Kalutara

Arugam Bay town is small, with a single main road running parallel to the beach, and populated with guesthouses, cafés, and shops, as well as some of Arugam Bay's distinctive odd homespun architectural masterpieces - rustic palm-thatch cabanas, teetering treehouses, and other whimsical structures. Following recent clearances in which the authorities ordered the removal of all buildings within 20m of the coastline, the beach now looks better than ever.

A-Bay is also the rough border between Sinhalese-majority districts to the south and Tamil and Muslim-majority areas further up the coast, and it has an extraordinarily varied but peaceful mix of all three ethnic groups - as well as a rising number of Western ex-pats. However, the locals are concerned that the village's distinctively (for Sri Lanka) features and slightly off-the-wall character will be obliterated by larger and more mainstream tourism developments persist, particularly with the Hambantota airport, which will make the village significantly easier to reach for international visitors. For the time being, Arugam Bay retains its own amusingly odd charm.

Location: Kalutara District, Western Province, Sri Lanka

Best time to visit: between January and March