Chena Huts by Uga Escapes: Why This Yala Property Is Still Setting the Standard

Chena Huts has been open for a couple of years now but it keeps coming up in conversations about the best accommodation in Sri Lanka because it continues to set the standard for what a wildlife property in this country can be. Located in the Yala buffer zone, it is a collection of standalone tented villas on raised platforms above the scrubland, each positioned for privacy and views, each feeling simultaneously exposed to the landscape and completely comfortable.

The architecture here is honest about what it is: a tent, elevated and refined, with a proper bathroom and a king bed and an outdoor deck where you sit in the early morning with coffee watching the scrub come alive. The materials are local. The lighting is warm and low. The wifi is intentionally limited. The whole point is to be present in the landscape rather than insulated from it.

The food programme at Chena Huts is one of the most genuinely impressive in Sri Lankan hospitality. Meals are built around what the local farmers and the estate garden are producing. The breakfast spread, eaten at a communal table in the open-sided restaurant with the morning light coming through the trees, is the meal that guests talk about most. The dinner under the stars is the other.

Leopard sightings from the property itself are not uncommon. The buffer zone location means that animals move through freely and the staff have a detailed knowledge of the wildlife activity on and around the property. Combine this with safari access to Yala Block 1 and you have the most complete wildlife experience available in the south. Book well in advance. Chena Huts does not have many rooms and it fills months out.