Minneriya Safari Tours — Local services in Sri Lanka

Did a few comparisons and went with this company for the Polonnaruwa and Minneriya Safari tour. The price was the best as I'm travelling alone. Had the jeep all by myself as there were no other people joining. My driver was Nilantha who was great and drove me to the main sights in Polonnaruwa (USD30). He then suggested to go to Kaudulla National Park instead of Minneriya as it was not busy and crowded. We saw a few individual elephants, followed by 2 herds of elephants (grp of 12 and 30). This was enough for me as people just want to see herds of elephants to make their day. Not sure how Minneriya is like so I cannot compare but I was satisfied. We also saw many bird species, buffalos, peacocks, monkeys. We got really close to the elephants who were busy eating. The thing to note for the national park fee is that while it states USD35, there are still extra fees like vehicle, tax and VAT so it added up to be more than USD35 but not too much but it would be good to know as I thought it was a flat fee of USD35. There is also no bottled water or fruits as mentioned on the website but it is not a problem, just something...

Instead to Minneriya, we went to Huluru Eco Park this April, as there were no elephants spotted in Minneriya yet. Our guide was very helpful, a good driver, and gave us a very good rate! He has a nice jeep, and driving in it was an experience by itself. He offered to take us to Polonnaruwa in the morning and he arranged a very good guide. In the afternoon, we went for the safari and there was some thunder, which scares the elephants and makes them hide in the bushes. That is why we didn't see as many as people usually do - we saw one herd of approx 10 elephants and another group of 3. The guide could have explained more about the elephants though, but nevertheless, overall it was a...

Loved it, arranged last minute, they gave us the option of Minneriya or Hurulu due to the elephants moving between the two, we went to Huluru and had a great time. We did the 3pm tour, would recommend, very busy at first with a lot of other jeeps but as it came to dusk it thinned out and we saw loads of elephants with no one else around. Our driver, Cahanna, was very friendly and very knowledgeable. Overall was a great experience, also great as we could pay the park entry fee as part of the overall cost (rather than having to have USD to get into the park) which was a plus! Only video I took as I used my camera...