Exceptional value for money. The park fee is about 10,00-15,000 lkr (bring cash) per person but this is the best price we have found after extensive research and we were blown away at how attentive our Guide Yasha was. He was determined to find us a leopard and as soon as he heard word from another ranger he raced over and found one within an hour of being in the park. Because of how rare the leopards are we knew it wasn’t guaranteed we’d see one but he did everything in his power to make this a possibility for us. We saw every animal on our list including sloth bear, leopard, wild elephant herd (with a calf), etc. He was on time for our 4:45 am pickup and it was a nice touch that he let us use his binoculars. Couldn’t have asked for a better experience!

Visiting Yala park was great. Pick up can be at any location nearby. Be aware that you need to buy entrance tickets to the park...which are not cheap! Also bring some food and drink for your journey. The driver was great and had a keen eye for spotting wildlife. With buying an entrance ticket you also get a ranger to do wildlife spotting. They are in contact with eachother and that makes the chances of finding them better. I guess spotting a leopard will always be difficult. We did an afternoong and a morning trip and saw a leopard at the very last moment. We could only see it with binoculars and only a few spots in trees. We did see elephants and everyone will see waterbufalo, deer, elk and alligators. Be also prepared to sit in a jeep for a long time without seeing any of the really special animals. So quality trip, but you need to be lucky.

Muthu was an excellent driver! He helped us see almost every animal in Yala National Park! We saw leopards, elephants, water buffalo's, crockodiles, deers, monkeys and lots more! He did everything possible to make our 3 hour afternoon safari the best ever!