National Geographic in Sri Lankan: how we went on a safari in search of elephants, a Ceylon leopard and a bear. We tell you about the safari in Yala Park and give tips. Find out how the trip is going, what to expect and where it is better to buy a tour so as not to get caught by scammers.
Yala National Park is the largest and most popular in Sri Lanka, with an area of about 100 hectares. It is located in the south of the island and is convenient to visit. People go to the park on safari, watch wild animals in natural conditions. It is home to elephants, buffaloes, wild boars, sika deer, Ceylon leopard, sloth bear, monitor lizards, snakes, mongooses, peacocks, monkeys, crocodiles and a great variety of birds. Unusual luck - to see a leopard and a bear, they are "hunted" by all jeeps.
Exchange rate: 100 Sri Lankan rupees (LKR) ≈ 41 RUB.
How much does a safari in Yala Park cost
A 7-hour tour shouldn't cost more than Rs 6,000-7,000 (about $ 35) per person. Safari for the whole day - no more than 10-11 thousand rupees per person. Of these amounts, only tickets to the park cost about 3500 rupees per person.
Everything is included in the price: tickets, some taxes, breakfast, jeep with a driver. If the price is too low, you may not be taken to the park at all, but will be driven around the neighborhood. If it is very high, look at another hotel.
Where to buy a Yalu safari tour
You can buy a tour in different cities: Tisse, Kataragama, Mirissa, Hikkaduwa and other resorts. But from the resorts to go far - you have to stay awake at midnight to catch the opening of the park.
Mostly everyone comes to Tissamaharamu (everyone just calls the city Tissa) or Kataragamu for 1-2 nights, because they are conveniently located relative to the park and other cities.
We stopped at Tisse. There, each hotel sells tours, but they will start selling them to you about a couple of kilometers before the city - right on the bus. A Lankan will sit down, start a conversation from afar, smoothly transfer to safari. Of course, his tour will be the most interesting and cheapest! Such comrades must immediately be rebuffed.
The next step is to break through the locals at the bus station, which immediately surround the foreigners. We do not recommend taking tours from unverified sellers, as we have read sad stories. A popular divorce is to ride at full cost only in the vicinity of the park.
Safari tours are advised to take in hotels - it is safer. If there are claims, at least someone can be presented with them. And you will never see the guy from the street who will take the money for the tour.
We lived and bought a tour at the proven La Safari Inn Tissamaharama hotel - it was recommended to us by friends, we were also satisfied.
How safari is organized
This is how our safari went. We bought a 7 hour tour at our hotel for Rs 6500 ($ 35) per person, where everything was included. At about 4:15 am, an open 6-seater jeep came to pick us up. There was already a couple from Switzerland. On the way, they took the Englishman from another hotel and moved to the park - it is about 24 km from the city.
At 5 am we drove up to the first "post", where they issue tickets for the queue. There are a lot of cars. Then - the second stop, where everyone is waiting for the park to open at 6 o'clock. During this time, you can have a snack and go to the toilet. Then again the turn - this time to the official gate to the park. Then the jeeps drive off in all directions in search of a leopard.
Approximately the first 2-3 hours of the safari are the most intense. It is not yet hot, and at this time we saw almost all the animals. In a jeep you feel like a tarsier, whose head turns 180 degrees - just manage to twist in different directions, looking for animals, birds and reptiles.
At about 8:30 we arrived at the ocean coast for breakfast - bananas, roti and hoppers. There was a tsunami here in 2004, as the memorial reminds of. There is a toilet, they give about half an hour to rest.
By 9 o'clock it became hot, and the animals together hid from the heat. Only empty landscapes, bushes, buffaloes in the distance, birds and peacocks and jungle roosters, which had already become uninteresting by the end of the tour, flashed by. Unfortunately, the leopard and bear were not found. We left the park at 10:30 and returned to the hotel by 11:30.
The drivers call each other, who found whom where. They know what places animals like to live in. Therefore, if you find, for example, a leopard, you have only a few minutes to admire and take pictures in peace and quiet. Then jeeps with tourists come flying in, and that's it. Animals are used to cars and don't pay attention to them.
Yala park safari review
In general, I liked the jeep safari in Yala Park, but we did not get any extraordinary experience. Impressions are much brighter from unplanned encounters with animals in everyday life in Sri Lanka: from lizards suddenly crawling out of bushes, robber bands of monkeys, nimble mongooses and chipmunks, colorful birds that look like paradise or hummingbirds.
The most impressive thing in Yala is the elephants. We met them several times. Once, a female with a calf crossed the road right in front of the jeep. Another time lucky enough to see a family of elephants take a bath - a spectacular sight. Feeling like I was inside a BBC program.
Too much of the coolest time on a safari is spent looking for a leopard - this, of course, is reckless, but it is better to spend it on other animals. While you are looking for a leopard (and there is no guarantee that you will find it), other animals will scatter for cover.
Reviews of other tourists about the Yala safari are controversial, but overall, most are satisfied. Do not expect any special exoticism, this is not Tanzania. But as a first experience of safari - very much even nothing.
DianaTsukana: "The general impressions are quite positive, but (!) You need to be prepared for the fact that <...> if the animal does not want you to see it, then you will not see it. <...> The leopard was waiting in the right place for jeeps 20 , probably".
svetuevina: "To say that we are delighted is almost nothing to say. Here we saw a huge number of animals (and at a distance of no more than 5-8 meters)."
Sri Lanka Safari Tips
- Wear closed, lightweight clothing to avoid getting burned.
- A hat and sunglasses are also better to have.
- Clothes and equipment are very dusty. Wear not white clothes, but cover your equipment from dust.
- Better to take a telephoto lens and binoculars - animals are mostly in the distance.
- Get some sleep before the safari, because in the park you need to look around carefully to spot the animals.
- The road is bumpy and the drivers are driving. If you feel motion sickness in transport, take a pill. Many tourists complain of shaking and get tired of the trip quickly.
- According to the safari rules, you cannot get out of the car, except for the picnic area, drive off the road, make noise and litter.
- There is also a safari for 5 hours and a full day. According to reviews, a full day is very exhausting.
- Don't buy tours from unverified sellers.
- In September or October (it happens in different ways), the park is closed, check this before your trip.
