Yala National Park

Hi

I am preparing to book a holiday to Sri Lanka for September 09 and one of the places we visit is Yala National Park. According to the Government web site this is an unsafe area?

Has anybody been or is anybody planning to go despite this advice?

Yala National Park

Hi there,

Search the forum with this keyword and you%26#39;ll read plenty, including recent visits. BUT...

a) The UK govt website usually means also that your travel insurance would be void during this part of the visit, also for totally different types of incidents.

b) If you%26#39;d still decide to go: Sept-Oct (sometimes from 15-Sept onwards) the park is in most years closed. Nothing to do with security situation but with the end of the dry season there, leading to quite reduced drinking pools for the nice beasties which in turn might make them agressive towards the humans.

Udu Walawe, about 80 km to the west of Yala, and closerby but much smaller Bundala are replacements-up-to-some-extent for Yala and safe.

All the best,

%26lt;Erik%26gt; %26amp; [Sandya]

Yala National Park

Hi,

UK tour operators have Yala in their packages in the hope that the restrictions will be lifted before the actual tour takes place. If the restrictions are not lifted they will divert the tour to somewhere else. I have seen Horton Plains or Uda Walawe National Parks mentioned in the forum.

I went to Yala last April without knowing about the warnings and according to recent posts in the forum others have been there too. All found the area safe. BUT if you go there despite the warnings your travel insurance will possibly be invalid. So if you intend to go, check with your insurance company whether you will be covered.

Hans

Hello Tior

In my opinion, no visit to Sri Lanka would be complete, or even worthwhile, without a visit to Yala!

Minneriya is nice too if you like elephants but you won%26#39;t see much else there - I suppose that depends on the time of year. They have massive herds of jumbos there.

Leeds

I agree .. Minneriya is good for elephants, but not much else; so much of it is through scrubby forest and you do not see very much at all, whereas Yala is open and the wildlife is incredibly diverse.

You might not be lucky enough to see the leopards, but definitely crocs and elephants, aswell as a HUGE variety of birds and other animals.

I may be shot down for saying this, but in my opinion, the risk to anyone planning a jeep safari to Yala is nil ... I would not hesitate to go there again and give a much needed economic boost to the area. The mosquitoes pose more of a threat to be honest ...

Sue

haha I concur!

We took Yala out of our itinerary - not because we concerned for our safety, but because we woudn%26#39;t be covered by travel insurance if we went there. I%26#39;m starting to regret this decision! We travel in March - I guess we could always ask our agent to put it back in. IF I can persuade my husband to lose two of the 7 nights beach stay that we%26#39;ve included....

I think the possibility of seeing leopard might do it, we%26#39;ve never seen one in our trips to Africa, maybe Sri Lanka will be lucky for us ;-)

If you visit Yala or Bundula and are based in Tissa can recommend a Mr Lokka as a guide excellent !

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