Hambantota Travel Guides (Updated September 2026)

We had Suma and Rumesh with us for our full day safari and it was amazing! They were so nice and helpful. They took us to the secluded spots where the leopards were. We saw a sloth bear, leopards, elephants, and much more!! The lunch we had was amazing! Very very good experience. I highly recommend them!

Thanks guys for amazing safari, this guys make amazing work! I was impressed by the guide! Him shows everything what we can see and explain! From animals to world history! If you want to get much information about Sri Lanka choice those guys !

A great way to start 2020. We booked in for a full day tour and had Ramesh as our driver and Sumedha as our guide, both from Leopard Nest. Their knowledge of the park and the best places to spot leopards, elephants, crocodiles, water buffalos, jackals and so many others was incredible. It meant that we saw more than we could’ve imagined and made the day so memorable. The lunch served by the beach inside the Yala national park was tasty. The whole experience was above and beyond expectations. We highly recommend doing a full day tour and if you can get these two guys you’ll have an epic day!

I am told we overpaid, at $365 for a family of 5. However, our driver from Beyond Escapes was the best! He picked us up at 0500 and stayed positive throughout the entire day no matter what was going on. He took us to hidden spots, off the beaten path, which he knew from coming to the park with his father since he was 5. He put in the extra effort to give us every opportunity to see the variety Yala has to offer.We were the only group in Yala to get focused, high quality time with a leopard on the Nov 30, 2019, full day safari. We had around 8 minutes within good distance and clear sight of a female leopard. It was the kids and wife favorite memory from the trip. We also saw sloth bears up close, tons of warthogs, elephants, water buffalo, ground monitors, peacocks, eagles, jeckles, deer, some crocodiles, etc. etc.During the mandatory 1200 to 1400 break in Yala, we were the only ones to have a full meal provided. Our driver got us to the break point a few minutes earlier than most other groups. He set up a table and high quality home cooked meal at the beach with wonderful mountain and ocean views. The food was ample and high quality. There were also plenty of waters and juice boxes in the cooler for the trip.Despite rain during lunch and into the afternoon, we still headed out for a productive and enjoyable afternoon.Driver was safe, professional, and good with our kids. He enjoys his job and it shows. It was an exciting and memorable trip.

We really had a perfect day! the driver was very professional and had lots of experience in doing safaris. we have seen many elephants, three leopards, a bear, lots of dears and lots of other animals. also the bird life in the park is fantastic we booked the full day Safari and we really didn’t regret it. the picnic lunch at the beach was very nice and tasty. The whole day was an unforgettable experience!

Safari was superb and they had arranged both a driver and a guide unlike some of the other safaris. This was key because the guide (chooty) was very knowledgeable and would regularly keep me posted on what we were seeing as he sat with me in the back and the driver (Ramesh) could focus on the driving. They communicated with each other very well! Chooty worked really really hard using his understanding of animal habits to ensure we saw the elusive Leopard and we did which was glorious!The driver picked me up from the hotel promptly and dropped me back and his wife prepared a really tasty Sri Lankan lunch for us which we eat during the Safari on some picnic tables they had packed in the car. Both Chooty and Ramesh seemed to really care about the animals and their conservation which was really nice to see! Finally, they had a pair of binoculars with them which made spotting the animals really easy as I have been on other safaris, it's difficult without getting too close to see them properly. Definitely recommend using them :-) see photos!

The safari in yala was fantastic. Our driver and naturalist took us to places which has historical value and told stories about those places. Not only about wildlife, we learnt about nature too. Love all the giant guys, birds, and beautiful beach area. Thank you Beyond Escapes for your great service and many thanks to dulani who cordinated our tour.👍

We all enjoyed our tour very well. We saw herds of deers, elephants, birds and crocadiles in their natural habitats. Special thank goes to lunch arrangements. Great location, lovely sea breeze and very clam and quite . Great place, don't miss. Highly recommend this tour.😊👍 We enjoyed lot ❤️❤️❤️❤️

The safari tour was awesome experience for us. We saw lots of animals.The driver and naturalist were so friendly and well knowledgeable. Most important thing is we were lucky enough to spot a clear and some close look of a Srilankan leopard. As well as saw large herds of deers and wild boars..... Such a wonderful safari😍

My family and I were visiting Sri Lanka for a few days and wanted to do a safari tour. We found this tour provider on Cool Destinations & read many good reviews.We booked this tour very last minute on a public holiday, and they went out of their way to contact me on WhatsApp to assist us with booking. Great service & responsive!Our driver was great and helped us to chase after animals! Saw bear, elephants, crocodile, buffalo etc.

My boyfriend and I chose this company for an all day safari and our expectations were beyond exceeded. Our scout, Roy, and our driver were the best duo we could have ever asked for. Roy not only gave us information about the animals we were encountering, but Sri Lanka's history as well, which was an added bonus. Our driver was amazing, he knew exactly where to go to see the best and most animals possible and wasn't afraid of a bumpy/pothole road or driving backwards. He constantly got us as close as possible to all of the animals. Because we chose the all day safari, there was a 2 hour lunch break. They took us over to a beach inside the park and provided us a local lunch. It was delicious! The lunch consisted of fried rice, chicken, vegetables, and fresh cut watermelon. Since it was a two hour break, you have enough time to walk along the beach and not rush through the meal. It was quite a relaxing time. After that, we got back into our safari jeep and drove around looking for leopards and were able to see them in 3 different locations! A few of the biggest differences that set Beyond Escapes far above the competition were that we had a scout, and our driver was in contact with other drivers to find out where the animals were. While we would drive around, we'd notice that most other safari tours simply had a driver that wasn't near them. They weren't being told what to look for or where animals might be hiding or calling other drivers and scouts to find out where a big animal might be. These two things made our safari invaluable. We were so happy and had the best day by far. We would gladly use them again.

if I want to join the tour, this is better for pick up from Tissamaharama or Yala? I will come from Colombo day before of tour.

First class service from pick up to drop off. Would definitely recommend to anyone that doesn’t want the hastle of trying to sorting a safari last minute whilst your travelling with young children. We were picked up at 5.00 am and taken to Yala National Park. The driver and guide were professional and knowledgeable. We got to see many animals including at least four leopards. The picnic at the beach is a brilliant way of breaking up the day especially on a all day safari. Well done.

Excellent trip. There were many other companies offering the same tour, but what our day was the tour guide we had. He was in contact with other drivers throughout the day so he could take us to the best spots. He set up table and chairs in prime position by the beach for our lunch. He was very friendly. We were fortunate enough to see lots of wildlife in the morning, so the full day tour was a bit too much. You end up circling around the same parts of the park you seen in the morning. Half a day would be enough and it's luck of the draw whether or not you spot any leopards.

One of the best experiences of our life. We saw most of the species that exist in yala park, all thanks to our very experienced driver and to our passionate guide. Both the driver and the guide had great knowledge of the park and the animals and were both discussing with eachother where to go next, making and receiving calls and making sure our exclusive was the best possible. We entered the park with about 30 other Jeeps and were the first to get off the main road away from all the traffic. Before we started me and my partner had our expectations quite low in terms of chances to see a leopard, as only about 20 percent of visitors are that successful, but we ended up finding 3 different leopards throughout our visit. We also saw loads of elephants, crocodiles, buffalos, mangoosses, wild boars, different kinds of deers and all kinds of birds. We were also the only two people having a set table and complete meal at lunchtime by the beach, everyone else were just having sandwiches in the Jeeps while waiting for the park to reopen (it closes from 12:00 to 14:00 and all Jeeps have to exit the park or wait in the beach area next to the tsunami memorial). Besides all this, we paid around half of what others were paying for the visit, and we were also the only car with a guide, some of the other visitors complained that their driver (who was also their guide) didn't even speak English! All together, it was an unforgettable and great experience from sunrise to sunset!