The beach village of Mirissa was one of my favourite laidback places in Sri Lanka. One of the best things to do in Mirissa is to visit Secret Beach!
Gorgeous, Secret Beach
Secret Beach Mirissa Sri Lanka
Secret Beach is not really a secret anymore! The secret is well and truly out! Secret Beach is actually a small beach divided into two separate beach strips with coarse coral sand at one end and softer sand at the other.
We arrived by walking straight down on the coarse sand and were pretty underwhelmed, to be honest. That was until we walked over the hump and found the gorgeous little bay.
This section of Secret Beach was very pretty, and for the first hour or so we were there, it felt very exclusive! We had the place to ourselves until later in the morning. This is where you will find a little lagoon which was perfect for Ned and Olive to splash about watching the fish for hours with no need for Ross and I to be holding onto them.
Fish, fish everywhere
Secret Beach is well worth a visit if you are in Mirissa and feel like getting away from the crowds.
One of the great things about Secret Beach is that there is no entrance fee to visit the beach (as per some other locations). The locals have set up a beach bar on the sand where you are able to purchase food, drinks and hire lounge chairs if you feel like it! The day beds are around 500 Rupees for the day. Which is under $5 AUD but I still thought this was too expensive so we sat on the sand haha!
We visited first thing in the morning and stayed until early afternoon. You need to visit when the tide is out, this creates the safe little lagoon. Perfect for laying in the water, watching the fish and generally hanging out.
When the tide turned and came back in, the whole beach area became really quite rough, the waves crashed high up the beach and we had to move our gear back up the beach closer to the restaurant a number of times. If you arrived when the waves were crashing like this I don’t think you’d be impressed at all with the beach! When it started to get deeper we even saw a little black tipped reef shark swim past. Kept me out of the water from then on ha!
We bought a few drinks from the restaurant and enjoyed them on the sand and we packed a little picnic lunch.
As with everywhere, there are stay dogs around. To be honest they are so well behaved. We were sitting there eating and they just sat there and watched. I have read there are monkeys but we didn’t see any.
How to get to Secret Beach
The signs to Secret Beach
Wondering where is Secret Beach? There are a couple of different ways you can get to Secret Beach. It is a 20-minute walk through the jungle from the main Mirissa Beach but it was far too hot for us to do this with the kids. We saw tourists on moped’s – there was no way I’d attempt this road on a moped!
We opted for a tuk tuk. A very expensive tuk tuk ride to be honest. It wasn’t until we turned off the main road and started uphill that we realised why the cost was so high!
Many tuk tuk’s will only take you to the last fork in the road before it starts to get really rocky. The tuk tuk’s that belong to the restaurant will make the crazy journey but not all will.
Our tuk tuk was actually quite happy to take us the whole way but I asked him to stop as we starting going down the hill. I was petrified we would tip over. Ross told me I was being silly and they wouldn’t attempt the road if they had any doubts. These tuk tuks are a source of income and they are not going to do anything that is going to jeopardise this. I wasn’t convinced though!
Check it out. This doesn’t even look that bad but it was, I promise you!!
There were no tuk tuk’s waiting at the bottom for our return journey so we walked about ½ way up the hill to where one was waiting. To be honest, I would have been happy walking a bit further as it was still pretty steep with some tight corners to manoeuvre around, but we made it safely, phew!
Overall, Secret Beach
Hi! Amber and her little fish!
Secret Beach Mirissa is a pretty cool place to hang out during the day away from the crowds of main beach Mirissa.
It is well worth a visit. Walk through the jungle or take the roads if you are not up for the hairy tuk-tuk ride!
We loved our morning, it really was a piece of paradise in Sri Lanka.
Let me know if you have any questions below on Secret Beach Mirissa.
If you’d like to keep in touch via email please sign up here. We don’t send out many emails and it’s just a really nice way to keep in touch x
What a hidden gem in Sri Lanka! It looks like a private beach 🙂
Yes, it was!!! We had it all to ourselves for a while which was lovely!
Relevant information …. there are plenty of things written in this blog that are important to remember. With basic information, this blog has also put effort into mentioning small details.
Thanks for the details.