The New Tented Camp in Wilpattu: Sri Lanka's Best Safari Opening This Year

Wilpattu has finally got the accommodation it deserves. A new tented camp has opened on the southern edge of Sri Lanka's largest national park, offering ten luxury tents positioned above the scrubland with views across the willus that the park is famous for. The camp has been in planning and construction for several years and the finished product reflects that care: everything is thoughtfully done, from the raised platforms the tents sit on to the outdoor bathing areas to the observation deck above the tree line.

The safari programme is run by guides who have been working Wilpattu for decades and whose knowledge of the park is the kind that only comes from years of daily observation. The camp operates twice-daily game drives in partnership with these guides, with an emphasis on patience and genuine wildlife engagement rather than the race-to-the-leopard approach that can characterise the busier Yala experience.

The food at the camp is the other story. The chef comes from a Colombo fine dining background and has applied that rigour to a menu built entirely on local ingredients: dry zone vegetables, fresh fish from the nearby coast, game from sustainable local sources where available. Meals are served at a long table under the stars with the sounds of the forest around you. The breakfast spread before the morning game drive is one of the best reasons to wake up early.

Early reviews from the first guests are emphatic. Multiple leopard sightings, sloth bear encounters at the willus at dawn, the extraordinary silence of the park at night broken only by the sounds of animals moving around the camp perimeter. Wilpattu was always the better Yala for people willing to go a little further and wait a little longer. Now it has the accommodation to match the experience. Book through the camp directly.