Arugam Bay

01Worth your time

• 01

  Main Point is not a beginner wave

  The right-hander that gives the town its name breaks off the rocky headland at the south end of the bay and runs 200 metres and more on a good day. It is shallow, it breaks over rock and reef, and in July and August it is crowded with people who surf well. Learning here is a bad idea and the locals will tell you so.

• 02

  Where beginners actually go

  Baby Point, tucked inside the same headland on the main beach, where the swell wraps in and loses its power — knee to waist high over sand, which is why every surf school in town uses it. After that, the inside section at Peanut Farm about fifteen minutes south, then Whiskey Point ten to fifteen minutes north, which is the usual step up to a proper point break without Main Point's crowd.

• 03

  The season, in order

  Waves start filling in around April and May, July and August carry the biggest and most consistent swell along with the peak crowds, and September into October usually gives the cleanest conditions with thinner line-ups. If you can choose, late season is the better trade.

• 04

  What the off season actually looks like

  From roughly mid-November to February a substantial share of restaurants and guesthouses close for the northeast monsoon. Enough stays open that you will eat and sleep perfectly well, but the street is quiet, the surf is flat and prices are negotiable. It is a different town, not a cheaper version of the same one.

• 05

  Kumana and the lagoon, for non-surfers

  Kumana National Park is about an hour and a half south and is a bird park first — a large mangrove lagoon that fills with waterbirds, best from April to July. It usually closes over the northeast monsoon, commonly around October to February, so check before driving down. Pottuvil Lagoon boat trips run year-round instead: about two hours among mangroves, with crocodiles, plenty of birds and, often enough, elephants at the water's edge.