SPOTTING ELEPHANTS IN SRI LANKA – MINNERIYA NATIONAL PARK

The best place to see elephants in Sri Lanka is on a safari at Minneriya National Park,  one of Sri Lanka’s most beautiful national parks where you can watch wild elephants in their happiest place ever – in the wild. It’s an easy trip to get there by private car or using trains and buses and there is so much to see and do. But first, the elephants!

Where is Minneriya?

Minneriya National Park is about an hour north of Sigiriya – it’s part of Sri Lanka’s Cultural Triangle, and home of the incredible monetary-topped rock fortress. Sigiriya is just a few hours north of Kandy – the last cit of the ancient Kings – in Sri Lanka’s central province. We took local bus from the bus stop to Dambulla and then caught a tuk tuk to our guest house in Sigirya – the Hideout. It’s an amazing family owned property with handbill wooden treehouses and rooms, a fabulous pool and beautiful person touches. We have returned twice since, it’s such a beautiful place to stay.

 

 

This area is full of rolling hills, huge boulders and massive magma rocks like Sigiriya, forests and palms trees and big reservoirs or tanks as they are called, and temples and pagodas scattered around the mountains.

 

Where to stay in Sigiriya

We stayed for two nights in Sigiriya in a wonderful guest house called The Hideout – it has a two fabulous pools, the rooms and bathrooms are big and very clean and tidy. The grounds are large and green and perfect for kid fun with treehouses for climbing and one pool is a shallow baby/toddler sized. It’s about 10 minutes from Sigiriya town and it’s really easy to get around with tuktuks. All this for around $50 a night – and a lovely smiling welcome from our young hosts who were super helpful and sweet.

If you want a bit of affordable luxe then also check out the incredible JetWing Lake Dambulla – it’s AMAZING with a huge pool, huge rooms and a fabulous restaurant. Read all about it here.

When to go

The best time of year is between May to November when hundreds of elephants stay in this part of Sri Lanka, however we have been in January and seen some incredible gatherings of hundreds of elephants at this time.

Duck – between 3-m and 6pm is the bedtime of day and your drivers will make sure you get there at the right time.

Spotting the elephants

The guesthouse organised our jeep ($50 for the whole jeep so very economical if you’re a big fam or can get a few people together) and we had it all to ourselves. It was a proper safari jeep with open sides and roof so we could stand up and get a fabulous open view of all the fun.

Our driver was just lovely and found us awesome spots to watch the elephants while being very careful to stay a good distance away and not be pushy or competitive with the other drivers. [CONTACT: Dulaj Anuranga – +9471 041 3023 or email nethminisigiriya78@gmail.com]. You can also choose to get a driver and a guide who will stay in the back of the jeep with you and give you lots of ele info.

 

We drove about 40 minutes to the park entrance where I bought our tickets – it cost $60 (6300 rp) for Emmie and me. We then drove along a dirt road into the park spotting a few elephants along the way. This was alright and it’s what I was expecting, although I was getting a little frustrated we were behind tree lines and not getting a super close view. There were about four or five jeeps on the road with us.

Then all of a sudden we rounded a corner and there before us where around 150 elephants grazing on a plain and splashing in the lake.

 

I was in tears. What a huge, amazing and overwhelming surprise. Emmie had the hugest smile on her face and we were just speechless. I have never seen anything like this before and it was so so magic.

There is a path that the jeeps take around the elephants and the lake. I reckon there were about 40 jeeps on the path but it is very quiet and everyone stops and starts at their own pace. Our driver would stop for us and let us sit and watch until we asked to move on and then we’d move up a few metres and sit and watch again.

 

We saw families, babies, a bit of a tussle between two adolescents. We saw elephants rolling in the water, toddlers chasing birds and lots of trunk touching, ear flapping and tail wagging.

We were there for a few hours and our driver was super patient with us, giving us all the time we wanted and letting us just sit and watch and enjoy the elephant happiness in front of us.

Info

STAY: The Hideout in Sigiriya

SAFARI: Dulaj Anuranga; +9471 041 3023 or email nethminisigiriya78@gmail.com