Best of Udawalawe

In the Hill Country in the far south, Udawalawe National Park is best known for its large population of Sri Lankan elephants. In the 1970s, the park was created as a sanctuary for wildlife displaced by the construction of a nearby reservoir, and today Udawalawe’s 119 square miles (308 sq km) support over 400 elephants, sometimes gathering in herds of up to 60 individuals. You can make the most of your stay by spending the night in a tented camp or nature-minded lodge. 

On a safari trip, you’ll ride in an open-sided 4WD on the edge of grasslands and bush forest in search of the park’s resident elephants. The lack of dense vegetation makes wildlife spotting easier, and you might encounter jackals, sloth bears, peacocks, and perhaps a leopard in addition to a dozen or more elephants. You can learn all about the life cycle of the planet’s largest land animals at the Udawalawe Elephant Transit Home. Here orphaned calves and adolescents are taken in and cared for until they can be released back into the wild.