Yala National Park is Sri Lanka's second-largest national park and its most visited, a stretch of coastal sand beaches, wetlands, grassland and dry monsoon forest in the island's southeast. This safari puts you in a 4WD game vehicle for a three-hour drive through that landscape, with an English-speaking driver who also works as your tracker, departing from and returning to your hotel in Mattala.
Yala rewards patience and a good eye. Leopards are the animal most people hope to see, and they do turn up here, sometimes resting along a branch in dappled shade, sometimes stretched out in dry golden grass under thorn scrub. Elephants move in family groups, calves included, often near mounds of raised ground with egrets picking around their feet. Spotted deer herds, antlered males and does and fawns together, gather at waterholes cut into the sandy terrain, and sloth bears are occasionally spotted shuffling across leaf-littered ground. None of this is guaranteed on any single drive, but the variety of habitat packed into the park gives you a real chance across the three hours.
The park has been protected since 1900 and became a national park in 1938, and it remains accessible only by vehicle on designated roads - there is no public transport in, which is why a jeep and driver are part of what you are paying for. For safety, and particularly around elephants, you stay inside the vehicle throughout the drive and follow your guide's instructions, especially if you come across a lone elephant, which can behave unpredictably if disturbed.
The safari includes hotel pickup and drop-off from Mattala, the jeep and driver-tracker, bottled water per person, and all taxes and service charges. Park entrance tickets are included only when the option with tickets is selected; choosing the no-tickets option means you will need to arrange entry separately. Food, drinks, gratuities and personal expenses are not included.
