Yaala

I have been on safari in Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, and Botswana and I can say with complete and genuine conviction that my morning safari in Yala National Park delivered the single greatest wildlife encounter of my entire travelling life. Within forty five minutes of entering the park our guide spotted a magnificent female leopard resting on a low rocky outcrop just fifteen metres from our jeep — and she stayed there for over an hour completely unperturbed by our presence, occasionally stretching, yawning, and surveying her kingdom with a calm and regal authority that was simply breathtaking to witness at such close range. On the same safari we encountered a herd of twelve elephants, a sloth bear foraging at the edge of the tree line, and countless crocodiles basking on the lagoon banks. Yala is a wildlife paradise of the very highest order and I cannot recommend it highly enough to any nature lover visiting Sri Lanka.

William T.

United Kingdom

I am not normally an early morning person but when our guide knocked on the door of our jungle lodge at 5am for the morning safari I leapt out of bed with an excitement I have not felt since childhood. The drive into the park as the sun rose slowly over the lagoons and the jungle came alive with the sounds and movement of a thousand creatures waking to a new day was one of the most beautiful and atmospheric experiences I have ever had anywhere in the world. We encountered elephants within the first ten minutes — a mother and her tiny calf moving through the scrub just metres from our jeep with a grace and gentleness that was deeply moving. The leopard sighting an hour later — a stunning male draped across the branch of a low tree surveying the landscape below with magnificent indifference — reduced me to complete and utter silence for a full five minutes. Yala is extraordinary beyond words.

Amelie V.

France

As an experienced safari traveller who has visited the great parks of East and Southern Africa multiple times I approached Yala with genuine curiosity and perhaps a degree of scepticism about whether a small island national park could truly compete with the legendary safari destinations of the African continent. Yala answered that question definitively and emphatically within the first hour of our morning safari. The density and variety of wildlife we encountered in a single three hour drive was simply staggering — leopards, elephants, sloth bears, crocodiles, water buffalo, spotted deer, and more bird species than I could count all in one extraordinary morning in the most beautiful and dramatic landscape. Our guide Sunil was exceptional — his knowledge of the park and its resident animals was encyclopaedic and his ability to locate and track wildlife through the dense scrub was genuinely impressive. Yala is a world class safari destination and every wildlife lover on earth should experience it at least once.

Michael S.

Australia