Kiteboarding in Kalpitiya – Sri Lanka. Your full Tourgide featuring the spots and all necessary information your are seeking for this adventure.

Overview

Kalpitiya is a small little peninsula on the north-western part of Sri Lanka and very untouristic, but a spot with several nice kitespots around, white sand and flat water in lagoons and also the open ocean to ride in. If there´s no wind, you can do other nice activities like whale watching, scuba diving, visiting a national park (with elephants, crocodiles etc). The food is also very tasty (and spicy, if you want to have that).

Thanks to my kitebuddy David for providing all this information after his vacation in Sri Lanka. Also  thanks to Anthony from kitesurfinglanka for helping out with details and local spot information.

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Pictures

Some general impressions to start the review.

Accommodation in Kalpitiya for kiteboarders

You have to think about in which location you want to live – if you want to be closer to Kappalady lagoon or closer to the Kalpitiya lagoon (Kudawa or closer to Kalpitiya village itself). In both locations you can find hotels/accommodation in every price class.

Altough you can mostly kite right at a hotel you may want to check out more spots you will need a ride like Tuk-Tuk. So basically you decide by price and fancyness of the place you want. You find here from cheaper camp-style to fancy resort what you like and are most likely to meet other kiters at the venue. This are the places that my friend David visited and found nice. Of course there are much more hotels there that you can also browse >> here.

Venues directly at the Kappalady Lagoon

Also directly in Kappalady Lagoon where you can kite from the hotel (these are not featured here above as David didn’t visit them. But I recommend them because they are directly on the spot which is not the main spot.

Other Venues for this Destination

Kalpitiya is famous for Kitesurfing. If you look on booking.com you find about 25 venues with “kite” in the name. So there is much more. I listed here what David my friend visited and saw is ok and the 2 venues directly at Kappalady Lagoon as I found them really nice during my research. Also along Kalpitiya Lagoon you find lots of resorts.

>> If you want to go through all hotels at this desination click here.

Wind Season & weather

In general the season in Kalpitiya starts moreover around December and lasts till May – further there are two main wind seasons:

The winter one is from November to March around. The temperature is around 25°c. You don´t need a wetsuit. The wind is stable coming from the North and blowing generally middle of the morning till sunset. Between 16 and 22 knots.

In the summer season the wind direction changes. The temperature average is around 32°C. It comes from the south. It’s also stable and blowing all day. The average is quite same. Maybe a little bit more.

Kites sizes for both season is between 7m and 12m.

Thanks to Anthony from Kitesurfinglanka for providing these information.

Forecast: Kalpitiya Kite Lagoon

Forecast: Kappalady Lagoon

Kite-Spots, Map

Below you find all spots on Google Maps and also a bit of description and awesome Videos provided by kitesurfinglanka describing all the places. Enjoy.

Kalpitiya Kite Lagoon

The main spot is Kalpitiya lagoon. The huge  lagoon is flat and for riders and students. You can kite in the lagoon between 10am and 5pm when the schools operate. After 5 pm, the Kalpitiya lagoon should be only used by the local fisherman, but you can still continue riding in the indian ocean.

More Spot Pictures?

I still need some kite-action spot pictures for this review, David didn’t make all that I needed :D (Sorry David). Do you have some of the spots described here and would share it with me to be published here? Please contact me at office@welovetokite.com.

Kappalady Lagoon

In the Kappalady lagoon you can ride in front of the camp which is butter flat water in a little lagoon. You can also play with the waves in the Indian Ocean.

Vella island

Vella Island is reachable by a beautiful kitetrip available during the season. At Vella island where you can spend one or three days overnight camping. Composed of a 20 minutes downwinder. Contact the schools for details/transfer. Definitely worth visiting!

Putalam lagoon

In Putalam lagoon you have flat water and can also make beautiful downwinder aroud 15 minutes.

Donkey Point

Donkey Point is a wave-spot close to the camp of kitelanka.

Dreamspot

Small piece of sand seperating ocean and lagoon. You have flat on one side and little waves on the other. Little drive from Kalpitiya Lagoon.

Ippantivu Island

This is also a flatwater spot like Vella, just smaller.

Travel / Flight

Fly to Bandaranaike International Airport in the main capital – all the big airlines fly there. Do not forget to get your visa first, right after the booking of your flight.

Car rental / Transportation at the spot

I would not recommend to rent a car by your own, as the traffic in Sri Lanka (especially in the bigger cities or villages) can get pretty chaotic.

Better get a private driver (around 700 USD for 2 weeks) or just a taxi if you have your kite gear with you. If you want to share taxis or just want to contact taxi drivers for an offer – use the inofficial facebook groups like “Sri Lanka Backpackers” (https://www.facebook.com/groups/905152259525547/ ) for that – just paste your request and some drivers will get in contact with you with an offer.

If you want to travel the whole island and you are not having much luggage, go via public transportation. It is supercheap but you need more time of course, and it is not that comfortable most of the time – many persons are in the buses/trains. Local Life.

If you want to rent a car anyways you can use the rental search here on the page.

Price-level

Compared to Europe the price level in Sri Lanka is cheap. The whole country is easy to travel via public transportation (supercheap but you need more time of course), or hiring a driver for your own (around 700 USD for 2 weeks) – I would not recommend to rent a car by your own, as the traffic in Sri Lanka (especially in the bigger cities or villages) can get pretty chaotic.

Normally you will pay around 10-20 EUR/person per night for a normal/basic accommodation double room (so when you have a second person). For a breakfast (which is sometimes included at the accommodation), calculate with 4 EUR. A lunch/dinner will cost you about 3-10 EUR, depending on what you want to pay, or what type of restaurant you want to have.

In Kalpitiya generally prices are higher than in rest of Sri Lanka – I think because of the (currently) not so touristic amount of options the current level is a bit higher. In the village Kalpitiya itself, you can get things cheaper, but there are not really many restaurants with European/western standard.

A typical day on your Sri Lanka Kalpitiyas Kiteboarding trip

Just get up in the morning and have some fine Sri Lankan breakfast, and then wait for the wind.

If you have to rent your kite equipment or you take some lessons, kiteschools usually starting working at 10 am and work till 5 pm. After 5 pm, the Kalpitiya lagoon should be only used by the local fisherman, but you can still continue riding in the indian ocean.

After finishing you kite day, just have a nice relaxing meal at your hotel or kite-apartment, and relax. No big party going on here, just a few beers/cocktails if you want.

Kiteboarding schools in Kalpitiya – Sri Lanka

Kite-shops

There are not that many kiteshops here – ask around at the bigger kiteschools, which also deal with kite equipment and other things. For example Kitesurfing Lanka at Kappalady Lagoon – In the camp they have all the materials, machines and spare parts to repair any kite in a professional manner.

There is also a kiteshop at Srilanka Kite (sponsored by North / Duotone).

Crime & Security

Not that bad going on there, even if I would not recommend you to go out in Kalpitiya town and really have “bad western habits”. Just use common sense, as Kalpitiyia is a not that touristic town.

General travel information

Must-visit-stuff, nightlife & good-to-know-things

You have to get a visa first, before you enter the country. Here you will find everything you need to know and you can arrange the visa via the online form here: https://eta.gov.lk/slvisa/visainfo/center.jsp

It will cost you around 30 EUR/person.

Of couse mosquitos is something I also have to mention – especially in the evening they are quite painful, but you can stop them biting you with a normal mosquito spray, which you can buy in every little supermarket.

Sightseeing

If you have no wind – visit some national parks here (you can find amazing animals here, nice wildlife) or do a whale watching or dolphin tour.

For me the bigger cities like Colombo or Kandy were not nice to visit – so definitely would avoid them, just heading anywhere else (f.e. to the beautiful south).

Sri Lanka Kalpitiya Kitebeach Webcams

If you know more, let me know at office@welovetokite.com! Thanks!

Videos

Here you see also Clips of Kitesufing Sri Lanka giving a good impression of how it is over there.

Good-to-know

Take booties with you as in the lagoons it’s often better to wear them (sea urchings, stones, etc.)

Note

Hi, if you like this review and want to stay at a place I suggested on this site, please use the links above on this page if you decide to book. You automatically buy me a cup of coffee with that and I thank you :)

Q&A – Location Forum

If you have a question about Kitesurfing in Kalpitiya – Sri Lanka and your question is not yet answered, check if there is already something about it in our Kalpitiya – Sri Lanka –  Kiteboarding Forum. Or ask directly a question there, or here with the form below.

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Written by mathias

I love to kite, you love to kite, we love to kite :) Hope you like this review!

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