Wildlife
Leopard, elephant, and the whale coast
Sri Lanka packs more large wildlife into a small island than almost anywhere — if you are in the right park in the right month.
Almost everything that goes wrong on a Sri Lankan wildlife trip is a timing problem. The parks close in drought years, the whales follow the monsoon from one coast to the other, and the leopard sightings that fill Instagram happen in the first ninety minutes after the gates open. We plan around those facts rather than around a convenient route, which occasionally means telling people that the month they have chosen is the wrong one for the thing they want to see.
Journeys
Where people usually start
Each of these is private and fully adjustable — treat them as a shape, not a package.
Ceylon Icons
The island everyone comes for, taken at a pace that lets any of it land — the Cultural Triangle, the hill road, a leopard park and a long finish on the coast.
- 10 nights
- From US$3,695
Wild Ceylon
Two safari parks chosen because they are almost nothing alike, and the whale shelf off the southern coast.
- 9 nights
- From US$3,950
Questions
What people ask us
Yala Block One has the highest recorded leopard density in the world, but it is also the busiest. Wilpattu is quieter with lower density and longer drives. We often do both, and we go at first light rather than mid-morning.
Off Mirissa on the south coast, roughly December to April, when the continental shelf sits close to shore. Trincomalee on the east coast works May to September. Outside those windows we will tell you it is not worth the boat.
Yes. Your own jeep, your own tracker and naturalist. Shared jeeps are cheaper and are the main reason people come back disappointed — six strangers with six different priorities and one driver trying to please all of them.
Very. Elephant gatherings and the dry-zone parks hold most children easily. We would generally keep game drives to one a day for under-eights, and pick lodges where there is somewhere to swim in the afternoon.
Start planning
Tell us what you have in mind.
Every journey we design starts as a conversation. Tell us roughly when you want to travel and what matters to you, and we will come back with a considered outline — usually within 24 hours.