On this beach
Turtles at EKA Beach
Yes — and more reliably than most places on this coast. Green turtles feed close to shore along Dalawella year-round, often within a few metres of the sand. They nest here too: one guest watched a female come ashore and lay under the terrace, then saw the hatchlings emerge weeks later.
What follows is what is realistic to expect, when, and how to be around them without doing harm. Including an honest word about hatcheries, which is not the answer most websites give.
What you are likely to see
Turtles in the water, most days. This is the common experience. Greens graze on seagrass and algae in the shallows here, and on a calm morning you can often watch them surface from the sand, or snorkel near them. No boat, no tour, no fee.
Nesting, if you are lucky and it is the season. Females haul out at night between roughly November and April to dig and lay. It is not a nightly event and nobody can promise it, but it happens on this beach — including, on at least one occasion, directly beneath EKA's terrace.
Hatchlings, from around February through June. Eggs take about two months to incubate, so hatching follows the nesting curve. They emerge at night or early morning and make for the brightest horizon, which should be the sea.
None of this is guaranteed. Anyone promising you turtles on a given day is selling something.
When to come for them
Five species nest in Sri Lanka. On this stretch you are most likely to meet greens.
| What | When | Where from EKA |
|---|---|---|
| Green turtles feeding in the shallows | Year-round | Off the beach |
| Nesting females coming ashore | Peak Nov – Apr | On the beach, at night |
| Hatchlings emerging | Late Feb – Jun | On the beach |
| Calmest sea for snorkelling | Dec – Apr | Off the beach |
The five species that nest in Sri Lanka are the green, olive ridley, hawksbill, loggerhead and leatherback. The green is by far the most commonly seen along this coast, and is almost certainly what you will be looking at.
How to be around them
Wild animals, on a beach people also use. A few things make a real difference.
Don't touch, ride or hold them. It happens on this coast and it is worth saying plainly. Handling stresses the animal and can damage the protective layer on its shell.
Don't feed them. Offering seaweed to draw turtles closer for a photograph is common along here and does the animals no favours — it changes their feeding behaviour and concentrates them where boats and people are.
Keep your distance in the water. Give them room to surface and breathe. If a turtle changes course because of you, you are too close.
No lights on a nesting female or hatchlings. No torches, no flash, no phone screens. Hatchlings navigate by the brightest horizon, and a light on the beach sends them inland to die. This is the single most damaging thing a well-meaning visitor does.
Keep your distance from a nesting female. Disturbed before she starts laying, she will usually abandon the attempt and return to the sea.
About turtle hatcheries
There are several along this coast. The honest answer is more complicated than the brochures suggest.
Hatcheries buy or collect eggs, incubate them, and release hatchlings — often with visitors paying to watch or to hold a baby turtle. Some do valuable work. Many have been criticised by marine biologists, and the concerns are well documented.
The recurring problems: hatcheries that have drifted from conservation towards tourism; eggs reburied at the wrong depth or temperature, which affects both survival and the sex of the hatchlings; hatchlings held in tanks for days when they should enter the sea within hours; and releases timed for visitors rather than for the turtles. There is also a market problem — paying for eggs gives collectors a reason to take more of them.
Sri Lanka has no comprehensive licensing regime for hatcheries, so standards vary enormously between one operation and the next.
What we would suggest. If you want to see turtles, you can do it from this beach, for free, without anyone handling an animal. If you do visit a hatchery, look for one that releases hatchlings promptly rather than keeping them in tanks for display, that does not let visitors hold them, and that can tell you where its eggs come from. Those three questions separate the good ones from the rest quickly.
What happened here
In early 2026 a guest staying in one of the beachfront rooms watched a female green turtle come ashore at night and lay her eggs beneath the terrace. Weeks later, the same guest was there when the hatchlings broke the surface of the sand and made their way down to the water.
That is not a nightly occurrence and we would never advertise it as one. But it is why the carved stone turtle sits on the shelf, and why we ask guests to keep lights off the beach after dark between November and June.
Sleep where the turtles nest.
Four rooms on Dalawella sand, breakfast included, and the sea a few steps from the door.
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