One Day Safari Tour to Yala and Udawalawa Parks

27 Ratings

Palatupana

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Embark on a thrilling private all-inclusive day tour and explore Yala and Udawalawe National Parks. Witness incredible wildlife, enjoy a picnic lunch, and visit the Elephant Transit home.

Duration: 12 hours

Cancellation: 24 hours

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Highlights

Yala National Park - Experience the best of both Yala and Udawalawe National Parks in Sri Lanka in a single day. We offer hotel pick-up and drop-off services, or we can meet you at convenient locations near the parks. Udawalawe, one of Sri Lanka’s largest parks, is famous for its large herds of Asian elephants, sometimes numbering up to 100….

What's Included

Lunch
Bottled water
Safari Jeep
Transportation with an English Speaking Driver Guide

What's Not Included

Parks Entrance Fees

Additional Information

Have you ever visited two National Parks in a single day? This is a golden opportunity.
5:00am: You will be picked up from your hotel in Wadduwa, Kalutara, Beruwala, Bentota, Ahungalla, Hikkaduwa, Galle, Unawatuna, Talpe, Koggala, Ahangama, Weligama, Mirissa, Dickwella, Hiriketiya, Tangalle, Hambantota, Yala, Tissamaharama, Udawalawe & nearby areas….

Location

Yala national park

Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings

4.6

(27 Ratings)

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Lottiem914

Aug 21, 2024

A great experience for all! - A great time all round! Our tour guide Laksha was extremely lovely and went above and beyond throughout the entire safari. We would 100% recommend this safari to see animals in the wild🙏

Review provided by Tripadvisor

Ken_a

Mar 11, 2024

Great Day - We were picked up on time by our friendly driver and driven to the park entrance. Our Safari Driver was knowledgeable with all wildlife and was happy to answer questions throughout. Nice and Easy Transfer.

Review provided by Viator

Lewis_g

Jan 24, 2024

Must do tour - Absolutely amazing experience and certainly worth the money. The private transfer was comfortable and had air conditioning which was nice. The driver was very polite. The tours were exceptional with our tour guide/ jeep driver being great, always scouting for animals and always wanted to find more to fulfil the experience even further. Long day but everyone made it wortwhile

Review provided by Viator

Frlismt

Dec 19, 2023

Sri Lanka Wilderness - Fantastic safari in Yala and Udawalawa National Parks. We were picked up on time by our friendly driver who spoke great English and driven to the park entrance. He was knowledgable with all wildlife and was happy to answer questions throughout. Binoculars were provided which was a nice touch!

Review provided by Tripadvisor

Tatiana_t

Oct 22, 2023

Amazing - Our guide was amazing. He answered all our questions, really gave an effort, and took extra pictures for us as his camera had a better zoom effect than ours. We got to see lots of animals; elephants, water buffalos, birds, a leopard, crocodiles, a python that was eating a lizard. The lunch was fine too, and the ride overall as well. We had an amazing day, so no complaints from here. Only our sincere recommendations.

Review provided by Viator

Ampatty

Jun 21, 2023

Fantastic Tour! Awesome Driver! Tremendous Experience! - The safaris were amazing! Our driver, Yashara, was fantastic! He was super knowledgeable about the animals, the parks (especially Yala), and the terrain. Ask for Yahsara by name! We were picked up at our campsite (checkout the Mohoora Tent Safari!) at 4:30am so we could be at the Udawalawe park when it opened. When we got to Yala, Yashara was able to locate a cheetah lounging in a tree at least 300 yards from the road. He knew that sightings of cheetahs in that tree had occurred in the past, so he took us there, and we were able to see it (via binoculars). He also had a reference manual for the various fauna in the parks, to help us not be bored by the birds! Throughout the safaris, Yashara was networking with other safari drivers and park employees and was able to help others find the cheetah we saw. And, when he heard there was a bear sighting elsewhere in the park (a fairly rare event), his knowledge of the park, the side roads, shortcuts, washouts, etc... all came together to help us get to where the bear was in time to see it it and watch it for a few minutes before it wandered off in to the jungle. In between visiting the two parks, Yashara took us to a local restaurant, where we enjoyed the local cuisine. The stop at the elephant orphanage was also very memorable! Definitely worth seeing! We saw many elephants, water buffalo, hyenas (or were they jackals?), the one cheetah mentioned earlier, various types of monkeys, crocodiles, lots of beautiful birds, antelope, lizards, anthills taller than the safari truck, and some very stunning vistas! Our tour of Yala ended at stunning beach where we could dip in the water for a bit or just lounge on the beautiful sandy beach. On the drive home, Yashara made sure to pick up a colleague to help him stay awake (he'd been up since 3am to make this happen for us!) and get us back to our camp safely and in a timely manner. It was a FANTASTIC trip! Thanks Yashara and the Shehan Safari team for everything!

Review provided by Tripadvisor

Therese

Mar 5, 2024

The best guide! - The guide was the best! Sethan knew all the good spots and had knowledge about the animals! We saw leopard thanks to him ❤️ The “all-inclusive” (breakfast, water, lunch etc) just included a late, local lunch, not enough for a 9, 11, and 13-year old. So I bought breakfast and luckily had water and crackers with me. The pick-up driver had bananas with him in the car back home to the stay home though 👍 Really long day 04-19.30 so I don’t think kids younger than mine could handle it.

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Trudie

Jan 31, 2024

VALUE PACK! One Day Safari to Yala & Udawalawe - A long drive and a very early start for this excursion from Wadduwa. Our driver (never knew his name) spoke very little English, but very ably took us all the way to our meeting point with the Jeep. I had been worried about the driver being tired on the journey, but he seemed to manage to drive, talk on the phone and watch tv all at the same time!! We met with our tour guide and the Jeep on the side of the road. The step up into the Jeep was so high that the only way we could get in, was for the Jeep driver to reverse into a ditch so the step was lower. We then drove another hour to Yala park. We saw some great sights, lots of wildlife - elephants, bison, deer and a vast selection of birds which our driver was very knowledgeable about. Our driver also knew much about the park itself and went out of his way to try and find different species for us to see. Unfortunately the trip itself felt very long and uncomfortable - the Jeep was really bumpy - so by the time we left Yala we had almost had enough! This wasn’t helped by the well-intentioned driver then taking us on another long drive where we discovered 3 elephants on the road. They were each around 400 yards apart and although it was unreal to see them in close proximity (see photos), it soon became apparent as the driver pulled up alongside each elephant, then reversed for us to get different camera angles, that these poor creatures were only there because they were hungry! They were begging. Lots of vehicles passed and threw out bananas etc and the elephants were getting fed, but it still felt very uncomfortable and almost as if we were hounding the poor elephants - particularly as we didn’t have any food to give them. We then went on to a restaurant where a delicious meal awaited us. After we’d eaten we asked the driver where we were heading next. He told us we’d be going to see more elephants in Udawalawe park. As we had seen more than enough elephants, plus knowing we’d got at least a 3 hour journey back to our hotel, we decided we’d skip the next part. The trip operator, although seeming slightly offended, arranged for a taxi to pick us up at the restaurant and take us back to meet our transfer driver (the tv watching driver) at his rest area. Very kindly, the taxi driver stopped for us to pay a quick visit to a temple and museum as we passed it. In a nutshell, this whole trip was overpriced & whilst Yala was a lovely place to visit, with hindsight we wouldn’t do it again.

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251av56

Aug 8, 2023

Generic tour, cheaper elsewhere - We chose this tour as we wanted to visit both parks in one day and this allowed us to do so. We knew we were paying far more than we needed to compared to buying directly from the parks but opted to do so for the convenience of having drivers etc sorted. Unfortunately, we did not receive this convenience, our journey back to our hotel was 3hrs instead of 1.5hrs as the company did not want to send a driver to pick us up from udawale and instead we had to go back on ourselves to Yala and then to our drop off. Our safari driver also tried to convince us to spend the day at yala only as udawale was a long drive. When we spoke to the manager over the phone regarding an additional fee that was being charged, he was not very polite which is the opposite of what we have experienced in all other exchanges whilst in Sri Lanka. The actual tour was good and your driver spotted animals well however this would have been achieved with any tour company, the extra cost of this tour failed to deliver.

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Vacie_o

Feb 10, 2024

Long day lacks communication - The driver who collected us to take us to Yala, to and from the hotel didn't understand English, The safari guide was knowledgeable about the animals and spoke a little English. We didn’t see and Leapords as we got to the park to late and drove around for 4 hours to see lots of birds, a Family of warthogs, however we did see a family of elephants, which was amazing 😊. After the first sarfari we were shown to a cafe type restaurant where we ate Sri Lankan food, however there was no communication of what to do afterwards, the driver disappeared. We found the original driver and had to ask him to ring the safari driver to come back and explain what happens next . It was a long day with no communication would not recommend unless you can speak Sri Lankan

Review provided by Viator

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