Our entire recent trip to Sri Lanka was inspired by a single farfetched idea – to see a leopard in the wild in Yala National Park.

I don’t know why we have this image in our minds that the only real safaris in the world are in Africa. Majestic, rare animals live all over the world, from increasingly hard to spot pandas in China to the leopards of Sri Lanka. The leopards there, wander freely around the country but are mainly comfortably living in several massive national parks.

The risk in planning a vacation around the potential to maybe see a rare animal in the wild is that there is absolutely no guarantees.

Maybe to soften the blow of probable failure, we decided that if we were going to safari in the wilds of Sri Lanka, we should do it in style. We found a great shoulder season deal at the preeminent Chena Huts next to Yala National Park, and quickly booked a one-night stay before we could change our minds.

Ultimately we found that choosing the right place to stay, particularly near Yala National Park, is central to the enjoyment of the area.

For starters, the park is massive, but most Yala safari companies use a single entrance most of the year. Yala National Park is divided into blocks, and the most popular is Block 1, which happens to be located next to Chena Huts. From the parking lot of the resort to the gate of the national park was less than 15 minutes.

Many resorts and eco lodges we researched that included game drives to Yala were located as far as 1.5 hours from the entrance. Even if a resort looks close to the park on a map, make sure to double check with the tour company or hotel before booking. The road infrastructure around this area is quite poor, so even a short distance takes a surprisingly long time.

Side Note: Block 1 is closed each year from September 1st to October 15th (when animals migrate to other areas of the park). Take that into consideration when making a booking. From Chena Huts to Blocks 3, 4, or 5 and adds almost three hours of driving for each park visit. Not ideal.

The second thing to consider about these rural accomodations is that all of them are all-inclusive, more or less. With nary a convenience store for miles, all lodges that cater to national park visitors really need to have everything onsite. The level of inclusivity (booze, game drives, spa treatments) varies, but note that once you’re at your hotel, you’ll either be there or in the park for the duration of your stay. Choose wisely.

Given the price of the accommodation, we had high hopes for Chena Huts, but you never know about how expectations will line up with reality. Thankfully, the hotel was the highlight of our time in Sri Lanka.

Breakfast, lunch, and dinner were included in the rate and all meals are served in the only restaurant space, Basses. Floor to ceiling windows overlook the sand dunes and the rough sea. To make things a little more interesting, the menu varies daily, a real benefit to longer stays.

Our villa, totally secluded, came equipped with king sized bed, sleek bathtub, rain-head shower, and our very own private pool. The mini bar, fully stocked with water, soda, and wine, was also included in the rate.

Aside from spa treatments, this resort has no sneaky add-on fees, like premier wines or specialty cocktails that suddenly appear as a surprise at checkout. You can sip as many gin and tonics as you want, or have as many glasses of wine as you please. This is a judgement free zone. When we wanted to only have one course with lunch, they suggested sharing an appetizer or saving room for dessert. Skimping was not encouraged.

The only amenity not available was room service because wildlife roams freely in this area. To avoid attracting unwelcome visitors, cooked food is kept in designated areas. That said, the staff is more than happy to bring a bottle of wine to the room, day or night, for no extra fee. Plus, when else can you come across a mongoose on your way to dinner?

Similar to our experience all over Sri Lanka, the people at the resort are incredibly warm and friendly. Each guest has the same server for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, which made the resort feel more personal. The staff also managed to clean our room and do a turn down service without ever being seen. Every time we returned to our room, it was refreshed. No calls to housekeeping or interruptions while we were in the room.

Our Yala Safari

Of course, the whole point of this adventure was to see the leopards at Yala National Park. The morning Yala safari departed around 6:30am and returned around 9:30am, while the afternoon drive went from 3:00pm to 6:00pm. Our customised Toyota HiLux was fitted with seats for six people and we were paired with one other couple and the same guide for our game drives. Our guide in particular was incredibly knowledge, a trained zoologist who knew all about the floral and fauna of the park.

The pace of the drives varied depending on what had been spotted that day and what we wanted to see. We meandered around the park in the morning, but in the afternoon we drove quickly to the outer edges of Block 1 when there were rumblings on the radio about a leopard in the area.

Unfortunately, our first two game drives ended without a successful leopard spotting. However, we were thrilled with the variety of animals we did see, from lots of gorgeous birds to a very rare jackal sighting (below, the blurry one). Our last drive ended on the beach next to the resort where a daily cocktail bar is set-up to view the sunset and chat with other guests.

While taking a dip in our plunge pool that night, we talked ourselves out of the disappointment of coming all this way with nary a leopard to be seen. It’s fine, we reassured ourselves. We saw plenty of things. Leopards are rare and many people don’t see them.

But, what if we stayed another night? Two more game drives into the park. Two more chances to see a leopard. What’s another night in the grand scheme of life?

With that, we rushed to reception and quickly extended our stay. Before we could talk ourselves out of it.

The next day, our guide reminded us that with a dense brush allowing for just a few meters of visibility, an animal literally needs to be near the path for us to see it. And then we have to drive by at just the right time. Basically, viewing a leopard in the wild requires a confluence of events that mean you should never, ever get your hopes up about seeing one. Because you probably won’t.

We didn’t tell him that we flew halfway across the world just for this precise possibility. And wouldn’t you know, it paid off.

On our second day we had two different leopard sightings. The first was a juvenile male who wandered out to drink from a small pond. He was spotted lounging on a tree limb, barely visible with the provided binoculars. As he got up and descended the tree, our guide warned us that he was probably retreating back into the dense brush beyond. However, the leopard continued to saunter closer to us, walking down to the small pond. He sat down and enjoyed a water break for ten minutes, as we anxiously snapped photos of this incredibly experience.

Later, we saw a mom with two cubs further away (you can tell thanks to the worse photo quality!), also daring to come out of the trees to drink from a water source. They too sat down and we had almost twenty minutes to enjoy these incredible creatures.

After these two major thrills, we were patting ourselves on the back for booking the extra night and revelling in the fact that we could now leave Sri Lanka with a bucket item checked off the ole’ list.

But then, a cackle on the radio indicated that we were close to an even more rare animal. One that was literally walking down the road.

The sloth bear is an endangered species, currently listed as Vulnerable on official lists (due to environment degradation and the fact that tigers like to hunt them in India). They don’t quite sport the same beauty as their leopard neighbors, but they are much more rare to spot.

This solitary bear had just finished binging on rosewood berries, which are prevalent this time of year. The berries have a kind of alcoholic effect on the bears and this bear’s inhibitions were way down as it casually walked down the road. He swayed a little as he walked and he even had an errant rosewood branch stuck to his fur, evidence of a crazy afternoon of eating. After a few minutes he meandered into the woods and that was that.

Are we glad we bit the bullet and booked an extra night at a fancy resort in the off chance we would see some of the world’s most cherished animals? Must you even ask?

We left Chena Huts and Yala National Park full with wonder and deep satisfaction, once again reminded how magnificent this world is. And eager for our next adventure.

On a more somber note, our trip to Sri Lanka did occur just a few days after the horrific events of Easter Sunday in the Colombo area. If you are interested, check out our thoughts about travel after a tragedy. We hope that Sri Lanka tourism recovers quickly and that more and more people go to Sri Lanaka in the future to explore what is a truly amazing country.