Yala Safari Short Break
Three days and two parks — elephants at Udawalawe, leopards at Yala — for people who have a week in the country and want one thing done properly.
- Duration
- 3 days, 2 nights
- From
- $390 pp
- Group
- Private — your group only
- Best months
- February to July, when water is scarce and animals concentrate at the tanks
Most safari bookings in Sri Lanka go wrong in the same way: an afternoon drive at Yala, in a jeep that arrived with nine others, in the two hours of the day when leopards are asleep under a rock.
Two changes fix it. Go in at 5.30am rather than 2pm. And do Udawalawe first, so that if Yala does not produce a leopard — and often it does not — you have already had a morning with a hundred elephants.
Yala closes for maintenance for part of September and October. If your dates fall in there we will say so and move you to Wilpattu, which is quieter anyway.
What you'll do
- Udawalawe, where elephant sightings are effectively guaranteed
- A 5.30am block-one game drive at Yala with a tracker, not a queue
- The Elephant Transit Home feeding at 10am — orphans, released back to the wild
- Dry-zone birdlife that most visitors drive straight past
Day by day
- 01
To Udawalawe
We collect you from Colombo, the airport or the west coast and drive four hours southeast to Udawalawe. Afternoon game drive — this park is open grassland with a reservoir through the middle, so you see elephants in the open rather than glimpsing them through scrub. Herds of forty are normal.
- 02
Udawalawe to Yala
The Elephant Transit Home at 10am, where orphaned calves are fed before eventual release. Then two hours east to Yala. Early dinner and an early night, because tomorrow starts before dawn.
- 03
Yala at first light
Gates open at 5.30am and the first hour is when leopards are still moving. Yala's block one has the highest recorded leopard density on earth, though nobody can promise you a sighting. Sloth bear, crocodile, wild buffalo and peacock are near-certain. Back by midday, then we drive you on.
What's included
- Private vehicle and driver-guide for three days
- Two nights accommodation with breakfast
- Two game drives in open 4x4 jeeps with a tracker
- Pickup and drop-off anywhere on the west or south coast
Not included
- National park entrance fees — roughly USD 40 per person per park
- Elephant Transit Home entry
- Lunches and dinners
- Tips
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