Taxi in Tissamaharama (Yala), private transfers at a fixed price

We collect from hotels and guesthouses throughout Tissamaharama, Kataragama and Kirinda, and from the lodges strung along the road towards the Yala entrance at Palatupana. If your safari operator is collecting you at 04:30, tell us your onward transfer time when you book: we routinely schedule departure transfers around a morning game drive so that you are not paying for a jeep and a car to wait for each other.

From Colombo airport it is about four and a half hours via the E01 expressway to Matara and then the A2 east — the longest of the standard south-coast transfers, and one where the driver's route choice genuinely matters. From Ella it is two and a half hours down through the hill country, a spectacular descent that most people underestimate. Within Tissa everything is close, and safari jeeps collect from your accommodation, so a car is only needed for the arrival and departure legs.

The dry season, roughly May to September, is the best game viewing because animals concentrate at water, which is the opposite of the south coast beach season. Yala Block 1 usually closes for maintenance in September and October — check before you build an itinerary around it. Book the safari with the accommodation rather than at the gate, and take the 05:00 slot over the afternoon one: the light is better and the park is quieter for the first hour.

Yala Block 1 has the highest leopard density recorded anywhere and also the highest jeep density in Sri Lanka; going at first light, or choosing Block 5, changes the experience considerably. Bundala, forty minutes west, is a wetland park and much better for birds. Kataragama, fifteen minutes north, is one of the most important pilgrimage sites on the island for Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims alike, and the evening puja is genuinely worth staying for. Tissa's own tank is full of birds at dawn and costs nothing.