Yala
Block 1 has the highest leopard density recorded anywhere on earth. It also has the most jeeps. Expect excellent sightings and a queue at them. Go for the 5:30am entry, take a full-day permit if you can, and accept that in February you will share a leopard with thirty vehicles.
Udawalawe
If you want elephants without conditions, this is the park. Around 600 resident elephants in open grassland with little cover means sightings are effectively guaranteed year round. Fewer leopards, fewer jeeps, better birding, and the Elephant Transit Home nearby where orphaned calves are rehabilitated for release rather than kept for rides.
Wilpattu
The largest and oldest national park, in the northwest, closed for decades by the civil war and still comparatively empty. Dense forest around natural lakes called villus. Leopards are present at lower density but sightings feel earned rather than staged, and you may go an hour without seeing another vehicle.
Minneriya and Kaudulla
Not alternatives so much as a different event. Between June and October the receding reservoir at Minneriya draws up to 300 elephants in a single afternoon, the largest gathering of Asian elephants in the world. Outside those months the herds move to Kaudulla or Hurulu, and a good driver knows which.
How to choose
First-time visitor with a leopard on the list: Yala, full day, first entry. Family with young children: Udawalawe, guaranteed sightings and shorter drives. Second visit or a photographer: Wilpattu. Travelling June to October and near Sigiriya: Minneriya, without question.
On ethics
Never book anything offering elephant rides or bathing with captive elephants. Ask your driver not to crowd a sighting, and be willing to leave one. A good safari driver in Sri Lanka will back off when a leopard shows stress; ask us for one who does.
