Two morning drives in Block 1 at Yala, then two slow days on the coast to make up for the early starts.
Four days for people who want the wildlife without a punishing schedule. Both game drives enter Block 1 at 5.30am, when leopard activity is highest and the tracks are quietest. Between drives you stay at a tented camp outside Tissamaharama, close enough to the gate that the morning transfer takes twenty minutes. The trip finishes with two nights on the coast near Mirissa, a three hour drive west.
Block 1 of Yala holds one of the highest recorded leopard densities anywhere, on the dry southeastern coast in Hambantota District. Drives run at 5.30am and 2.30pm, and the morning slot has the better light and fewer jeeps on the tracks. The park closes for several weeks around September for the drought, so dates shift slightly each year.
Two morning drives from the Tissamaharama camp, entering Block 1 at the 5.30am gate opening.
A jeep into Block 1 at the 5.30am gate opening with a tracker who works the radio network between drivers. Four hours covers the main waterholes and the coastal track. Sightings are never guaranteed and the drivers do not bait.
A curved bay on the south coast in Matara District, with a working fishing harbour at the western end where the whale boats leave from. Swimming is safest between the headland and Parrot Rock. From November to April the harbour runs daily trips out to the shelf where blue whales feed.
Yala west to Mirissa takes about three hours along the coast road.
The 6.30am boat from Mirissa harbour out to the continental shelf, roughly an hour offshore. Blue and sperm whales are the usual sightings, with spinner dolphins on most runs. Operates November to April only, and the crew turns back if the swell runs above two metres.
Resort
LKR 22,000.00 / night
Van · 8 seats
LKR 32,000.00
Car · 3 seats
LKR 18,500.00