A wellness day by the sea in Dikwella

A wellness day by the sea needs five things: a class, a swim, good food, real rest, and the sunset. Here is how they fit into one day at Turtle Beach in Dikwella, with the prices, and without a plan so full that it becomes work.

How does the morning begin?

With a class. The Ohana Shala is the open upper floor of the restaurant, with the ocean in front of it. We are setting up the shala's week anew, so look at our events page for the classes before you choose your day.

Which class is your own choice. Vinyasa Flow warms you up. Hatha and Slow Flow are gentler. If the names are new, vinyasa, hatha or yin explains them in a few minutes. Nat teaches our yoga. A regular class costs 4,000 LKR.

Come a little early. Sit, look at the water, and let the road fall away.

What comes after class?

A swim, and then breakfast, or the other way round if you are hungry.

The bay is calm and round, with a reef on the horizon. Walk in where the sand is clear, because sea urchins live in the rocks. Wild sea turtles often feed on the reef, and we lend snorkel masks free at the bar. Look, and never touch, chase or feed them.

Breakfast is served until 11:00. When you join any activity, you get 10% off the whole restaurant menu, so the class makes the breakfast lighter on the bill too. Some plates that fit the morning:

• Fitness Omelette, 2,800 LKR. Eggs blended with fresh spinach, folded around warm labneh and toasted pumpkin seeds, with toast and a side salad.
• Matcha Vitality Bowl, 2,900 LKR. Avocado, banana and matcha blended thick with spinach, gotukola and moringa, under passion fruit and seeds.
• Avo Toast, 2,900 LKR. Poached eggs over avocado and wilted spinach on our own sourdough, with chilli flakes.
• Milk Rice, 1,850 LKR. Red rice cooked in coconut cream, with banana and toasted nuts.
• After the Swim, 7,400 LKR. A breakfast board for one, for an active morning: protein first, something sweet after, a shot, a juice and a coffee.

Filtered water is on the house, all day.

What does our Move & Brunch pass hold?

It is this morning, put together as one thing:

• One regular class in the shala
• Any World Breakfast, toast or bowl after class
• A coffee or a matcha
• Filtered water
• A swim before you go

You tell us the day and the class, and the rest is ready. What it costs and how to reserve is on our passes page.

How do you rest in the middle of the day?

Properly. Rest is the part of a wellness day that people skip.

From late morning the sun is high. Choose shade: a sunbed under the palms, a hammock, a cabana, the lounge. Sunbeds are free for the whole day, one for each person, when each person spends 10,000 LKR on food and drinks; otherwise they cost 1,000 LKR an hour each. A towel comes with every sunbed.

Read. Sleep. Put the phone in the bag. If you want one small thing to do, the Ohana Ritual, 3,300 LKR, is three little shots of turmeric, greens and cacao on a wooden board, drunk slowly from left to right.

Lunch can be light:

• Gotukola Green Salad, 1,800 LKR. Whole leaves of gotukola with lettuce, spinach and carrot.
• Papaya & Prawn Salad, 3,600 LKR. Seared shrimps on papaya, mango and leaves, with passion fruit and lime.
• Veggie Bowl, 3,700 LKR. Pumpkin, zucchini, cabbage and carrot with herbs, salsa verde and warm basmati. It is marked spicy.
• Tuna Poke Bowl, 4,500 LKR. Marinated raw tuna over warm rice with avocado and cucumber. It is marked spicy too.

Food at Ohana is not spicy unless the dish says so.

What is there in the afternoon?

Something for the hands, or a second, softer class.

On some afternoons there is a workshop, 5,000 LKR, led by Anaïs. In the Ocean Treasures Workshop you make a piece of jewellery from shells and natural materials, and take it home. In the Mindful Painting Workshop you paint as a way to slow down. Why this calms people is in mindful painting and making with your hands.

On other days there may be a late afternoon class. If it is a yin class with sound, take it: long, still shapes on the floor while the light goes gold are a good end to a day that began with movement.

And some afternoons the right thing is nothing at all. The two swings under the palms are there for that.

How does the day end?

With the sunset. On this coast the sun goes down at about six, all year, a little earlier in November and a little later in July.

Sit where you can see the water. A Twilight Fizz, 1,500 LKR, is butterfly pea blue turned violet by lime, the colour of the sky just after the sun has gone. The After Sun, 1,700 LKR, is cucumber, king coconut water and mint over coconut ice. We serve no alcohol, and the evening is quieter for it.

On Sunday at 6 PM there is the Bonfire Circle on the sand: a fire, a moment to look back at the week, and it is free. On any evening the kitchen serves until 21:00, so dinner can be early and unhurried.

The classes and the week's schedule start from the page of our yoga and wellness shala in Dikwella.

Good to know

• Regular classes cost 4,000 LKR. People who live in Sri Lanka, and our regulars, join for 3,000 LKR. The events page lists what is on.
• Join any activity and you get 10% off the whole restaurant menu.
• Breakfast is served from 08:00 to 11:00, lunch and dinner from 11:00 to 21:00.
• Sunbeds are free for the whole day, one for each person, when each person spends 10,000 LKR on food and drinks; otherwise they cost 1,000 LKR an hour each. A towel comes with every sunbed.
• Prices are in LKR, plus a 10% service charge. We are less than five minutes by road from Hiriketiya.