Journeys · Sri Lanka

Wild Sri Lanka: Leopards, Elephants & Coastal Serenity

Sri Lanka packs more into a small island than it has any right to: leopards at a density found nowhere else, five hundred elephants on one reservoir, and blue whales feeding within sight of…

Length: 10 days, 9 nights
From: ₹2,92,000 per person
Pace: Active
Stops: 7
Best months: December to April

The route

7 stops over 10 days

Colombo
Wilpattu
Anuradhapura
Sigiriya
Udawalawe
Yala
Mirissa

Wilpattu’s villus at dawn, with barely another jeep in sight
Sloth bear and leopard tracking with a dedicated naturalist
Three hundred elephants gathering at the Minneriya tank
The morning milk feed at the Udawalawe Elephant Transit Home
Blue whales off Mirissa’s continental shelf, boat out at six

Day by day

What actually happens

Length: 10 days
Stops: 7
Pace: Active
From: ₹2,92,000

1D

Colombo

Landing in Colombo

Your flight lands at Katunayake and you are met past customs with a cold towel and a driver who stays with you for the whole ten days. Twenty minutes to Negombo, or an hour into the city, depending on when you land. Dinner is early and unfussy. The first game drive is tomorrow evening, so sleep now rather than sightsee.

Night: Tintagel Colombo
2B L D

Wilpattu

North to Wilpattu

Three and a half hours up the Puttalam road, past salt pans and prawn farms. Wilpattu is Sri Lanka’s largest park and its quietest: sixty natural villus, sand-rimmed lakes that hold water into the dry season. The afternoon drive works the Kumbuk Villu circuit for leopard on the track and spotted deer at the edge. Camp is canvas, with proper beds.

Night: Mahoora Tented Safari Camp, Wilpattu
3B L D

Wilpattu

A Full Day in the Villus

Out at half five with a flask and roti wrapped in paper. The good hours are before nine: sloth bear crossing to a termite mound, mugger crocodile at Percy Bendi Wila, and if you are lucky a leopard asleep along a palu branch. Mid-morning back for breakfast and a swim, then out again at three until the gate closes at six.

Night: Mahoora Tented Safari Camp, Wilpattu
4B D

Sigiriya

Anuradhapura, then East to Sigiriya

Break the drive at Anuradhapura. The Sri Maha Bodhi is grown from a cutting taken in 288 BC and still tended; Ruwanwelisaya’s white dome is best just after sunrise, before the marble burns your feet. Jetavanaramaya was once the third tallest structure on earth. On to Sigiriya by mid-afternoon; the pool at Aliya looks straight at the rock.

Night: Aliya Resort & Spa, Sigiriya
5B D

Sigiriya

Sigiriya Rock and the Gathering

Climb early, while the stair is still in shade: the frescoes, the mirror wall’s ninth-century graffiti, the lion’s paws, the summit tanks. Down before the heat. Then the afternoon at whichever tank is holding water, Minneriya, Kaudulla or Hurulu; in a good August the herds run to three hundred, all of them walking in from the surrounding jungle.

Night: Aliya Resort & Spa, Sigiriya
6B L D

Udawalawe

Across the Island to Udawalawe

The longest drive of the trip, about six hours, and worth breaking at Kandy for lunch by the lake. The country changes as you drop south of the hills: teak, paddy, then thornier scrub. Udawalawe is elephant country pure and simple, five hundred resident on 300 square kilometres of old tank land. Evening drive if the light holds.

Night: Kalu’s Hideaway, Udawalawe
7B L D

Yala

Elephant Transit Home, then Yala

A dawn drive along the reservoir bund, where tuskers feed in the shallows and crested hawk-eagles sit on the dead trees. At nine, the milk feed at the Elephant Transit Home: orphans reared for release, watched from a distance rather than handled. Two hours east to Yala after lunch, checking in at Chena Huts by four for the evening drive.

Night: Chena Huts by Uga, Yala
8B L D

Yala

Leopards of Block One

Two long drives with a private jeep and tracker, so you can sit out a sighting instead of moving on. Leopards here are unusually relaxed in daylight; look on the rock outcrops at Akasa Chaitya and along the Menik Ganga. Add sloth bear, jungle fowl, painted stork and a beach where the park meets the Indian Ocean. Lunch and a nap between.

Night: Chena Huts by Uga, Yala
9B D

Mirissa

West to the Whale Coast

Three hours west along the coast road through Tangalle and Matara, with a stop at the Mulgirigala rock temple if you still have energy for steps. Weligama Bay opens up around the headland. The rest of the day is yours: the reef at Polhena, a fish curry eaten on the sand, or nothing at all. Boat briefing at seven.

Night: Cape Weligama, near Mirissa
10B

Mirissa

Blue Whales, then Departure

Out of Mirissa harbour at half six on a small licensed boat, because the continental shelf sits close inshore here and blue whales feed along it from December to April. Spinner dolphins usually come first. Back by eleven, shower and a late breakfast, then the expressway to Bandaranaike, about two and a half hours, for your flight home.

Night: Day room held until departure