Glamping Safari bordeando el Parque Nacional Udawalawe

Our guide Solomon’s was perfect and so enthusiastic, he brought the safari to life. Camping under the starts was very special , we got to see the Milky Way! Staff were very friendly and always on half to help.

For our most expensive stay in Sri Lanka, we would’ve expected more. Whilst the location is beautiful and the staff are lovely, the lack of organisation made us disappointed. First up, the pick up instructions were unclear. We were told to meet at a place at 12.30 and the written information said not to arrive early or late. At 11.45, someone called us on WhatsApp asking where we were and to identify our taxi’s car rego, both difficult items when you don’t know where you are and the driver doesn’t speak English. Also, this presumed that we had data and we wonder how this would have fared without our data. Having arrived 45 minutes early, we were hoping to get a bite to eat and stretch our legs after our previous long drive. However we were loaded immediately into the back of a safari car and taken into the park. At this point we didn’t know we wouldn’t be fed till 8pm, otherwise we might’ve been a bit more vocal about wanting to stop for lunch beforehand. The safari was beautiful, seeing the elephants is always going to be magical. However, whilst the other cars mostly had guides or drivers who were telling them lots of information about elephants, we did not. I asked our driver if elephants slept upright or laying down and he said ‘yes they sleep’. I also asked if they had any predators in the park and he said ‘they eat grass’. After a few more basic questions, we stopped asking as he couldn’t understand, and tried to listen to other vehicles guides as much as I could when parked nearby. I note from other reviews - other people had a driver as well as a safari guide, which we did not. After the safari we were taken to the camp, which is beautiful and the staff were very friendly. We were offered a cup of tea and some snacks and asked when we wanted to eat dinner. When I said early as we didn’t have any lunch, they said dinner was at 7.30pm. I found it strange that they asked us what time we wanted, but then only offered the planned time. This ‘asking us what we wanted but then delivering the planned activity’ happened several times throughout our stay about other things, and often made us confused. We would have preferred to just be told straight up what time things occurred at. The tent is lovely, and we slept very well. The dinner was delicious as was the breakfast. The next morning we were asked when we wanted a nature walk and we specifically said ‘early so it’s not too hot’ and the guide suggested we can do this early (breakfast at 7.30 and walk at 8.30) and then would have some time to shower and relax before check out/taxi at 11. However, breakfast wasn’t served till 8am and the guide was displeased at having to wait for us to finish getting ready at 8.30am. He took us on a private walking tour for 30 minutes which was lovely and then we joined a group tour with 18 others and were herded around the property and neighbouring area for two more hours in the blazing sun. The tour guide made several rude comments to us, including demanding one of us do ten push ups in front of the group when she yawned, and then outright ignored us when we tried to say we needed to leave the group tour because it was longer than expected (already 11am) and we were late for our taxi and still not back at camp. We were expecting an early morning short walk followed by some reading in the shade before our onward journey and instead we ended up with mild heat stroke and our first sunburn of a 5 week trip. Ultimately, this could be a wonderful experience, they have a beautiful set up and location and delicious food. However they need to have clearer organisation for joining instructions, not offer things they can’t deliver on (such as early dinner, early breakfast or an early walk) and whilst everyone else is friendly and lovely, the one guide is letting the team down with his rude comments.

The excellent very motivated staff that took care of us and took us to the twice daily Safaris was the best. We enjoyed the dry season in the park, saw the big three several times and many more animals, got a lot of information and an answer to all our questions. The guide and the driver as well as the ranger who joined us on all the safaris all seemed so enthusiastic and happy to provide us with the best experience possible. The tents are very nice and fully equiped not very far from the road to the smaller park entrance and directly at the boarder of the park, quiet and in typical surroundings. The meals were excellent and with a nice variety. The atmosphere for dinner with a burning fire was unique. The camp tries to avoid garbage, uses solar energy, safes water... There is hardly anything that could be improved.

We were at the camp for 02 nights and the experience was amazing! The tents were very comfortable and erected in a way not to disturb the natural surroundings. Sri Lankan food served was delicious though i would have liked a raw salad with the vegetarian meal which we had before visiting Kataragama. All staff were very courteous and friendly and more than wiling to make our stay a memorable one.Safari tour was equally exiting and we saw lots of animals including a leopard! Hats off to Manjula, Wasantha and Osha for the wonderful 02 days which we will never forget!

What a great place - we arrived after dark so was guided to our tent which was so crazy hot - turned all the fans on, then guided to our beautiful meal then back for a scorching hot night in a tent before a pre dawn pickup so all seen in the night