Mount Lavinia

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AUGUST 2026

OVERVIEW

We start our Sri Lanka Tour in Mount Lavinia.

MOUNT LAVINIA

I was scheduled to land in Colombo at about 10:30pm. I needed to spend a couple of days near Colombo to ‘get my feet under the table’.

Accommodation around Colombo Fort was expensive. I did not want to be stuck out in the Colombo suburbs.

I looked at Negombo Beach which is only 8kms north of the airport and easy to get to at that time of night. I wasn’t impressed by what was available.

In the end, I decided to ‘bite-the-bullet’ and get down to Mount Lavinia.

GETTING THERE

At Colombo airport I ordered an UBER to take me the 45kms / 1 hour journey to my hotel in Mount Lavinia. It was midnight. The price was 4,200r plus 400r in toll road fees. US$14 total.

ABOUT

Although it is monsoon period in this area of the country. The August rainfall looked acceptable.

In the 4 days / 5 nights that I was there we saw very little rain. There was a chance of rain over night and a short shower early morning and/or mid afternoon. Otherwise, it was sunshine.

Mount Lavinia straddles the main west coast highway connecting Colombo with the south coast. The main road is loud and busy.

There is a Mobitel Store if you need a SIM card. You will find many shops and a few small supermarkets. The are few places selling alcohol … you can find it in a couple of the supermarkets or in one of the very few liquor outlets.

There are not many natural places to ‘socialise’ and very few bar / pub options (the Lion Pub is one of the few). You may find that your social life revolves around your hotel and what the two of you can talk about as you eat your evening meal.

The beach is nice.

But, obviously, the seas are rougher this time of year. I saw nobody swimming.

ACCOMMODATION

WHERE TO STAY

GRANDPAckers will find few hotels within our price range (up to US$25 / night). You will need to take what you can get.

Noisy trains pass along the railway regularly and they can wake you as early as 4:30am. If you live near to the tracks, the drone of the engines can shake your hotel like a bass amp. About every 50 metres, you will find a place where you can cross the tracks to get to the beach … just be careful and watch out for trains!

When looking to book accommodation, I suggest that you target the ‘green zone’ between the highway and the beach.I suggest that you stay at least 50 metres inland from the railway line.

MY ACCOMMODATION

I used Agoda to book a Standard Double Room at Mount Bay Hotel. I paid 8,400r / US$26 per night excluding breakfast.

They had a nice view from the Rooftop (but, the bar was closed and it had no wifi signal).

The room was clean and everything worked. You get stronger wifi on the lower floors.

The owners were really nice and my room was good value for money (for Sri Lanka) … but, in my opinion, the railway tracks were too close and the trains were too noisy.

CONCLUSION

I wouldn’t call Mount Lavinia ‘idyllic’ but it is nice enough for a few days … personally, I would not stay any longer.

Our next stop is Ella in the central highlands … We will load up the post soon.

TTFN