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Discover the best safari options in Sri Lanka – from half-day to full-day tours, come and find out which is the best one for you!
One of the reasons Sri Lanka is such an amazing country to visit is all the animal encounters you can have. There aren’t many places in the world where you can see elephants and whales in the same day (not at the same time mind you…), but here you can. And that’s not mentioning all the water buffalo, cheeky monkeys and lumbering monitor lizards you’ll see every day while walking around. In short, if you like animals then you’ll love it here!
If you’re planning a trip to Sri Lanka, one of the questions you’ll be asking yourself is whether to do a half-day or full-day safari. Don’t worry, you’re not alone! I was exactly the same, and having done both I think I’ve got a good idea which one is better. We’ll get more onto that later.
In this blog post I’ll also tell you where I think the best places to go on safari are, and some other top tips too. You’re not short of options, so it’s always best to do your research depending on what type of experience you want. But first things first, what’s the difference in a half-day and full-day safari (other than time that is…)
If you’re looking for some more Sri Lanka tips, especially if you’re travelling with kids, then check out my blog post here.
Contents:
Half-day safari
Half-day safaris are by far the more popular option all over the country. They’re a lot cheaper and take less time, so it’s a bit of a no brainer, right? Most tour companies sell the half-day safari on the fact that you’re more likely to see animals at sunrise and sunset when they’re at their most active – all the guides will say the animals sleep during the day, so there’s not much point going out at midday.
Also, Sri Lanka can get very toasty during the day, so going out a sunrise or sunset is a way to beat the heat. You can see elephants in the morning, and still be at your sun lounger by 10am. Sounds lovely. It all makes sense up until this point, so why would anyone do a full-day safari?
Another thing to point out is the full-day safari can be exhausting. Up a sunrise, in a dusty truck all day. It can be a long hot day, but it can be incredible rewarding too.
Full-day safari
When Chloe and I were deliberating which tour to do on our honeymoon, we opted for a full-day elephant safari tour in Udawalawe National Park. Our reasoning was we’re only here once, so let’s maximise the time we’ve got seeing elephants and other animals. It was the best decision we made, and it was one of the best days of our honeymoon by far.
No matter what tour you choose, you’ll see a lot of other safari trucks – there are dozens on each tour, and it comes with the territory I’m afraid. But on a full-day tour you’ll get to go places you just don’t have time to get to on a half-day safari.
When we did an elephant safari in Udawalawe, we watched all the safari trucks turn left as we were the only truck to turn right. All of a sudden, we were all alone with loads of elephants surrounding us – we never would’ve had that on a half-day safari. I can’t tell you how peaceful it was watching all the elephants without any other trucks, and it really did feel like we had the reserve to ourselves. The whole day was like that.
On our most recent trip we did a half-day morning safari in Yala National Park looking for leopards (this is the tour we did). Unfortunately, we went back to our hotel with our tails between our legs because we didn’t see any. At breakfast I overheard a couple talking saying they went on a full-day safari the day before and only saw leopards in the afternoon – I was kicking myself! As I said, if you’re there looking for animals, then it’s best maximising your time to do that by going on a full-day safari.
What is the price difference?
Obviously one of the main differences is in price. A half-day safari will only set you back £20/$30 per person. This is such incredible value for money and shows how affordable Sri Lanka is to travel.
In comparison, the full day safari is £65/$85 per person, but it was really worth the money. It’s a full day activity, so I actually think that’s really good value for money.
One of the things I would mention is the half-day safari can be very misleading. It’s not a half-day, but more like 4 hours. Once you factor in driving to and from the national parks, getting your permits, and it’s more like 2 hours of actual safari time. Usually this is enough to see elephants and other animals, but there is a lot of time spent travelling.
The timeline is usually:
5am – wake up
5:30am – be picked up for your safari
6am – get to the national park entrance
6-7am – wait around for a permit. Unfortunately, drivers can only get permits on the day of the safari, and this involves waiting in line at the national park to be issued one. If you’re first in the queue, it can be quick. If you’re not, it can be a really frustrating waste of time. I feel like there could be a much better system where park permits are issued beforehand, but there we go. Everyone is in the same boat (or truck as it were), but you have been warned.
7-9am – safari time. This can obviously be longer depending on when you got your permit, and some trucks leave slightly later, but I would say you get a minimum of 2 hours safari time on the morning or afternoon safari.
9:30-10am – back at your hotel, sometimes in time for a second breakfast.
Compare that to a full-day safari where you spend 6 hours on actual safari. I think it’s easy to see which one is better value for money.
Is food included?
Yes, food is included if you do the morning or full-day tour. It’s not included in the afternoon/sunset tours as these often start at 3pm, so you don’t miss any meals.
For breakfast, because they’re catering to so many different nationalities, your breakfast box usually contains a cheese sandwich, a hard-boiled egg, a couple of small sausages, a yoghurt, an apple and some biscuits. It’s not the most inspiring meal, especially at 6am.
Saying that, you can ask for a Sri Lankan breakfast which is usually roti and daal, which is much better option in my opinion.
Where are the best safaris in Sri Lanka?
As I mentioned, I’ve done a few safaris in Sri Lanka now, so I feel like I have a good idea of where the best safaris are. I would always take this with a fist sized pinch of salt though – all experiences are subjective.
Sometimes you’ll get lucky and see a family of leopards, so you think it’s the best safari ever, whereas other times you’ll only see some green bee-eaters (a particularly beautiful bird). Apples and pears. I’ve tried to be as objective as I can and I’ve explained each place below.
Udawalawe National Park – If you’re looking for big herds of elephants, then this is the place for you. I honestly lost count of how many elephants we saw here, but it was well over 50-100. One of the things I really liked about Udawalawe was the landscape – they were wide open vistas often with lakes and waterholes for the elephants. Just beautiful. We also saw lots of water buffalo and crocodiles on this tour. This is the tour we did – Udawalawe National Park Tour.
Habarana – This is one of the most popular spots to base yourself for an elephant safari. Being just 4 hours from Colombo, it is very easy to get to, and it’s really well set up with a number of lovely hotels to stay at. I’ve done the Hurulu Eco Park sunset safari here and it was brilliant. We saw loads of elephants, and it was magical seeing them bathed in that golden glow just before sunset. We also saw a good number of birds such as the green bee-eater. This is the tour we did – Hurulu Eco Park Tour.
Yala National Park – If you want to see leopards, then this is considered the best place to do it. That’s the big selling point of Yala, but you can see plenty of other animals here too. The best time to see leopards are August to March – that’s when they’re at their most active. Unfortunately we didn’t see any leopards on our morning tour, but we did see elephants, crocodiles, deer, a mongoose, loads of birds like the horn-billed toucan. A lot of people see wild boar here too. My only negative about Yala is that it’s a lot more enclosed with scrubland and trees. It’s very different to other national parks – I just prefer the wide-open views! This is the tour we did – Yala National Park Tour.
Jaffna – Not everyone realises you can also go on safari in the north of Sri Lanka, but the region around Jaffna offers some truly unique wildlife experiences. While it’s far less visited than the more famous national parks in the south, that’s actually part of its charm—fewer crowds mean a more peaceful and authentic experience. One of the lesser-known facts is that you can spot leopards in the nearby forests, especially around the Chundikkulam National Park and parts of the Jaffna Peninsula.
What about all the trucks?
If you hadn’t figured it out yet, there are quite a lot of other trucks on these tours! At times it can be pretty overwhelming, especially when you see 10+ trucks crowded around a few elephants. Saying that, all the trucks do well at dispersing around the parks, and you will definitely have moments when there are no other trucks around no matter what tour you do.
All the drivers/guides are very relaxed, so if you’re in a truck with your family or friends, you can say you want to park up for 5-minutes of chill time. We did this a couple of times on our tours and it was lovely, so I’d definitely recommend that.
Also, the elephants are very used to the trucks. It’s still very much their habitat, so if they don’t want you around, they’ll let you know, but you get a sense that the trucks don’t bother them much.
What safari is right for you?
After going on a few different safaris in Sri Lanka, I can honestly say they’re all incredible. Even though we didn’t see any leopards in Yala, I still loved being on safari and seeing so many different animals.
A lot of it comes down to time. If you’ve got the time, then I really recommend the full-day safari to get the complete experience. The most important thing is adding a safari to your Sri Lanka itinerary!
If you have any questions about any of the safaris in Sri Lanka, or if there’s anything I’ve missed, you can let me know in the comments below and I’ll get back to you.
