As its name denotes, this beautiful location is centred around a bay situated on the Indian Ocean in the dry zone of Sri Lanka's southeast coast. The bay is located 320 km due east of Colombo. It is a very popular surfing and tourist attraction known locally as "Ullai". Besides surfing, other attractions include lagoon tours, bird watching, elephant watching, Kumana National Park, Kudumpigala monarchy and many ancient ruins and archaeological sites. Since the war on terrorism ended it has become a tourist haven especially for surfers and nature lovers.
The bay hosts a massive fleet of fishing boats which operates off the beach. After the destruction by the Tsunami, many organisations donated boats hence there are far more fishing boats than ever before.