Explore · Experience · Enrich
This is the wildlife short-list, done properly. Small open jeeps, licensed trackers and early starts so you are at the park gate as it opens rather than in the mid-morning queue. The whale cruise uses a licensed operator that keeps the legal distance and carries a marine naturalist on board.
Airport pick-up and drive south-east to Udawalawe (approx. 4.5 hours). Evening visit to the Elephant Transit Home for the 6pm milk feed.
Dawn jeep safari in Udawalawe — the most reliable elephant park in the country. Afternoon transfer to your tented camp on the Yala boundary.
Two game drives — 5:30am and 3:00pm — with a licensed tracker, looking for leopard, sloth bear, elephant and the park's 200+ bird species.
Drive west along the coast to Mirissa. Evening turtle-nesting beach walk at Rekawa with a conservation ranger.
Board at 6:00am for the blue whale and dolphin cruise. Back by late morning, then transfer to the airport (approx. 3 hours on the expressway).
“Three leopards in one morning drive, and a blue whale two days later. The tracker they paired us with in Yala was extraordinary — he read the alarm calls and had us in position before anyone else arrived.”