Hurulu Eco Park Private Safari

Great safari experience at Hurulu Eco Park. We were lucky to see a large number of elephants, including many baby elephants. It wasn’t crowded with jeeps, which made the experience feel more natural and enjoyable. Definitely worth visiting if you want to see elephants in the wild.

This was a truly magical experience. To see elephants in the wild, was truly amazing. Our guide was excellent and I would highly recommend this park, if like us, you are looking for a quieter and more ethical experience. Our guide was super considerate about the elephants, not getting too close and also provided lots of information about them. I had heard about lots of jeeps crowding around the elephants at other parks and was really worried about this but here we only saw 3 other jeeps and they all toured around independently. We saw around 10 elephants but for us it was always about quality and not quantity. Highly recommended!

It was an ok experience. Too many Jeeps were all lined up in elephants face. Park is small. It is a backup park where the local tour operators take you if the main park is closed.

Great spot to see lots of elephants, quiet park without the chaos of Yala. We went in may and had lots of encounters with elephants with out other jeeps!!

Load up into old 4×4s with little suspension and roofs rolled back for a very hot (33 feels like 40+) dive through the park. The elephants are known to be in here somewhere and it doesn't take long for the drivers to find them. The jeeps seem to close in a bit too eagerly but most of the time the elephants seem to ignore us (just one occasion I noticed them disturbed and backing off). Great views and a range of young elephants wandered right next to our vehicle including one a few weeks old. Hopefully this (semi) eco tourism helps add value to the wildlife on the island.

So many elephants!!Go go go. The park itself is gorgeous

This was part of a Private Day Trip to Sigiriya, cave and National park Safari Tour organised by JK Tours Sri Lanka. We booked the safari tour which was great and saw plenty of elephants up and close. The jeep driver was very skilled (especially impressive as he was driving a manual jeep). He got us as close to the elephants as safely possible, and we always felt secure. We also spent around 20 minutes at a viewpoint with beautiful scenery, where we could even hear elephants in the distance. At the end of the safari, we were given fresh watermelon juice which is not usually my preference (due to the bits), but it was a thoughtful touch.

Brilliant stunning animals.

We went to Hurulu Eco Park hoping to see elephants in the wild. We were lucky enough to spot several. However, I don’t feel good after witnessing these….. Whenever the elephants are spotted, many jeeps would move towards the location and gather around the area. The jeeps would get very close to the elephants. Many of the drivers would keep their engine on. The tourists would make exciting noise. It was quite chaotic. There were occasions where the elephants looked confused and didn’t know whether they should cross the road because of the presence of many jeeps. There was no space to cross the road. This made me feel super uncomfortable. I know that the safaris are an essential part of the tourism industry in Sri Lanka. Everyone is excited to visit elephants safaris. However, I wish there are stricter rules like turning off engines, minimizing noise, jeeps not getting too close, etc. These are wild animals, and they deserve to move freely and peacefully in their own home. I am grateful I saw them but I hope future visits can be done in a way that puts the elephants’ wellbeing first.

Great experience with environmentally aware driver. This is a very busy area but our driver managed to find us some quiet places where we got some great photos. Close enough to hear the Elephants breathing.

Amazing trip. Thank you, Hansika, at Lakpura. Would recommend this to any tourist and anyone visiting Sri Lanka who hasn’t seen Elephants up close!

Amazing and unforgettable experience! 🌿🐘 During today’s safari in Sri Lanka we saw a lot of elephants, very close and in full respect of their natural habitat – truly emotional and breathtaking. The guide was excellent: very knowledgeable, kind and attentive, explaining everything with passion and making the safari even more special. The company Hurulu Eco Park Private Safari was absolutely professional, with perfect organization and great respect for nature and wildlife. A truly authentic and memorable experience. Highly recommended to anyone visiting Sri Lanka!

Nature and animals is 5 stars. 3 stars is because there are other park in the area that have better reviews. It was raining and we saw a few elephants and that was it. We felt is over rated and there is more hype and reality.

We had a fantastic time on the Safari. Our driver, Mayura, was constantly looking for the elephants and predicting where they would move to next. This mean we have some incredible 'close encounters' with the elephants whilst they wanderers around eating in the vegetation.

We had a privately hired tracker/guide who was truly excellent, he spotted several groups of elephants. However, within minutes large numbers of jeeps roared up and parked without any concern for the animals. Many of them seemed totally unconcerned that they were causing the elephants distrees. And the tourists within them were just as bad, most of them seemed just concerned to get a selfie, not really interested in the animals at all. Jeeps blocked the track of the elephants (we were in quite dense bush) and even parked in the muddy pool the elephants wanted to use to cool themselves down. There were lots of small elephants and older females protecting them and one of the biggest charged one of the jeeps that was too close. It was appalling.

We were very happy that the team informed us in advance about elephants moving out of minaraya reserve and advised us to go to nearby eco resort to watch elephants and it was such a good advice as we managed to see many elephants including the rare male tusker elephant. Very professional and well managed safari. I will recommend to all my friends

We chose the Hurulu Ecopark safari with pickup at Sigiriya. The driver came on time, gave us all a chilled water bottle, took care of the tickets, and drove us around the reserve. It was slow going at first, but eventually we were able to see wild elephants. Our driver did his best to explain to us a bit about Elephants with his limited English, we appreciated his effort. We tried to get a Naturalist for the booking, but getting one depends on availability. We're grateful to have seen so many elephants, including a super close up of a baby when we were driving back to our hotel. Just know it can get really hot, so bring sunscreen, a hat, sun glasses, and wear comfortable clothes. The vehicle we were in was modern and clean.

Booked on getyourguide for safari in eco park the evening before and I got a WhatsApp confirming my booking shortly after! They picked us up from our accomodation on time and were friendly and informative throughout the safari!! We saw lots of elephants and then they dropped us off at our accomodation after the safari! All ran seamlessly! And much cheaper than we were being quoted when asking people around the area!! Thanks

Our safari was incredible. We had Nadeesha as a guide and found he was great at reading the elephants, often going away from the crowds and we had many secluded moments with just our jeep and the elephants. We also went at 3:30pm which helped to increase chances of seeing elephants as we were advised they sleep during the morning & afternoon can be better. Would definitely recommend Huluru eco safari and Nadeesha an incredible guide!

We were picked up from our accomodation and had a safari van to ourselves, organised by the hotel. The safari van was older a d in a poorer conditio than other safaris we have done but did the job. The main issue with thus park is the sheer number of vans jockying for position every time an elephant is seen. Literally 15 vans belching fumes 20 ft from these magnificent animals. Our van was damaged by another one and an arguament took place as to who was responsible. We did see elephants but they were outnumbered by aggresive safari vehicles.

This is well worth the visit, nothing more amazing than seeing the elephants in their natural habitat, the safari was a really memorable experience.. And we had the BEST driver !!

We really enjoyed seeing groups of elephants in the park. We also saw a few birds. I believe there are other wild animals but we didn't see them. We had plenty of room (6 adults) to stand up and look out of the roof.

Today we visited Hurulu Eco Park. unequivocally great experience! More than 15 wild elephants, water buffaloes, peacocks, monkeys and many birds. Only 3 jeeps set out on the morning route. My dream came true. Thanks a lot

Positive: - The park is very beautiful. Mostly jungle and bush. - The whole staff was very friendly. - The jeeps are in pretty good shape and a good way to ride around the park and take pictures. - Very fair price in my opinion. - After booking the Safari, i was contacted via WhatsApp. I could normally talk to this person and clarify any details regarding pick up, start-time etc. Negative: - Guide was completely unable to speak english, would have been nice to have someone tell just a couple facts or something about the park and the animals. - Have to buy ticket AND pay for the safari. None is included in the other. - Time promised was 3h, in reality it was more like 2 hours.

Fantastic safari tour in Sri Lanka! 🐘🌿 We had a great experience with our guide. Very friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable about the animals and nature. We saw elephants, many birds, and beautiful landscapes. The tour was very well organized and an unforgettable experience. Absolutely recommended for anyone visiting Sri Lanka!

Due to our tour of Sri Lanka, our guide also offered us a private safari tour with 100% elephant sighting guarantee. So we changed from our bus to an off-road vehicle. We saw 4 herds of elephants with a total of about 50 - 60 animals during our 2-1/2 hour tour of the Hurulu Eco Park. That was really great! However, we were very! divided as to the peace of the animals. Clearly, the drivers discuss where a herd of elephants is right now, but then there's no stopping them. At the entrance of the park there are signs saying that drivers should not approach the elephants more than 50 meters. Nobody cares about that there. As soon as a herd is sighted, the paths are left and partly driven to within 40 cm! of the thick skins 😡. Once we could even observe that the herd, except for a small passage, was literally encircled. On the one hand you should think about the animals that have no rest at all during the day and on the other hand, what if such an animal becomes aggressive? The vehicles are so tightly packed together that it would be impossible to think of driving away quickly. That's where total panic would break out. Very, very sad that the people actually responsible here are acting so irresponsibly

A great afternoon with a good driver and a very competent guide

Superb park , we saw about thirty elephants sometimes with family with young or alone. The elephants seem happy because in total freedom and only 25% of the park is accessible to tourists.

The driver did a good job. We were picked up by jeep and paid 12,000Lkr and the entrance on site (we + jeep) 5000Lkr. We paid everything in Lkr as in $ this was much more expensive booked this through our stay. We took a 1/2 day tour which was more than sufficient. In total we saw about 40 elephants. We would do this again this way

Terrible experience. Basically, imagine a traffic jam of 60 4x4 jeeps lined up on a dirt road. We breathed exhaust gases for 3 hours, not being able to see much because of traffic. Terrible experience and not to do and especially not to recommend if you like nature! You don't have to subsidize experiences like that. This is not a safari. The average tourist target was also very low (people throwing cigarette butts) and drivers incited to throw pineapple residue from the jeep to attract elephants

Organized through our hotel Tantor Resort we were picked up at the hotel at 7am. Cost for driver 8000 RS and entrance 5000 RS. Duration approx. 3.5 h. Although there have been several jeeps on the road, it spreads well. At the entrance, monkeys were waiting for inattentive tourists to steal their food. It worked, too. Jumped right into the jeep. We probably saw about 20 elephants in different groups, our driver drove very close so the animals were up to 2 m away from us. They didn't seem to mind us. In addition, many birds and even a crocodile could be observed. The ride in the jeep is rough, you just have to hold on well. It was a beautiful experience.

We had done a private tour during our stay in sigiriya What an experience this Safari What a huge eco park where so much beauty can be seen. We enjoyed this day Can anyone recommend this safari

Safari really fantastic. We have seen many elephants without disturbing them. The guide was really respectful and really very interesting. He showed us birds and small animals. Elephants are quiet and especially are neither with a chain nor with picks on the body. Of course, you can't touch them but that's normal. Elephants look very happy. I recommend without hesitation.

The landscapes are beautiful! We saw a lot of elephants. The guide was very friendly and was able to answer all our questions. That is undoubtedly the reservation to be made. Tip: in the morning it is all the more beautiful!