Yala or Udawalawe: a safari from Hiriketiya, every way

Yala or Udawalawe: which suits you?

Udawalawe became a park partly as a refuge for the wildlife pushed out when its big reservoir flooded the valley. You can visit all year, though the heaviest rain comes in two spells, October to January and March to May.

Yala is very dry, and it is split into blocks. Block 1 is the most visited. Few parks in the world have as many leopards for their size. Guides suggest February to June or July for Yala, and it is usually busiest from August to March. In both parks, animals are most active early and late in the day, so that is when safaris run.

Families have one more reason to choose Udawalawe. Nine km before the park gate, the Department of Wildlife Conservation runs the Elephant Transit Home. Since 1995 it has raised orphaned baby elephants, keeping people away from them as much as it can. At about 4 to 5 years old, they go back to the wild in the park. You watch their milk feeds from a platform, and nobody touches them.

How long is the drive?

Times are from map routing with no traffic or stops (OpenStreetMap, October 2026). Real trips take longer, so allow time for towns, stops and the ticket queue.

The Elephant Transit Home is on the way to Udawalawe, 74 km from the bay (1 h 45 min). The quickest routes use the Southern Expressway from Beliatta. It saves about 22 minutes to Udawalawe, but only about 6 minutes to Yala. Cars pay a toll each way (December 2025 rates): LKR 250 (about US$0.75) to Udawalawe, or LKR 300 (about US$0.90) to Yala. Tuk-tuks and scooters may not use the expressway.

Palatupana is Yala’s main gate, in the south. Katagamuwa, in the north, is much quieter. One guide says more than 200 jeeps usually go in at Palatupana, but only about 20 to 30 at Katagamuwa.

After an afternoon drive (2 to 6 pm), you get back in the dark: at about 8 pm from Udawalawe, or 9 pm from Yala. UK travel advice says road accidents in Sri Lanka are frequent, especially at night: see is Hiriketiya safe? To skip the 3 am start and the night drive, some people sleep near the park. For Yala, that means Tissamaharama or Kirinda; for Udawalawe, Udawalawe town. A safari fills a whole day, so give it a day of its own: see how many days in Hiriketiya. Udawalawe also fits on the road to or from Ella: see Ella to Hiriketiya.

Every way to get there

At Yala, every way ends the same: only the park’s registered jeeps may go in, so you hire one. Since January 2024, their drivers have needed a licence from the wildlife department. At Udawalawe, jeeps wait at the gate.

Most tuk-tuks here have no meter. For a rough idea of the fare, we use the official meter rate near Colombo (March 2026): LKR 110 for the first km, then LKR 90 a km. It is not a real price, so agree the fare first. Our getting-there page has more on buses, tuk-tuks and licences.

Hiring a jeep

Jeep prices differ between sources, so ask what is included. Hiring the whole jeep for half a day at Yala costs about LKR 13,000 to 25,000 (about US$39 to 76). A jeep owners’ group in Tissamaharama set LKR 13,000 from July 2022, and that rate was still shown in late 2025. A 2026 guide gave LKR 14,000 to 25,000. At Udawalawe, sources from older years to 2026 give about LKR 7,500 to 19,500 (about US$23 to 59). One park permit covers up to ten people, counting the driver, so sharing a jeep lowers the cost for each person.

At Yala, the jeep owners’ group and the listings we found are in Tissamaharama. We could not confirm hiring a jeep at the Palatupana gate itself. Yala allows up to 550 jeeps in each session, up from 500 in December 2024. In April 2026, 552 jeeps were registered.

Be kind to the animals

• Never feed wild animals. At Udawalawe, people have long fed wild elephants at the electric fence by the road. A 2020 study counted more than 50 adult male elephants taking food there. Over a thousand people a day came to watch or feed them. The study found the effects largely neutral. Even so, the authorities have tried to stop the feeding. We found no law that makes it an offence, but please don’t feed the elephants, or any animal.
• Don’t ask your driver to chase a leopard. Crowds of jeeps round a leopard put animals at risk. At Yala, jeeps killed a leopard in 2011 and a jungle cat in 2012. A kind driver keeps to the speed limit, gives animals space and never crowds them.
• Stay in the jeep and keep quiet. Yala’s warden asks drivers to switch off the engine near an animal.
• Enjoy every animal, not just leopards. Yala’s jeep drivers are trained to show visitors all of them.
• Take all your rubbish home.

These fees come from the government’s fee list, gazette No. 2292/11, in force since 2 September 2022. A March 2025 report says they were still the fees in January 2025, and we found no newer list. The higher “tourist season” rate applies on dates set by the Department of Wildlife Conservation. We could not find those dates, so be ready for either rate.

• Children from abroad (6 to 12): US$15 in the tourist season, US$10 at other times. Children under 6 go in free.
• Visitors from South Asian (SAARC) countries, such as India: US$20 or US$15 for an adult.
• Sri Lankans: LKR 150 or 120 for an adult, LKR 100 or 80 for a child and LKR 20 for a student (all under US$1).
• Each vehicle: US$10 if anyone in the group is from abroad, or LKR 400 for an all-Sri Lankan group. Add LKR 300 for the jeep itself.
• Tax: 18% VAT on top of everything. Booking online adds 2%, plus a card fee (the amount isn’t shown).
• Elephant Transit Home: US$3 for a child from abroad, plus tax.

Take two adults from abroad sharing a jeep in the tourist season. They pay US$60 and LKR 300 in fees, or about US$70.80 and LKR 354 with VAT. The jeep hire is extra. You can pay in US dollars or the same amount in rupees.

Buying tickets. You can pay at the ticket office at the park entrance. Or reserve a permit online through the “Day Visitor ePermits” service, which you reach from the department’s eServices page. You enter everyone in the group, the driver too, pay by card and print the permit. In October 2026 the service offered 200 online permits a day for Yala and 150 for Udawalawe, up to three months ahead. When a day’s permits are gone, online booking for that day closes.

The park rules

The fee gazette and the online permit’s terms set these rules:

• Day visits run from 6 am to 6 pm.
• Everyone needs an ID: a passport, a national identity card or a driving licence. Nobody without one may go in.
• The speed limit is 20 km/h.
• A park officer joins your group and rides in your jeep at no charge. Stay with them and do as they say.
• No music, singing, shouting or clapping, and no noise that may disturb animals.
• Keep out of closed areas, and take nothing out of the park.

If visitors break the rules, the department can ban the jeep owner’s vehicles for at least six months. At Yala, time limits are strict. A 2026 report said a jeep late by even one minute can be banned for a day.

Closures: check before you go

Parts of Yala close in bad droughts and in heavy rain.

• Drought, 2026: Blocks 1 and 2, the busiest parts, closed to visitors from 14 September to 15 October 2026. Officers brought about 200,000 litres of water a day by lorry to fill the ponds. Reopening was announced for 16 October 2026, but we could not confirm that it happened.
• Rain, 2025: both entrances to Block 1 closed after floods on 1 March 2025. On 27 November 2025, Zones 1 to 5 closed in heavy rain across the island, and Block 1 reopened on 3 December.
• Other years: dry-season closures also happened in 2014, 2018 and 2019, but we found none in 2024 or 2025. They come in some dry years, not every year.

We found no closure at Udawalawe from 2024 to 2026. Check the news a few days before you go, and again the day before.