Best Sri Lanka safari holidays

Sri Lanka safaris and vacation tours … an incredible travel location that we will focus in this post. If you have children, Udawalawe is a more child-friendly safari because they get to see the animals close up, especially the elephants. When your only goal is to spot leopards, you will have to wait and be patient, which can get tedious and boring for children. And even if you do manage to spot leopards, they might be quite far away, so binoculars are a necessity. Can I visit both Yala and Udawalawe in one safari? Yes, you sure can!

Mirissa, in the south and close to the Dutch fort and port city of Galle, is studded with luxury villas and great food. It’s probably the most developed for whale watching tourism, following a media blitz in May 2008 that it was the best for blue whale. The encounter rate is on average over 80% in the months from December to March. Kalpitiya, a peninsula in the north-west, is famous for its dolphins and periodic visits by super-pods of sperm whales, the largest gatherings in the world accessible to tourists. The peninsula is also close to Wilpattu National Park, and the Bar Reef Marine Sanctuary is great for snorkelling. Trincomalee, in the north-east has a submarine canyon cutting in close to shore. Blue whales are sometimes seen from the pool-side of resorts and Swami Rock is the best shore-based location for views of blue whales. See additional info Sri Lanka safari tours.

At the heart of Sri Lanka’s tea industry, this charming throwback to the country’s colonial years is rich with the heritage of home-county England. Tour neatly-terraced tea estates, watch pickers at work, and buy your own samples to take home. Tea lovers will want to visit the Hill Country’s Haputale Mountains, where Sir Thomas Lipton launched his tea empire. To see where it all began, organise transport to Lipton’s Seat – Mr Lipton’s favourite spot to sit and watch over his enormous estate. It is possible (and maybe a bit more comfortable) to take a car up, but an open air tuk-tuk ride is much more fun. Head out early before the afternoon fog cloaks the surrounding mountains, clouding the awe-inspiring views.

One of the most popular tourist attractions in Sri Lanka, the Kataragama Festival takes place every year in July or August and is dedicated to one of the Hindu gods. It takes place over a two-week period and people from all over the world come to join in. The festival is jam-packed with parades of elephants and colorfully dressed performers. There are countless traditional dances that take place; with musicians, acrobats, and fire-breathers feeding into the festival’s contagious energy. There are few places in the world where elephant sightings are so frequent. However, elephants are not the only animals to see within Udawalawe National Park; peacocks, jackals, water buffalo, crocodiles, monkeys and deer also roam the area. Safaris are most popular in the early morning hours when animals are at their most active. The biodiversity of the park can be attributed to its varied landscape; it is flanked by mountain ranges to the north with wetlands and rivers hugging the grasslands and forests at the base of the mountains.