Holidays to Yala National Park, Sri Lanka
Lions can move aside – the leopard is the king of the jungle in Sri Lanka. For your best chance to see these slippery beasts, you need to go to Yala National Park, which has the biggest concentration of leopards per kilometre in the world. It’s also a haunt for elephant herds and sloth bears, making it one of the most popular stops on a Sri Lanka holiday.
Yala National Park covers 100,000 hectares – that’s over twice the size of Barbados – and comes shrouded in shrub jungle, low hills and lagoons, so it can be hard to know the best way to squeeze it into your trip to Sri Lanka. The easiest thing is to do is to put down the maps and reams of research, and leave the organisation up to a Sri Lanka travel specialist.
Yala National Park covers 100,000 hectares – that’s over twice the size of Barbados – and comes shrouded in shrub jungle, low hills and lagoons, so it can be hard to know the best way to squeeze it into your trip to Sri Lanka. The easiest thing is to do is to put down the maps and reams of research, and leave the organisation up to a Sri Lanka travel specialist.
They’ll pair you up with safari guides who know which corners of the park are quietist (read: leopard-friendly), what to do if an elephant trumpets (back away, pronto), and what that growling sound is (a red-faced malkoha, probably). They’ll also fill you in on the uniquely Sri Lankan challenges that face Yala National Park, including human-elephant conflict and shifting monsoon seasons.
Our Sri Lanka Holidays
Sri Lanka holidays, tailor made
Independent tailor made holidays to Sri Lanka
From
£2395
15 days
inc UK flights
Sri Lanka highlights holiday
An exciting mix of culture, nature, wildlife and beaches
From
£1695
14 days
ex flights
Tailor made wildlife tour of Sri Lanka
Wildlife tour around Sri Lanka - see blue whales!
From
£1990
11 days
ex flights
Sri Lanka tour & beach holiday
Tropical island paradise with cultural tour
From
£2245
15 days
inc UK flights
Wildlife holiday in Sri Lanka, private departure
Wildlife holiday to see Sri Lanka's 'Big Four'
From
£2495
15 days
inc UK flights
Sri Lanka hill country tour
An active 2-week Holiday in Sri Lanka's cooler hill country!
From
£3142 to £4151
14 days
ex flights
Seeing wildlife in Yala National Park
Most people visiting Yala National Park will hope to see leopards. But although you’re more likely to see them here than anywhere else in Asia there are still less than 40 in town, so expect them to remain typically elusive. Although sightings are rare, a great wildlife guide will know the quiet corners that leopards lurk in, while also introducing you to the A to Z of animals that you’re much more likely to bump into.
Traffic jams are the norm in Yala National Park. It’s just that the traffic is made up of elephants too busy munching on trees to budge off the road.![]()
Meanwhile, elephants would like you to know that they were the original stars of Yala National Park. You’ll hear them before you see them, stripping leaves from trees and swishing branches across the long grass. Wild buffalo mooch around the lagoons, monkeys shake the forests, and jackals trot across the hills. Sri Lankan sloth bears are a surprise highlight. More bear than sloth, they perpetually look like they’ve just rolled out of bed.
And twitchers, rejoice: you’ve got over 150 species of birds to spot in Yala National Park, plus thousands of migratory flappers. And they’re all exceedingly photogenic. Keep your binoculars poised for white-bellied fish eagles, rosy painted stork, pompadour green pigeons and beady-eyed brown fish owls. The endemics are wonderfully weird – red-faced malkoha cuckoos and rooster-like jungle fowl that take the crown as the Sri Lankan national bird.
Our top Sri Lanka Holiday
Sri Lanka holidays, tailor made
Independent tailor made holidays to Sri Lanka
From
£2395
15 days
inc UK flights
Tailor made:
Our tailor made Sri Lanka holidays can be arranged at any time to suit you, and adapted to your requirements as necessary although we do not offer trips for under 10 days.
Our tailor made Sri Lanka holidays can be arranged at any time to suit you, and adapted to your requirements as necessary although we do not offer trips for under 10 days.
Travel Team
If you'd like to chat about Sri Lanka or need help finding a holiday to suit you we're very happy to help.
01273 823 700
Call us Monday after 9am
Calling from outside the UK
Yala National Park travel tips
More about Sri Lanka
The best time to visit Sri Lanka is between November and April in the south-west and February to September in the north-east.
Whether you are travelling by train, wildlife watching in rainforests, or just blissing out at the beach, Sri Lanka has something for everyone. And as for the food – that just ticks everyone’s boxes.
The most glimmering Sri Lanka highlights are the ancient archaeological and sacred wonders of the Golden Triangle. But this teardrop island has so many other glittering gems too.
You can’t really go to Sri Lanka and not touch one of the points on the Golden Triangle. But with beaches, wildlife and Ayurvedic spas, there are endless activities.
White sands, swaying palms and all year round heat in the high 20s makes Sri Lanka beach bliss. There are, in fact, 1,600km of beaches here.
As if Sri Lanka didn’t ooze magic from every pore already, blue whales are jumping out of the ocean to upstage the other natural wonders for a few weeks between February and mid March.
Buddhism is often at the heart of cultural holidays in Sri Lanka, whether you are visiting the ancient sites, a contemporary temple or just just meeting local people.
From the Sri Lanka blue magpie to the Sri Lanka leopard, the great Asian elephant to the ginormous blue whale, Sri Lanka has stupendous wildlife.
Sri Lanka is a culinary paradise, where fresh local ingredients, sizzling spices and recipes bequeathed by a history of colonisation create a diverse and delicious culinary scene.
Sri Lanka translates as ‘resplendent island’ in Sanskrit and after years of conflict both north and south are now united and gloriously resplendent.
Read about tea plantations in Sri Lanka, including which hill towns to visit, why you should give tea picking a miss, and what else there is to do in marvellous, misty Hill Country.
Not for those with vertigo, Sigiriya is a 200m-tall rock fortress that sprouts out of the plains of northeast Sri Lanka.
Yala National Park is the key destination that big cat safaris in Sri Lanka focus on, as it's home to a higher concentration of leopards per square kilometre than anywhere else on the planet.
If you want a trip to the tropics that combines culture, history, nature and incredible Indian Ocean vistas then look no further – Sri Lanka and the Maldives are your perfect twosome.
Travelling in Sri Lanka with kids is not only a journey through ancient culture, wildlife central and beach bliss, it is also a wonderful island of wonderfully welcoming families.
Our experts give great where, when, who and why Sri Lanka travel advice. Where to cycle, when to go, whom to meet and guide you and safari wisdom too.
There are many issues to take into account, sadly, when it comes to responsible tourism in Sri Lanka, and we encourage you to read on for more details.
Find all of our Sri Lanka guides in one place, for particular types of holiday we offer such as culture, cycling, wildlife or more. Choose from all our Sri Lanka guides
