Weather on the Galle Coast

Traditionally, the best time to visit the Galle Coast is from mid-November to April, with the region offering similar weather patterns to the West Coast of Sri Lanka. May to October can see prolonged rain, although even then much of it falls at night and sunshine hours are still impressive so the Galle Coast, with its large range of boutique hotels and expensive villas, can offer perfectly satisfying destination during the European summer. Travel east beyond Galle along the south coast during this period and more settled weather can often result. October can see most prolonged rain, but by November good weather is expected till May. Temperatures on the Galle Coast are remarkably consistent, even for Sri Lanka, with maximum daytime temperatures normally a touch below 30C. February is the driest (and, not that you’ll really notice!) the coolest month while March is normally the sunniest, in an area that can boast more than 3,000 sunshine hours a year.

Sri Lanka is affected by two monsoons which generally means that there is good weather somewhere. The main south-west (“yala”) monsoon brings rain to the west and south-west coasts and hills largely between May and July. The north-east (“maha”) monsoon hits the east coast predominantly from November to January. There is also an inter-monsoonal period of unsettled weather in October.

Best month to visit the Galle Coast: March