Vidya Balachander is a food and travel writer based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Formerly the features editor of BBC Good Food India, her work has also featured in Mint Lounge, Vogue India, National Geographic Traveller India, Time Out Mumbai and the 2010 edition of Fodor’s Essential India guidebook.
Escape Bentota and explore the mangrove forests of Madu Ganga
Destinations
Bentota
Activity
Nature & WildlifeSeason
January - DecemberThe beach town of Bentota, on Sri Lanka’s south-western coast and easily reached from Colombo, is a tourism hotspot – the beaches here are crowded and a tad dirty in peak season.
But just half an hour’s drive from busy Bentota is one of Sri Lanka’s best-kept secrets: A dense tangle of mangrove forests on the Madu Ganga river. Part of an inland coastal wetland, they are among the last untouched mangrove forests in the country. Local operators offer boat tours that weave through the mangroves and past small river islands.
Bentota is a little under two hours’ drive from Colombo so you could easily make it a day trip. Stop for a Sri Lankan rice and curry lunch at Lunuganga, country home and estate of Geoffrey Bawa, the renowned 20th century Sri Lankan architect. (Make a lunch reservation in advance; a tour of Lunuganga’s landscaped gardens is included in the entry fee.)
The best time to visit this part of the country is between January and April.
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Escape Bentota and explore the mangrove forests of Madu Ganga
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