Arugambay Surf Center

The camp

Arugambay Surf Center is run by two people: Afry, who is from here, and Alli, an Australian who teaches the yoga. You sleep at Paradise Palms, a garden strung with hammocks three hundred and fifty metres from the main street, in an air-conditioned villa or a simpler cabana.

The day runs to a timetable. Yoga from six to seven, breakfast, a session from nine to eleven, then nothing until mid-afternoon. Video and theory at quarter past three, and at four the sunset session. Each time you get an hour to an hour and a half in the water, with ISA-certified coaches and groups split by level. A tuk-tuk takes the group to the day's spot, and the house does not say which one. That matters: the Main Point breaks over coral, and Whiskey Point and Elephant Rock are the waves that take beginners. If you are starting out, ask where you will surf before you pay.

Dinner is included on three nights out of six, Sri Lankan and three courses. On the others the main street is a few minutes' walk away: in July and August a row of bars full of surfers, by October half shuttered.

The short stay is three nights, enough to fold Arugam Bay into a trip round the island. The east coast only surfs from May to September, with April and October at the edges, the mirror image of the south. This is a house for a European summer, not for January.