Tailor made holidays to Sri Lanka best selection
3 min readSri Lanka wildlife safaris and holiday tours … an amazing destination that we will focus in this post. Wilpattu, Sri Lanka’s largest park, is situated in the dry lowlands of the island’s north-west and comprises a series of lakes – or villus – with varying degrees of freshness and salinity. The park reopened in 2003 after nearly 15 years of closure. Over time, the wildlife should recover to its former abundance and become more habituated to vehicles – at the moment the animals are wary of any human presence. Wilpattu was famous for its leopards, and big-cat enthusiasts are hoping this reputation will return. The park’s fauna is similar to Yala, but visitors also have a chance of seeing barking deer.
Udawalawe National Park: is well known for its Sri Lankan elephant population because they are attracted to the Udawalawe reservoir, an important source of water for them. There are around 500-700 elephants at Udawalawe, so your chances of spotting this beautiful creature on a safari are close to 100%! Udawalawe is also famous for its rich diversity of species, which includes 33 reptiles, 184 birds, 43 mammals and 135 species of butterflies. Udawalawe also has some leopards (as explained above). During our safari at Udawalawe, we saw lots of spotted deer, water buffalos, crocodiles, wild boars, and peacocks.
The Temple of the Tooth is a highly sacred place. The temple contains one of Buddha’s teeth. Legend has it that the tooth was taken from the Buddha on his deathbed, then smuggled to Sri Lanka from India. It was smuggled in the hair of a princess, after her father’s kingdom had been besieged. It immediately became an object of great importance and has been celebrated and paraded throughout history. However, many attempts have also been made to steal or destroy the tooth. Twice daily, pujas are held to celebrate the relic and offer visitors and devotees the chance to get a glimpse of the tooth within its casing. At the summit of Adam’s Peak is a footprint cast in stone. It has spiritual significance to a number of different religions, however, there is currently a Buddhist monastery at the summit. To the Buddhists, the footprint is that of Buddha’s; to Christians, the footprint is Adam’s; and to Hindus, the footprint is attributed to Shiva. The site is a popular place of pilgrimage, especially on full moon nights. The trek to the top of the mountain to see the footprint is via a steep staircase containing over 5000 steps. The trail is lined with many tea stalls and food shops which act as places of rest. Most people begin their hike at 2:30 am to reach the summit in time for sunrise. Find extra details Tailor Made Tours Sri Lanka.
Diyaluma Falls is the 2nd biggest waterfall in Sri Lanka and is the perfect spot for a full day adventure. There are multiple falls and natural pools throughout this hike in the Badulla region. I could’ve spent days here. The hike was almost entirely downhill and led us through the long grass but the trail was marked the whole way. It appeared that the trail wasn’t used too often as the trail was quite overgrown in many parts. After about 30 minutes we reached the top of Diyaluma Falls. Here you have a series of pools cascading towards the edge of the cliff. When the falls finally reach the edge they fall into one final pool before crashing 628 feet into the pool, far below. This is the 2nd highest waterfall in Sri Lanka and it is hard to get a good look from this vantage point but if you are game enough you can peer over the edge. After chilling on the edge for over an hour we headed back up the track passing the upper falls and arriving at the top of the upper falls. This was a 15-minute hike and we just followed the track alongside the upper falls. Here we found more pools. It looked quite average until we explored further towards the edge of the upper Diyaluma falls and found a spot where we could jump. We checked the depth and found an area with no rocks and spent the next hour flipping through the refreshing water.