One of the top things that we wanted to do while visiting Sri Lanka was to head to Yala National Park. Why? Because the Yala Safari is supposed to be one of the best that you can take in the country. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much of information online.
When I say there wasn’t information, I mean that there were more websites advertising about safaris than there were people talking about their own Yala safari experience. As a person who travels frequently, I love to read honest reviews.
That is particularly why I head to blogs rather than Tripadvisor where I am not sure if the review is tainted. But in this case, I was drawing a blank everywhere I found Tripadvisor wasn’t being helpful either. Anyway, so the lack of information inspired me to write a detailed post on how we booked out Yala National Park safari.
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The Season: What No One Tells You
Travelling through the south of Sri Lanka in September was an interesting experience especially since it is considered to be the low season for travellers. This is largely because of the monsoon season. Since we were winging it and the sun had no intent of hiding behind the clouds we headed to the southern coast and did not regret it.
One of the things that no one tells you however is that the Yala National Park is divided into blocks. Each block can be accessed via different gates. Block 1 is the most popular spot and it is also the place where most of the animals are spotted easily. It also has the gate which allows you to access all the other blocks with the exception of Block 3.
This gate is closed during the weeks between September to October. You may wonder why. From the information that we garnered from the locals, it is because these weeks cover the mating season of many of the animals in the park.
So, does that mean that you won’t get a chance to experience the famed Yala safari? No, it doesn’t. Block 3 of Yala National park is open during this season. This is a newer part of the park which has been slowly developed. This is where our safari took us, and we enjoyed ourselves immensely.
Finding A Yala Safari To Meet Your Budget
A Carcass left behind by a leopard at Yala National Park.
Despite repeated efforts to find a reasonable safari online we had failed. We hopped off the bus and were walking toward sour accommodation when a man approached us out of blue asking if we wanted to book a Yala Safari. Since we had no clue where to book from we asked him for the details and his phone number.
The price that he quoted was 5500 LKR. We told him that we were tired and that we would get back to him after we reached our accommodation (Nature resort). The man was rather disappointed but since he had our number and where we lived he was content to revisit the idea after an hour while he kept saying that he needed just two passengers to fill his jeep.
Once we reached our accommodation we were greeted by the owner and who quoted his price at 6500 LKR per person. Note that both these prices were for a shared safari and not for a private safari/jeep.
We tried to negotiate with him because it made better sense since we would leave from the same place, but he refused to budge on his price. This man too insisted that he needed just two seats and if we did not book immediately we would not get a safari.
The pressure was on and if we hadn’t got a weird feeling with a mishap in room bookings (long story and I will have to write a post about it!) we may have booked with him. I’m glad we didn’t especially since we came down to find that the first tour operator had come by to meet us and was sent away.
So, we decided to head into town and try our luck while trying to call the first tour operator. Due to some reason the call wouldn’t connect. While wandering through the small town of Tissamaharama, we stumbled across a small office called Yala Wildlife Safari. It isn’t in the same location as marked on Google.
If you search for Hotel Muthu, you will find it on the opposite side the road within a 100-meter distance. That’s the best I can tell you. I forgot to drop a pin. The business is run by a man called Chesmi Kumar and they provide both private tours as well as group tours. We were very happy with the service that they provided and the final price that we settled on was 5000 LKR per person.
Booking A Yala National Park Safari Online
Honestly in retrospect I wish I had booked our Yala National Park safari online. It would have saved us a lot of hassle and worry. There are a couple of different options that are on Viator and Get Your Guide that are definitely worth trying. Here are some that you should consider.
- The full day Yala National Park safari
- Private Yala safari tours
- Yala golden hour safari
- Yala private safari (budget)
The Cost Of The Yala National Park Safaris
As a budget traveller, cost always plays a big role. We didn’t want to be too stingy that we lost out on the experience and at the same time we did not want to over indulge. What we did realize was that the cheapest that you could go for a private tour would be at 14,000 LKR for two people. This includes a guide.
Mr. Chesmi told us that the guide would be an ex-park ranger name Mr Abeykoon who had over 25 years of experience. You will find that a lot of the tour operators will make similar offers. This one was the cheapest one we had received while we were scouting so you have a reference range.
Group tours are much cheaper by comparison. If the tour operator gets 6 people, then you can easily bargain for 5000 LKR per person. If not, then they do not break even on costs and they probably will charge anything between 5500 – 6000 LKR.
Visiting Yala National Park
The line before we got into Yala National Park Safari.
Once finalized, we paid the money upfront, were given a contact number and were told that we would be collected at 5 am from the gate. That meant that needed to awake bright and early. Correction… It was dark as night when we left. Our jeep arrived promptly. The safari jeeps in Tissamaharama are all designed similarly.
They seat six people and the seats at the back are always higher than the ones in front, so everyone has a view and a window. They are also open vehicles with the exception of the front area where the driver and one more person can sit.
In the event of rain, you can bring down the sides like how one would do in a convertible. They also have seatbelts which impressed me no end.
The drive to Block 3 of Yala National park is rather long because you need to head past Kataragama to get there. You can catch a glimpse of all the safari vehicles heading towards the gate in the dark. Since we were visiting in the park in the low season we were rather surprised when we counted around 25 vehicles heading into the park.
All of them came to a halt outside the park gate while we waited for the park to open. You can catch a quick trip to the restroom when you are waiting which was godsend for me.
An interesting thing to note is that the moment the gate is opened, all the safaris charge in like children into a candy store. Baffling at first and I was a bit worried that we would keep moving in a single convoy. Luckily my fears were unfounded.
The park was huge, and the safari jeeps split up in different directions. Our driver / safari guide was a quiet man with a lot of information about the animals, plants and birds. He even carried around a book so that we could read about all the birds we spotted in detail which was really cool.
What Wildlife Did We Spot?
Wildlife in Yala National Park is pretty easy to spot if you have a good guide.
Our Yala safari was booked for just half the day. We could have taken the longer whole day safari but we opted to be out when the weather was cool and the wallet was semi-full. In retrospect, we would still have taken the morning safari.
We reached back to the city at around 11:30 am which meant that we still had time to take our cooking class in Tissamaharama. Getting to the animals and birds that we spotted, I would have to draw up a list! One of the first animals that we spotted was a solitary male elephant. He was right across the lake, so we could only catch a proper glimpse of him while using the binoculars.
A couple of buffaloes were also enjoying themselves in the water. Water scarcity is a big problem in the Yala National Park. A lot of the watering holes dry up and the animals suffer. In order to help the animals, man made watering holes have been made across the national park.
We then trailed the tracks of a leopard and her two cubs. Luck wasn’t on our side and we did not get to see the leopard itself for the entire trip. A part of me felt as if she was up in the trees somewhere watching us hunt and pointing it out to her cubs while laughing. I know… I have a crazy imagination!
Other wildlife that we spotted included the river eagle, crocodiles, the black faced grey langur, a hard-working mongoose, barking deer, spotted deer, a bee eater (bird), a white kingfisher, a number of other kingfishers, a couple of hawks and monitor lizards. I probably have forgotten to list a number of other animals we spotted but these are the ones that I remember from the top of my head.
Mid way through the trip, we stopped and feasted on freshly cut fruits while sitting beside a dam of sorts. Fruits somehow are always the perfect meal and we felt so refreshed after the break. We later stopped at a watering hole in hope that we would spot a heard of elephants, instead we found that if we left the safari jeep unattended, the monkeys would swoop down.
It was rather funny to watch as the man and beast duelled to see who the alpha male was. When I say man and beast, I’m talking about our driver and one monkey who was fascinated by him. Every time he turned his back, the monkey would draw closer. Every faced the monkey, he would chatter and scamper away.
Did we enjoy our trip? I think the unanimous response would be yes. We had fun, the safari guide was very eco conscious and no animals were troubled. We were spectators and all trash was collected to be disposed properly. I think that was one of the things that I loved the most.
Have you been on a safari in Yala National Park? We would love to hear about your experience in the comments below.
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