In 2015 we began offering year round surf & yoga retreats in Sri Lanka providing our guests a glimpse into the tropical soulful surfing life that we cherish. We host our luxury surf and yoga retreats at a beautiful new eco-lodge, set in the low hills where the only things you can hear are birds, monkeys and our excellent musical selections. Perfect for a secluded, luxury, all-inclusive retreat.
Folks tend to call us a surf & yoga retreat, we’re not so sure. A retreat sounds quiet and serious – we’re a little more relaxed than that. At Tekanda Lodge we offer a particularly special and, well, erm, soulful all-inclusive surf, yoga & therapy experience for our guests.
Let’s be honest here, Tekanda Lodge is genuinely jaw-dropping in terms of location and architecture. We still haven’t managed to give you a real feel for the place… it’s a bit special.
We love the beach, we really do. We love to surf, obviously, and spend as much time as we can covered in sand and salt and sometimes even sea creatures.
But it is also really, really nice to get a little change of scenery after our beach times and see the other side of this lush, biodiverse country. And you do not need to go very far to see it.
Head inland from Kabalana Beach and in a few minutes you are surrounded by the trees, paddy fields and nature. Palm trees, yes, but the other, diverse tropical rainforest lowlands too.
From the lodge, you can see one of our favourite places, Koggala Lake, and even spy the Indian Ocean in the distance. For more info about our location, how it is different from the Beachside B&B and eco-creds of the lodge click ‘read more’…
Whichever option you go for, you’ll be getting the same amount of love from us.
Our beach-front bed & breakfast hotel is right on the shoreline in our little cove and is simple and flexible, encouraging you to custom build your trip as short or long as you want – adding surf, yoga, massage and meals as you see fit.
Our hilltop luxury surf & yoga retreat is, on the other hand, pretty much all inclusive (except booze and massages) week long, focused retreats at a jaw-droppingly beautiful, tranquil, hilltop-lodge with incredible views ten minutes from the beach. Dare we use the word luxury? We do.
Even though we feel secluded and hidden here, and are very much a part of Sri Lanka rural life, we’re actually only 2km or under 10 minutes from Kabalana Beach and our beloved wave-rich part of the south coast. So it’s the best of both worlds, really.
You might spot a jungle shrew, a little mammal endemic to this region that we swear we’ve seen (but was also maybe a cat). You’ll hear the peacocks call, or you might watch a mongoose battle it out with a snake. The mongooses (mongeese?) usually win, it’s an evolutionary marvel to behold. We digress.
Tekanda Lodge is a tea and coconut estate set amongst 12 private acres of all this LIFE. Sri Lanka is one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet, surrounded by rainforest and rice paddies – when you aren’t surfing, or eating, or yoga-ing you can birdwatch, go for a walk in the jungle…or just collapse by the pool and sip on a cocktail or a coconut.
The lodge was built by local hands, using sustainable materials sourced from the area. The roofs are thatched with Sri Lankan Iluk grass, and all the doors, windows, beds and tables were made on-site from either recycled wood or teak sourced from sustainable forestry farms in Sri Lanka.
The estate is made up of a blend of organic tea bushes, coconut trees and wild jungle. In the five years since the owners bought the estate they have never used a chemical fertiliser – and have committed to a programme that aims to re-wild a variety of indigenous species of trees and fauna. The Lodge is grid connected but solar power takes most of the energy strain, with well water filtered to mountain-spring quality.
We hope you know that we’ll deliver a stay which is informal enough for you to feel relaxed and at home but with enough organisation and structure to provide as much or as little for you to do as you fancy. We’ve been honing our skills at this kind of thing since 2010, not just here in Sri Lanka but in Kerala, Portugal and at our Pop-Ups around the world too.
We surf stunning palm-fringed beaches and reefs in and around Ahangama each morning and afternoon. We put ourselves back together with meditation classes, massage and yoga classes each day. We eat healthy, hearty sunshine food to fuel busy bodies. But above all we bring together a brilliant group of people – both our guests and the families that make up our Soul & Surf team – to make it truly special.
We’re not a serious, pious yoga & meditation retreat or a macho, strict-regimented activity holiday, and we are a very long way from a grotty bunk-bed surf camp. Do as little or as much as you want to, no pressure. Some guests surf and spend the rest of the day hanging out, having coffees, chats and putting the world to rights; some just come for the yoga, meditation or massage; some surf as much as they possibly can; some come to just hang out, eat cake, drink coolers, sunbathe and enjoy the welcoming community Soul & Surf vibe.
With more experts on hand than most and more attention to detail than many, we really hope you’ll get what you need. Be it relaxation, progression or rehabilitation. To meet new people, to hang with your loved one, or to hang with the family. Or, of course, to just laze by the pool with a drink. We’re not too serious and definitely not too worthy… But we do have a whole heap of life-affirmingly brilliant people on our team making it happen who you might like to get to know while you’re here.
Need more info on why you should stay with Soul & Surf? Luckily Ed wrote a thing…
All the details of what’s included in your stay with us here can be found on our What’s Included page, but below is a little more insight into how your days might play out…
| A TYPICAL DAY | |
|---|---|
| 6.30am | Meet for water & bananas, yawn, stretch, wake up |
| 7.00am | Leave for your surf lesson |
| 9.30am | A hearty, healthy group breakfast putting the world to rights |
| 11.00am | Soul surfing workshops, video analysis. one to one yoga, massage, swim, chat or snooze |
| 1.00pm | A healthy, hearty lunch |
| 2.00pm | One to one yoga, massage, swim, chat or snooze |
| 3.00pm | Our daily yoga/meditation/pranayama class |
| 4.45pm | Head out for a sunset surf session, if you’re feeling energetic |
| 7.30pm | Meet for dinner, a drink and a good yarn. |
This might sound pretty regimented. Trust us, that’s not how we roll. The day’s events will change depending on the season, the surf conditions, your energy levels and the day of the week. And if you want to spend the day drinking cocktails in the pool we won’t bat an eye-lid. Or… if you’d like to spend the day careering from surf to yoga to meditation to massage and back again we’ll make that happen too. It’s a broad church we run here.
As we are near to the southern tip we escape the full monsoon that rages elsewhere in Sri Lanka which means we’re open all year round. But be prepared, in the wetter season of May to November we do experience some heavy tropical showers mixed with bright sunshine, and some wilder seas making this time of year more suitable for either beginners (on our sheltered beaches) or experts (at the few reefs and points that handle the swell). In the drier season from November to May there are more sunshine days and cleaner surfing conditions but bigger crowds. We love both but the choice is yours.
Click Read More to know about our covid policies and bringing the kids.
Read MoreThe c-word. It has changed the whole world, and forced many of us to re-think habits and routines we wouldn’t once have thought twice about. We have always taken cleanliness and hygiene seriously at our hotels, but in light of Covid-19, we have created our own internal protocol that meets both Sri Lankan and international guidelines. And we have created more flexible terms & conditions for covid related issues, a balance between being understanding for our customers and surviving as a business.
For more info, please read our company Covid-19 page.
We very much welcome families coming to stay with us and do what we can to make it affordable and workable with the kids. But we have to be realistic too. So if we can add extra beds or a cot to your room we can keep things very reasonable, if the kids need their own room we have to charge the normal rate.
We’re not allowed to recommend or offer baby-sitting or childcare as a service because our UK insurers advise us not to as the local mums from the village aren’t qualified, registered or insured. But we can introduce you to Sri Lankan ladies from the local area and if you feel comfortable you can arrange child-care directly with them at very reasonable rates whilst you surf or practice yoga.
We love the kids to join in with whatever we can reasonably allow them to do. Surfing is an inherently dangerous activity so we have to have some age limitations. Talk to the yoga teacher when you arrive if you’d like your kids to try yoga. It has to be at the yoga teachers discretion and not to the detriment of our other yogis’ experience.
Read LessSoul & Surf’s Luxury Retreat – Tekanda Lodge – our surf & yoga stay with style.
And lots and lots of trees.
