SW India vs. SW Sri Lanks vs. Maldives

[minksters]

Hello,

Going for a weekend trip from Dubai and SW India (Mangalore Area), SW Sri Lanka (Colombo area) and Maldives (Male area) are all within a 4 hour flight from Dubai.

Which would you recommend for a quick, minimal hassle trip in August??

[dtc]

What are you planning to do? for example, surfing in the Maldive is almost entirely from a boat, so you need to arrange that - if surfing is your thing. August is wet season in India, not entirely fun although quite interesting (well, India is inherently interesting anyway).

[minksters]

What are you planning to do? for example, surfing in the Maldive is almost entirely from a boat, so you need to arrange that - if surfing is your thing. August is wet season in India, not entirely fun although quite interesting (well, India is inherently interesting anyway).

Yes it will be entirely for surfing. So Maldives is out, what about India vs. Sri Lanka?

[dtc]

I guess for a weekend it may not matter. Probably you need to look at practicalities - how far from the airport is the surfing spot. A residential surf school/camp is probably what you want, so how far from the airport is a good point of distinction. No point travelling 4 hours from the airport for a weekend surf.

Also take a good look at whether there are waves in that spot - the west coast may have waves but the east coast may not at the time you are going (or vice versa).

so basically i wouldnt worry too much about the differences, pick somewhere easy to get to.

That said, I havent surfed in either country and havent been to Sri Lanka, but aim to do so soon. A friend of mine who is a really good surfer and who travels the world to surf (more or less - he works part of the year to earn money and surfs the rest) - anyway, he went to India to surf the Andaman Islands (probably not for you) and then went up and down the Indian coast and over to Sri Lanka, surfing all the way.

He much preferred Sri Lanka, not because the waves were necessarily better but because the 'vibe' was much nicer in many places. A lot of the spots in India were quite crowded, a bit aggressive, a bit druggy (in a bad way) and some clashes between various tourist groups of particular nationalities. Sri Lanka was more laid back, less crowded, just more enjoyable. At least in the places he went and at the times he was there - which was about 4 years ago - when Sri Lanka was coming out of its war and still off the tourist map a bit. But for a weekend - esp in a surf camp, if you do that - then these things may not be noticeable.

So thats all I can really help you with - second hand knowledge from 4 years ago!

But both countries have long coastlines, India in particular, so there will be plenty of spots to surf.

Out of the surf, India is a brilliant place to go - as I said, can't say about Sri Lanka but plenty of people rave out it as well.

[pentagreen]

Maldives is nice place, I have been to this place few years ago.