14 nights, 6 stops — leopards, bears, highlands and whales.
Colombo → Wilpattu National Park → Yala National Park → Nuwara Eliya → Sinharaja Forest Reserve → Mirissa.
Round trip · returns to Colombo
Arrive in Colombo, met and transferred to your accommodation. Colombo keeps the logistics smooth — a comfortable hinge between flights and the wildlife regions.
Take a half-day of wetland birding on the city's edge. Settle in and explore the city's markets, temples and seafront.
Transfer to Wilpattu National Park. Game drives among the villus for leopard and sloth bear. Search the palu groves for bears and the lakesides for cats.
Search the palu groves for bears and the lakesides for cats. A long, quiet day in the wilderness, working the forest lakes. Wilpattu gives the same headline animals as Yala with space to enjoy them — the thinking traveller's choice.
A long, quiet day in the wilderness, working the forest lakes. Arrive at Colombo and transfer to Wilpattu National Park. Game drives among the villus for leopard and sloth bear.
Transfer to Yala National Park. Game drives in Block 1 for leopard, with elephant and crocodile by the lagoons. Arrive at Colombo and transfer to Yala National Park.
Dawn and dusk drives targeting the cats on the rocks and tracks. Search the palu groves for sloth bear and the scrub for leopard.
Search the palu groves for sloth bear and the scrub for leopard. A full day in the park, working the coast and the waterholes.
Transfer to Nuwara Eliya. Walk the tea estates and bird Victoria Park, with a tea-factory visit. Explore the hill country and rest in the cool highland air.
Explore the hill country and rest in the cool highland air. After the heat of the parks, the tea hills are a restorative change of climate and scene.
Transfer to Sinharaja Forest Reserve. Walk the rainforest trails for endemic birds and mixed feeding flocks. Follow the feeding waves and search for the rarer endemics.
Follow the feeding waves and search for the rarer endemics. Sinharaja is what most of the wet zone once was — and the only place to see the full set of the island's endemic birds.
Transfer to Mirissa. An early boat offshore for blue and sperm whales, then the beach. Whale-watching at dawn, with dolphins on the way out.
Whale-watching at dawn, with dolphins on the way out. Few wildlife moments rival a blue whale surfacing beside the boat — and Mirissa is one of the best places on earth for it.
A final morning in Mirissa — a last outing or a slow start as time allows — before the transfer onward and the journey home.
Drier southwest weather — the comfortable season for the city and south coast.
Southwest monsoon brings humidity and showers; still fine for a transit night.
A restored colonial villa in the heart of Colombo — intimate, elegant and central.
A premium mobile tented camp run by top naturalist guides — Wilpattu's best for serious wildlife.
Cocoon-like tented suites on the wild Yala coast — the island's most dramatic safari lodge.
Restored planters' bungalows among the tea estates — Relais & Châteaux luxury in the hills.
A clifftop resort of villas over the Indian Ocean — the south coast's finest perch for whale season.
A large, dependable city hotel with full facilities, well placed for arrivals and departures.
Add nights, swap a park, extend to the coast — this route is a starting point, not a fixed menu. Tell us how you travel and we'll route the rest.