Bundala National Park

Bundala National Park tickets and tours: which one to book

Bundala is the wetland park on the south coast of Sri Lanka near Hambantota, half an hour from Tissamaharama and the Yala gate, and it is sold as the birdwatcher's alternative to Yala: a jeep safari of three or four hours from the park entrance, in the early morning or the late afternoon, with a driver-guide and, for the serious, a local naturalist with a scope who is booked as an extra. The jeeps and the operators are the same ones that serve Yala, based in Tissamaharama and Hambantota, and they collect from the hotels along the coast from Tangalle; the entry ticket is paid at the park gate and is not always in the jeep price.

Day tours from Colombo exist but are a long haul for a morning. The two- and three-day wildlife packages from Colombo pair Bundala with Yala, doing Yala for the leopards and Bundala for the birds and the peace, which is the right combination. The moto safaris on the park's edge and the scenic beach escapes are variations on the same drive. Bundala is small enough for a single visit, and the afternoon safari, when the flamingos and the elephants come to the lagoons, is the better slot. Independent visitors take a bus or a tuk-tuk to Tissamaharama or Weligatta and hire a jeep there for the park; a half-day is enough.

Visiting Bundala National Park: what you will see

The park was declared in 1993 from a sanctuary of 1969 and covers about 62 square kilometres of coast east of Hambantota, a chain of five brackish lagoons and salt pans behind a line of dunes and a wild beach, with dry thorn scrub and the Kirinda–Bundala road between; it was Sri Lanka's first Ramsar wetland in 1991 and a UNESCO biosphere reserve in 2005. Its fame is birds: 197 species, with the greater flamingos that winter on the lagoons in flocks that once numbered thousands and still reach hundreds in a good year, and the migrant waders, ducks and terns that fill the water from October to March, along with the residents, painted storks, spot-billed pelicans, spoonbills, black-necked storks, the lesser adjutant, the Indian peafowl calling from the scrub and the raptors over the salt pans.

Elephants live in the scrub and come to the lagoons in the afternoon, fewer than at Yala but seen on most drives; crocodiles line the lagoon edges, water buffalo and spotted deer graze the flats, and the beach is a nesting ground for five species of sea turtle, including the leatherback. The Bundala and Embilikala lagoons are the birdwatching centres, the Malala lagoon meets the sea through a bar that the fishermen open, and the salt works at Koholankala and Mahalewaya are commercial pans inside the park's boundary. The park has a viewpoint on the dunes over the whole lagoon system and the sea, and the Wilmanna sanctuary added in 2006 extends the protection inland.

Bundala National Park: best time to go, seasons and hours

The park is open daily from 6 am to 6 pm, with the afternoon safaris entering from about 2.30 pm. The migrant season from October to March is the birdwatching peak, with the flamingos most numerous from December to February; the dry months from May to September bring the elephants and the deer to the water and are the easiest for the tracks, though the lagoons shrink and the birds are fewer. The north-east monsoon in November and December floods some tracks. Late afternoon has the best light and the most birds on the water. Allow a half-day. Yala is half an hour east, the Kataragama temple an hour north, and the beaches of Tangalle and Hiriketiya are an hour west.