Culture and Gardens around Bentota

There are two. The short trip runs on the Bentota Ganga, directly behind the beach hotels, and lasts about two hours. The longer one goes to the Madu Ganga at Balapitiya, roughly twenty kilometres south, and takes three to four hours including the drive. Both are sold as "river safari" – check the itinerary, because the price difference is mostly the transfer.

It is four hours of driving each way, which means a pickup between three and five in the morning and a return after dark. If leopards are the point of your trip, yes. If you mainly want elephants, Udawalawe is closer at about three and a half hours and far more reliable for them.

Not from Bentota itself – there is no whale watching harbour here. The boats leave from Mirissa, around 110 kilometres south, and they sail at first light, so the pickup is in the middle of the night. The season runs roughly from November to April; outside it, boats go out and usually see nothing.

November to April. The south-west monsoon runs from about May to September, the surf gets heavy and operators cut or stop their programme. The river mouth stays usable longer than the open sea, which is why jet skis and banana boats run on the lagoon rather than off the beach.

By road it is about a hundred kilometres and, via the Southern Expressway and the Welipenna exit, an hour and a half to two hours depending on Colombo traffic. The coastal train is cheaper and more scenic but slow, often full, and has no luggage space – and most trains do not stop at Bentota Halt, only at Aluthgama two and a half kilometres north.

It depends on the project. The hatcheries at Kosgoda and Induruwa do collect eggs from beaches where dogs and poachers would reach them first. But hatchlings kept in tanks for days so visitors can see them may burn the yolk energy they need to swim offshore. Choose one that releases at dusk or after dark and does not hand you a hatchling for a photo.