Yala National Park

Yala National Park is the island's flagship wildlife destination. Sri Lanka Tourism describes it as the country's second-largest national park and notes its elephants, leopards, and endemic birdlife; it is also widely known for having one of the world's highest leopard densities. Most visits are built around dawn or dusk jeep drives through open scrub, rocky outcrops, tanks, and coastal habitats. Yala fits well into a Sri Lanka itinerary when paired with the south coast or the hill country.