This is pretty much the question everyone would ask themselves when trying to decide on which safari to go to. These national parks are both in the Southern Province, so many people find themselves torn between the two options when selecting on to go to.
If you only have time for 1, you’ll probably decide which animals you’re hoping to see. Yala is known for leopards while Udawalawe was known for elephants. However, like all safaris though, a sighting is not guaranteed. Many people have been to Yala hoping to sight a leopard to no avail. With that in mind, we decided to visit Udawalawe instead since it has a greater density of animal to size ratio, particularly elephants. There are a few hundred elephants within the park, and you can sometimes witness a herd of females moving or bathing together in the wild.If we were lucky, perhaps we could also spot a leopard but that would just be a bonus. Other than that, it is also much less crowded than Yala and the pricing is almost half of what is charged over at Yala.
Getting To Udawalawe
There is no train from Ella to Udawalawe National Park, but there are buses you can take.
As the best time to go on a safari tour is in the afternoon, you will need to arrive at Embilipity (the nearest town) before 3pm (the start of the afternoon tour). The entire journey will take up around 4 hours, with a bus ride from Ella to Thanamalwila where you change bus to Embilipitya, so you will need to depart from Ella in the morning.
Bus Stand Passara Balla Ketuwa
Address: 39 Passara Rd, Ambagollapathana, Sri Lanka
Bus from Ella to Thanamalwila: 2 hours, LKR 110 per person
Thanamalwila Bus Station
Address: A2, Thanamalwila, Sri Lanka
Bus from Thanmalvila to Embilipitiya: 1 hour 15 mins, LKR 90 per person
The save the most for your accommodation and transport, the best place to stay is in Embilipitiya which is only half an hour away from Udawalawe National Park. You can book your safari jeep tour with your accommodation and they will get everything sorted out for you. The jeep will pick you up from your accommodation. Alternatively, you can also splurge and stay in the National Park if your budget allows.
Embilipitiya Bus Station
Address: A18, Embilipitiya, Sri Lanka
Udawalawe National Park
Address: Udawalawa, Sri Lanka
Opening hours: 6am to 6pm, daily
Cost: LKR 5300 per person including transport, entrance fee, guide fee, for a tour package for 3 persons (the bigger your group, the cheaper)
Jeep ride from Embilipitiya to Udawalawe: 30 minutes, price including in Safari tour package
Safari duration: 3 hours
Arranging a safari tour
The easiest way is to book an Udawalawe Safari through your accommodation when you arrive. It is cheapest to share the jeep with some other people staying at the same accommodation as you as the approximate cost of a jeep that seats 6-8 people is roughly LKR 6000. When we were there, we did not find any other people to share our jeep with hence we went ahead with just the three of us. That means we were each paying about LKR 2000 for the jeep ride.
The entrance fee on the other hand is a little complicated as it is cheaper if there are more people in your group. It costs roughly about LKR 5000 per person, LKR 7000 for two and about LKR 10,000 for 3 people, and it continues to go down as your group size goes up. Overall, we paid LKR 15,900 for the three of us for both the jeep ride and entrance fee, so it’s 5,300 per person.
The fee calculation is done by our homestay host and he was the one who contacted the national park, making all the arrangement for us. We timed our arrival in Embilipitya right around lunch time, so that we can do the 3pm afternoon tour after lunch.
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| Entrance to Udawalawe National Park |
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| Just the three of us in a jeep |
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| Driving into the safari |
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| Into the wild |
Highlights of the Tour
As it takes half an hour to reach the national park, the jeep came to pick us up at our accommodation at 2.30pm. Once we arrived at the national park, our driver were in-charge to handle our registration at the office. There were already a couple of jeeps in line so we thought it would take be a long wait, but it turned out pretty quick and soon we were drove further into the jungle where the wildlife animals are. We drove passed a river before we reached a checkpoint, after which the tour officially started. The road is bumpy but the ride is overall. There were plenty of route to take inside the safari and although we did bump into other jeeps, we didn’t felt like it’s cramped. The drivers all shared communication about sightings of rare animals (especially leopards) so you would always bump into other jeeps but elephants are basically everywhere so there will always be some time when you will be alone.
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| Elephants are everywhere in this National Park |
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| Zoom in |
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| Elephant paying with mud |
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| One of my favourite shot of the day |
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| Can't stop snapping this cutie |
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| Spotted some buffaloes too |
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| Hello guys |
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| Zoom in |
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| Beautiful creatures |
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| Another elephant spotted |
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| Hi beautiful! |
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| One of them came onto the road |
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| We made sure to stay far away in order not to disturb them |
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| Having a camera with zoom lens is necessary to take a good shot |
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| Current phone technology ain't too shabby as long as you are not trying to zoom in too much |
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| This elephant happened to walk pass our jeep |
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| And started mud-bathing |
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| While the other members of the herd were in the bushes |
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| Taking a dump |
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| At some point this elephant begin knocking the other jeep (but I didn't get that shot) |
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| Elephant dung |
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| Leaving after creating a scene |
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| Another herd of elephants spotted |
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| You will definitely see elephants here, they are practically everywhere |
We saw dozens of elephants that day and even saw one getting haughty and tried to knock a jeep in front of us. The elephants may be angry at the vehicle that was too close to them, but luckily no one was harmed. It’s always important to stay in our vehicle and never stepped out. Towards the end of our tour, when the sun is slowing setting, we even saw a herd of elephants heading to the water for bathing.
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| Our driver explaining to us about the animals' behaviour |
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| Another jeep drove to the other side of the lake |
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| A herd of elephants across the lake |
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| Taking a bath? |
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| A flock of birds flying away |
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| Lovely |
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| This would looks a lot more beautiful with golden sunset background |
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| Another favourite shot of the day |
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| Leaving? |
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| Bye~! |
Other animals we saw that day includes peacocks, crocodile, and different species of birds and expectedly no leopards. Our driver told us that throughout the many years he has worked here, he had never once saw any leopard. Awwwww.
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| A crocodile spotted |
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| Birds flying away |
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| Peacock |
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| Water buffalo |
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| Peacock |
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| Peacock |
Udawalawe National Park is an amazing destination for wildlife photography, so it’s important to bring a camera with a zoom lens (anything more than 75mm is the best). Sadly I only have my sony a6000 mirrorless with a 35mm (equivalent to 50mm full frame) prime lens which is fortunately still sufficient for photographing elephants but a bit lacking when it comes to taking photos of faraway birds and the crocodile we spotted in the water. Nevertheless it still produces sharper photos compared to smartphones. Perhaps it’s time I invest in a zoom lens?
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| Birds |
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| Is it a hawk? |
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| Some other birds |
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| Is that an eagle? |
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| Tortoise? |
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| Is that an eagle? A hawk? |
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| The best I can do with my lens |
The tour takes about 3 hours, and we left the safari at 6pm, perfect timing to head for dinner and call it a day.
Best Time To Visit
Although you will still see elephants on a morning Udawalawe safari, you’re better off going on an afternoon safari that runs from 3pm to 6pm, as many elephants will venture out to the river for a bath and sip of water. If you are lucky, you might even spot some leopards too, which are more active in the evening. How we wished we were that lucky.
Getting out of Udawalawe
After a week in Sri Lanka where you visited the temples, cultural sites, tea plantations, mountains and wildlife safari, it’s time to unwind at the beaches Sri Lanka is so famous for. The closest beach town from Embilipitya is
Tangalle and it is easily assessable by bus.
Embilipitiya Bus Station
Address: A18, Embilipitiya, Sri Lanka
Bus from Embilipitiya to Tangalle: 1 hour 30 mins (bus bound for Matara, alight at Tangalle), LKR 80 per person
Final Words
Although we didn’t spot any leopard which would be amazing if we did, I was thrilled to have finally done my virgin safari tour. I’ve always dreamt to go on an African safari tour but never had the chance to fly to Africa, so my trip to Sri Lanka offers me the perfect opportunity to try this out. If a Sri Lanka safari tour is so much fun, I couldn’t imagine one in Africa. Now… should I start looking for a flight ticket to an Africa country?
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