Yala National Park - Home To A Host Of Wildlife And Birds
Missing Yala National Park while Sri Lanka sightseeing might bring regret to wildlife lovers. It is home to a host of wildlife and birds you are bound to run into a group of elephants bathing in streams, tossing their trunks wildly or leopards nestling lazily on tree branches. You could opt for the safari drives or a nature trail among the thick green foliage of the forest. Some tourists also camp at Yala and enjoy a barbeque under the stars. With so much to see and do here, Yala is indeed one of the best tourist places in Sri Lanka. Yala is the perfect place to try your hand at wildlife photography.
Uda Walawe National Park - Must-Visit Place For Wildlife Enthusiasts
This huge chunk of savanna centred on the Uda Walawe reservoir is Sri Lanka’s riposte to East Africa – a vast sprawl of open grassland, waterholes and forest groves, home to easily-spotted buffalo, sambar deer, crocodiles, tropical birds and elephants. And we don’t just mean a few elephants; we mean hundreds of them. Bring a long lens and ask your driver to hang back so you can observe these gentle giants without intruding on their repose.
Horton Plains National Park
Horton National Park is a ‘food for the soul’ kind of mesmerizing locale. The park is perched in the shadows of the country’s 2nd and 3rd highest mountains, Kirigalpota and Totapola. The place is also termed as world’s end due to its undaunting mysterious views of waterfalls, misted lakes and earthy species of flora and fauna. The national park is actually a plateau and is 2000m high. It is better to start early in the morning to witness this heavenly place.
Bundala National Park
The crowds hightail it to nearby Yala National Park, leaving Bundala National Park in a state of blessed serenity. Head here from Tissamaharama or Hambantota and you’ll enter a fantasy landscape of islets and lagoons, whose shimmering waters ring with the sound of birdsong. Bundala has a beauty that other parks cannot match, and huge flocks of migratory birds from December to March make this one of the finest birding destinations in the country.
Minneriya National Park
If you are looking to see elephants in their natural environment, Minneriya National Park near the town of Polonnaruwa, is the place to go. The lush, protected landscape means the park is a dry-season (May through September) feeding area for the elephants who live in the regions forests. The park is in Sri Lankas Dry Zone, which sees far less rainfall than the other parts of the island. Minneriya is a much better option to see elephants than some of the country’s elephant orphanages and sanctuaries, which can be tourist traps that mistreat the animals. Various operators offer full- and half-day jeep safaris where you can explore the vast space.