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Private Safari Tour: Udawalawe National Park and Elephant Transit Home Visit
4.3
26 Ratings
Udawalawe
Embark on a private safari tour of Udawalawe National Park and visit the Elephant Transit Home. Explore Sri Lanka’s largest animal sanctuary, spot elephants, leopards, and more from a 4x4 vehicle.
Embark on a private safari tour of Udawalawe National Park and visit the Elephant Transit Home. Explore Sri Lanka’s largest animal sanctuary, spot elephants, leopards, and more from a 4x4 vehicle.
Duration:
4 hours
Cancellation:
24 hours
Highlights
- Udawalawe National Park - Nestled against the majestic highlands to the north, Udawalawe National Park is renowned as one of the premier locations globally to observe wild elephants. Dominated by grasslands and bush forests, it stands out as one of Sri Lanka’s top national parks for wildlife viewing.
- Elephant Transit Home (ETH) - Supported by…
- Udawalawe National Park - Nestled against the majestic highlands to the north, Udawalawe National Park is renowned as one of the premier locations globally to observe wild elephants. Dominated by grasslands and bush forests, it stands out as one of Sri Lanka’s top national parks for wildlife viewing.
- Elephant Transit Home (ETH) - Supported by the Born Free Foundation, this facility serves as a rehabilitation center for orphaned elephants. Once rehabilitated, these elephants are released back into the wild, often into Udawalawe National Park. While direct interaction with the elephants isn’t possible, watching them during feeding times from a viewing platform is an enjoyable experience.
What's Included
- Hotel pickup and drop-off
- Driver/guide
- Transportation in a Safari Jeep (maximum of 6 passengers per jeep)
- Hotel pickup and drop-off
- Driver/guide
- Transportation in a Safari Jeep (maximum of 6 passengers per jeep)
What's Not Included
- Entrance Fees
- Entrance Fees
Additional Information
Take a tour of Udawalawe National Park with Elephant transit home visit, one of Sri Lanka’s largest animal sanctuaries. Because this is a private tour, you’ll have plenty of time to hear commentary about the wildlife you’ll see and ask questions. Keep an eye out for elephants, water buffalo, fox, leopards, and other animals from the comfort of a rugged…
Take a tour of Udawalawe National Park with Elephant transit home visit, one of Sri Lanka’s largest animal sanctuaries. Because this is a private tour, you’ll have plenty of time to hear commentary about the wildlife you’ll see and ask questions. Keep an eye out for elephants, water buffalo, fox, leopards, and other animals from the comfort of a rugged 4x4 vehicle. Morning or Afternoon options are available to suit your schedule.
Location
Hotel Niwahana
We will pick you up from your hotel in Udawalawa or you can come to Hotel Niwahana Udawalawa to start the tour.
Cancellation Policy
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Customer Ratings
4.3
(26 Ratings)
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Aoifem496
Dec 5, 2025
Udawalawa National Park And elephant sanctuary - Excellent safari with Prasad. He was excellent at spotting elephants, peacocks, crocodiles and even lizards in the national park. We also stopped by the elephant sanctuary to see feeding time which was wonderful!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Janine
Apr 21, 2025
Transit home was so cute! - We visited the elephant transit home before taking the Safari. It was feeding time and the baby elephants were so happy to receive their milk. They were delightful to watch and seeing the babies interact with each other was cute and fascinating. Really enjoyed the visit.
Our safari was also a great experience and we managed to see a one month old baby elephant with their family as well as many other elephants. The jeep driver was respectful of the animals. We also saw peacocks, crocs, spotted deers, water buffalo and a variety of birds.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Tabatha
Apr 3, 2025
Have to visit! - Amazing experience!
So so many baby elephants of all sizes, they definitely knew when feeding time was and some were very persistent they had seconds.
Amazing experience and all will go on to be wild elephants which was very Important to us.
Have to visit!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Sveino762
Jan 9, 2025
Safari in Sri Lanka - Many impressions, and got a lot of good pictures. Nice guide who spoke English ok. Guide knew lot about birds and elephants. It was a good experience, and worth the money😊
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Sallymq3983tw
Nov 19, 2024
Brilliant guide Pathum - Pathum was a brilliant guide. We were picked up on time . He took us to all the busy spots then took us further into the park . We saw 15 different elephants 3 crocodiles monkeys and loads of birds .
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Rachel
Aug 1, 2025
Worth stopping at feeding time if passing - Great to see the small elephants, amazing conservation work. Big crowd but could easily see, lovely experience for whole family
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Alex
Nov 9, 2025
Don't buy in advance, take it there itself - After booking, no one contacted me from the tour. My booking was 2.30pm, so I called TripAdvisor support to get the actual operator's number. Then I called them and they were on the way, So we started the tour half hour late. The guide picked me up and then transferred to another local safari jeep, I even had to pay for his entrance ticket which was a very small amount. So this company doesn't do the tour they just get a commission and send you to someone else. The English speaking guide knew what he was doing but never really told anything just drove us around, just being a driver.
So bottom line it's pointless to book this in advance just take the tour from your hotel and they give you a discount as well.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Julia_t
Nov 21, 2025
Udawalawe itself was magic. Touring with this company was not. - Udawalawe itself was magic. Touring with this company was not. They didn’t confirm my booking until I escalated through Viator because they never responded to my WhatsApp message asking if the tour was confirmed. They also gave me the wrong pickup time (I was told 6:30am, but the driver arrived at 6:00am and was confused why I wasn’t ready), so I ended up rushing out the door. They failed to mention that although the park accepts card, your driver pays the entrance fee in cash for the whole vehicle — meaning you must bring the park fee in cash. They also never informed my driver that my tour included a visit to the Udawalawe Transit Home, so he was completely surprised when I asked about seeing the orphaned elephants.
The guide they hired inside the park was a dud: he shared almost no information, had to be prompted, and what he did offer was either obvious or incorrect. I ended up spotting more wildlife than he did.
The upsides? My driver (his name started with an M) was genuinely lovely and really helpful, especially when I was sorting out payment. And we did see plenty of elephants throughout the morning, though my sense is that’s simply the nature of Udawalawe rather than anything creditable to the company.
Review provided by Viator
E821hesabineb
Jan 5, 2025
Not worthwhile - The jeep driver was half an hour late. We had to call the given number 6 times. We stood at the homemade meeting point at 6.00am.
We found it inappropriate for the elephants that 50 jeeps with running engines stood at 3 elephants. we therefore stopped the safari.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
69grzegorzd
Oct 15, 2024
WARNING!!! SCAM!!!!! - This is scam! We paid for 4 hours safari. They gave us 2 hours and asked to get out of the car.
When we asked driver to continue safari he literally laughed at our faces and told us safari started from the moment when he picked us up from the House.
Altough IT remained still 1 hour safari. He refused to continue his service.
FRAUDELNT people!!!! SCAM!!!!!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
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