently along the Galle–Matara coast road and are the cheapest way to move around. Ask for Dalawella and you will be put down on the main road a short walk from the beach. Comfortable it is not; cheap and frequent it certainly is.
Once you are here
You will not need a car. Tuk-tuks are everywhere, cheap, and the normal way to cover the short distances along this coast — two minutes to Unawatuna, ten to Galle Fort. Many guests use an app-based ride service for fixed pricing, which also removes the haggling.
Finding us on the day
EKA sits directly on the sand, set back from Galle Road behind a wall with a carved wooden EKA sign at the entrance. If you reach Talpe proper you have gone a little too far; if you are still in Unawatuna you have not gone far enough.
Ten minutes from Galle, on the sand.
Four rooms with en-suite bathrooms, breakfast included, and self check-in whenever you land.
See Rooms & Availability →4.77 ★ out of 5 · 100+ reviews · Superhost