Udawalawa National Park & Orphanage Visit from Hambantota Port
Description
Take a tour of Udawalawe National Park, one of Sri Lanka's largest animal sanctuaries. 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, jackals, leopards, and other animals from the comfort of a rugged 4x4 vehicle.
Tour Options
Itinerary
Udawalawe National Park lies on the boundary of Sabaragamuwa and Uva Provinces, in Sri Lanka. The national park was created to provide a sanctuary for wild animals displaced by the construction of the Udawalawe Reservoir on the Walawe River, as well as to protect the catchment of the reservoir. The reserve covers 30,821 hectares (119.00 sq mi) of land area and was established on 30 June 1972. Before the designation of the national park, the area was used for shifting cultivation (chena farming). The farmers were gradually removed once the national park was declared. The park is 165 kilometres (103 mi) from Colombo. Udawalawe is an important habitat for water birds and Sri Lankan elephants. It is a popular tourist destination and the third most visited park in the country.
The Udawalawe Elephant Transfer Home is a facility within Udawalawe National Park in Sri Lanka that was established in 1995 by the Sri Lanka Department of Wildlife Conservation. Its primary objective is to rehabilitate orphaned elephant calves for ultimate release back into the wild.
Highlights
What's included
Pickup Locations & Times
We will free pick up and drop you any location in Hambantota
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
Reviews(10)
Booked this tour because they collected you from the port. Excluded was the price of entry to the park and home which they gave a price for. Two days before we arrived in port on our cruise ship we received communication from them that they had changed the time of pick up from 0800 to 1030 and the price of the entry fees. On the day the price had changed again -from 11500LKR ($40) to $100. Unfortunately we paid by dollars-would not recommend. If you do not have rupees in cash they will take you to an ATM. They then led us to a vehicle that was in a dilapidated state- so much so that I feared for our safety on Sri Lankan roads. The park was good-we saw elephants, deer and an croc. After we had finished the driver asked us if we wanted to eat at a restaurant. Fortunately neither ourselves or the other couple travelling with us wanted food. Which meant that we were in time for the feeding at the orphanage- something the driver neglected to advise us about. If we had eaten we would have had to wait hours and we would have cut it fine for getting back to the cruise ship in time. It is a packed crowd at the orphanage so if you are late or of small statue you may have problems. The driver was genial but didn’t say much. I have to say that I would not recommend this company given our experience.
Fabulous tour. The elephant orphanage is wonderful. The park was amazing saw mums & babies bathing .Eagles crocodiles , monkeys great experience highly recommend
We had a tour to the Elephant transit point and a Safari. The tour operator did not answer any messages that we had previously sent The tour we booked was for four hours when we got ready to go onto the jeep we were told it was now 8 hours!! Now I can see you thinking what a bargain no it isn’t when you need to get back to the ship. Our tour should have been with a guide this is not true. We were dropped off at the elephant transit centre and told nothing of where we should go. We sat and sat and eventually the elephants were let in to be fed. We were told our tour would start at 8am. The elephant feeding didn’t start until 10.30 am. So 2.5 hours had already gone. All the tour operator wanted to do was to get money from us for the elephant transit centre and the Safari. He never asked us had we paid for the transit centre ourselves as there was a facility to do that. Do I believe the money he collected went to them? I doubt it. The Safari was good but the driver could not understand we were short of time. There were infact 21 of us in the bus that took us to the Safari. We couldn’t even cut the Safari short as we needed to wait for all their jeeps to return. Every time we went passed their jeeps they kept saying we are going to miss the ship. All the drivers of the jeeps just didn’t understand why we were all getting upset. Their English was extremely poor considering it’s supposed to be In English. After much shouting the drivers returned us to the bus. Our gps said we would arrive at the port shuttle buses at 4.05pm and the last shuttle was 4pm!! Luckily I had friends on the ship so I manage to contact them for them to inform the ship that we would be late. They said they would hold the buses until 4.30pm. If I hadn’t done this we would have missed the ship. The driver of the bus did drive fast to get us back. Others that were in a minivan said they struggled to keep up with us. They passed us as we had to stop at a bank for someone to use the cash machine which wasn’t actually there. We took enough water for a four hour tour not an 8 hour one, it was 30c!!! When we got to the port we literally ran from where we were dropped off to the shuttle bus getting on the bus at 3.59pm. If we hadn’t run or had limited mobility we would have missed the shuttle bus. This is totally unacceptable. We did not get the tour we paid for. Way too stressful to be enjoyed. Would i recommend definitely not
Driver/tour guide did not turn up today at the Port in Sri Lanka at the designated time. At least I have not been charged for it. Very disappointing- have never had a problem when booking tours with Viator before.
We had an amazing experience on the safari. Our guide was an awesome guide. He showed us Many animals and beautiful nature! We can really recommend to everyone who wants to visit Udawalawa!
The safari was surreal experience, Udawalawe national park is an incredible place for a vast selection of wild animals to lives like they are meant to - in nature and without human intervention. Thank you Shehan Safari. See you soon.
Perfect organization and really good driver and guides! It was a very nice experience and I can 100% recommend the tours!
Safari was really nice, we Saw many of elephants in their natural environment! Very punctual and nice driver who picked us up in Ella and dropped in Galle
We were met by our driver Sakun at the gates as we’d travelled down to Udawalwe from Ella that morning. We first went to the elephant transit home and then into the park. My uncle and aunt recommended visiting the ETH as it was a highlight of their trip, and it was the same for us. It was amazing seeing so many baby elephants and Sakun showed us exactly where to sit to get the best view of the feeding babies. After this we went to visit the park and picked up a volunteer guide who was very knowledgable about all the different animals. Sakun was a great driver as he clearly was an animal lover and wanted to see the animals too which definitely gave him the edge.
We took a safari tour with Shehan Safaris in Udawalawe national park. This trip was without question the highlight of our trip to Sri Lanka. Our driver was brilliant - extremely knowledgeable about the wildlife and the area, and great fun too. He knew where to look to get the best views of elephants and was able to point out an amazing range of birds. Highly recommended.
