About this experience
This is a full-day excursion from Yala to Udawalawe National Park, one of Sri Lanka's most reliable places to see wild elephants in the open. Rather than a short add-on safari, the day is built around the journey and the park itself: a private, air-conditioned vehicle collects you from your hotel in Yala or Tissamaharama, carries you across to Udawalawe, and hands you over to a dedicated safari jeep and tracker for a three-hour game drive through the park's grasslands, marshes and scrub.
Udawalawe was established in 1972 to give sanctuary to animals displaced by the building of the Udawalawe Reservoir on the Walawe River, and to protect the catchment feeding it. The land was farmed by local chena cultivators before that, and traces of that older, cleared landscape still shape the open plains the park is known for. It sits on the boundary between the wet and dry zones, just south of the Central Highlands, and the escarpment behind the park forms a backdrop to the grasslands wherever you happen to be driving.
What you come for is the wildlife, and Udawalawe rarely disappoints. Elephants move across the open ground in loose family groups, often close to the water, and the park is equally well regarded for its water birds, with storks and other waders working the reed-lined margins of the reservoir and its tributary pools. Spotted deer herds graze on the cleared flats, peacocks display in the undergrowth near the forest edge, and the drive also turns up reptiles, amphibians and butterflies for those paying attention to the smaller details alongside the larger animals.
The day runs on a set rhythm. Pickup from your hotel is at 11:00, with arrival in Udawalawe by around 1:00 pm, followed by time before the 2:30 pm jeep safari begins inside the park. The safari itself lasts three hours, after which you return to your road vehicle for the drive back, reaching your hotel by about 8:30 pm. In total the tour runs for nine hours door to door, and is suitable for travellers aged five and over.
The price includes hotel pick-up and drop-off, transport throughout in an air-conditioned vehicle with an English-speaking driver, the jeep safari itself with driver and tracker, and a litre of bottled mineral water per person. Food, drinks, gratuities, personal expenses and entrance tickets to Udawalawe National Park are not included and should be arranged or budgeted for separately.
