Udawalawa National Park is one of the best national parks in Sri Lanka if you want to see elephants up close.

This is a very exciting day trip. Once you arrive in Udawalawa, we recommend that you have breakfast in one of our recommended restaurants in Udawalawa or have your breakfast in prepared breakfast packs.

In the middle of the national park before the start of the safari game drive, I will organize your jeeps and entry tickets. Normally the safari lasts 3 to 4 hours. A visit to the Udawalawa Elephant Transit Home before or after the game drive is a good idea where you can see the feeding of baby elephants. This can only be visited during feeding times.

Udawalawa National Park is a major ecotourism destination in Sri Lanka. The 30,821 hectare wildlife park in the dry zone has an annual temperature of 29.4 degrees Celsius. It is best known for the many elephants that live there (around 400 in total).

When visiting this main attraction, it is not unusual to see entire herds of adult and young elephants feeding or bathing and playing in the water. The park is also home to many water buffalo, water monitor lizards, samba deer, monkeys and the occasional leopard and is an exciting place for bird lovers.

A 4WD open top safari is the only way to see all the wonders this nature reserve has to offer and our experienced and knowledgeable naturalist guide makes this an unforgettable experience.

Overview

Length of the tour

3/6/8 hours Safari (only in 3 hours Safari is the Elephant Transit Home possible)

Early Morning or Afternoon/Evening Safari

Best time for this tour

All Seasons

Languages

English

German

Udawalawe National Park

Udawalawe National Park is centred on a huge reservoir and features vast open grasslands, making wildlife spotting relatively easy as you set off by 4x4 vehicle on safari. It's a great place for spotting elephants, and the lack of tall vegetation makes it perfect for other animal-watching, too. In addition to elephants, you can expect to see water buffaloes, various deer, wild boars, macaques and crocodiles. And, if you're lucky, there's also the elusive Sri Lankan leopard to look out for. To top it off, lunch is included.

Elephant Transit Home

We'll visit the Elephant Transit Home, where orphaned baby elephants are cared for after rescue from the wild. You'll arrive at feeding time so you can watch the little ones bottle-feed from a viewing platform just metres away. Once the elephants have been rehabilitated, they are released back into the wild, often straight into Udawalawe where they can rejoin the existing wild herds.

Real people, real experiences

We have just got home from the most incredible stay in Sri Lanka. We booked 3 day tours with Tony: Bentota, Galle and Udawalawe. All of the tours were absolutely amazing, full itineraries were given before hand and we had a truly amazing experience on each tour. We did two of our tours with Tony's son and the other with Tony and both of them were so kind, knowledgeable and accommodating- nothing was too much. We had our 1.5 year old son with us and they helped with him so much, picking him up and caring for him. I can't express how brilliant this trip was and it was made all possible by Tony and son. Very grateful for them. If you are thinking of booking with Tony then dont hestitate, you will not regret it! Thank you so much, hopefully see you next year!