Taxi in Udawalawe, private transfers at a fixed price

We collect from all the lodges and guesthouses around the park entrance and along the A18 through Udawalawe town, and from the properties on the Thanamalvila road. Most safari operators collect from your accommodation for the 06:00 or 14:30 drive, so we schedule arrival and departure transfers around those two windows rather than across them.

Udawalawe sits on the A18 between the south coast and the hill country, which makes it a natural stop rather than a detour. From Colombo airport allow about four hours; from Ella it is two hours, from Mirissa two and a half, and from Tissamaharama an hour and a half. That position is why so many itineraries pass through here: it breaks the long drive between the beaches and the hills, and the park visit costs you half a day rather than a whole one.

Udawalawe is good year-round, which is unusual and useful: unlike Yala it does not close, and the open terrain means sightings hold up even in wetter months. Morning drives beat afternoon ones for both light and activity. Half a day is genuinely enough here, so many people arrive from the coast, do an afternoon drive, sleep, do a morning drive and continue to Ella by lunchtime. If you have already done Yala, Udawalawe still earns its place: it is a different landscape and a different animal.

The park itself, ideally on the first drive of the morning when the herds are moving to water. The Elephant Transit Home, a short distance from the gate, releases rehabilitated orphans back into the wild rather than keeping them, and the feeding sessions are open to visitors at fixed times: it is a genuinely different proposition from the better-known orphanage at Pinnawala, and worth understanding the difference before you choose. Birdlife around the reservoir is excellent, particularly raptors.