Journey from Ella to Udawalawe:

We asked our hotel how to get to Udawalawe by bus and were told this would involve between 2-3 changes so in the end we decided to treat ourselves and get a taxi for the whole 2 hour journey from Ella to our hotel in Udawalawe. This cost us quite a bit at 7,000LKR but was a very straightforward journey.

Things to do:

Safari

The reason you got to Udawalawe is for the safari. There isn’t really any other reason (that I am aware of!) We had booked a half day safari through out hotel starting at 5:30am and finishing at about 11:30am. This cost about 8,500LKR for a jeep and driver for 2 people (although the jeeps can all fit 6) plus 4,200LKR per person for the entrance fee into the national park. There are jeeps waiting outside the park if people prefer to get to Udawalawe themselves and organise their own jeep, and the price for one of these jeeps is probably more negotiable.

Although the morning safari technically starts at 5:30am the first hour is actually just sitting waiting outside the park gates. There is then a mad dash as all the jeeps start racing to be the first in and be the first in the queue to get the tickets. The first elephant we saw was near to the entrance and therefore there were us plus twenty other jeeps crowding around one elephant which wasn’t exactly how we had pictured the safari. However, after about half an hour all the jeeps had spread out and so we were on our own for the rest of the safari.

We were lucky enough to see lots of elephants (including a 2 week old baby elephant), crocodiles, buffalo, huge numbers of different birds (eagles, peacocks, kingfishers) and a couple of lizards and turtles too. A rather unimpressive breakfast was also provided by our hotel but was given to us at a beautiful spot overlooking the water. A safari is definitely a must do if you like animals (if you’re not an animal lover this is obviously not going to be your cup of tea.)

Where to stay:

Kottawatta Village

Very beautiful hotel with a lake in the middle. There were also 2 swimming pools and the rooms were massive. They also provide a buffet for supper although we decided against this as it was $10 per person which seemed a bit steep. The different room types vary in price quite a bit, we paid $63 for a deluxe room. I’m glad we organised the safari through the hotel too as the driver was very good at spotting different birds that I would have never even noticed.

Where to eat:

We had decided the buffet was a bit pricey so walked the 400m into Udawalawe. There wasn’t a huge amount of choice as the town isn’t very big and we ended up having definitely our worst meal in Sri Lanka here at a very odd restaurant that had lots of flashing lights everywhere. Maybe should have just stayed at the hotel on this one…

Udawalawe National Park is absolutely huge and filled with so much wildlife! Don’t be deterred by the huge amount of jeeps at the entrance they very quickly spread out and soon it will be just you, your driver and a couple of elephants.