Tangalle/Hiriketiya: Yala National Park Safari in a 4x4

It was amazing to see some cool animals, the driver who collected us from our apartment & all other staff were lovely. However i found the overall experience a little disappointing. We chose the sunrise tour, assuming a big part of the tour would be watching the sunrise in a beautiful location. We got up at 2:30am, reached the tour office by 4:30, waited about 35 mins for the other tourists, then drove in the jeep to the safari entrance. Our driver then dissapeard for 30 minutes, leaving us to watch the sunrise behind some toilets, with no explanation. We then had to queue to get into the safari, all the while the sun was rising. It really felt like there was no point in getting up so early? We also didnt get any refreshments, I was dying for a coffee to help me wake up. We didnt have a guide, just the driver pointing out animals, so I didnt learn anything. There are so many other jeeps its very chaotic. I would recommend doing the midday tour, less cold and youll be much less tired!

Even though we didn't see a leopard, it was very interesting.

We are disappointed. We were picked up at 3:30, then we drove for about 1.5 hours, during which we took a break for the driver. That was fine. After the 1.5 hours, however, we had to wait another 35 minutes for other people before we could continue. From there we got into the jeep, and then we drove another hour to the park. We stood in front of the park for another 45 minutes before we actually got in, as there were so many jeeps already there. We were only in the park for 2.5 hours in total, and 20 of those were a break in a café. We just drove a straight route to the café and back again. Other jeeps turned left and right. We didn't really have the feeling that we were looking for animals, just looking for the way to the café. We paid 116 euros per person including admission, which wasn't worth the money.