Many animals, including endemics, live in Sri Lanka. Many national parks annually attract a huge number of visitors to the island. The only disadvantage of visiting such places is that you never know who exactly you will be lucky enough to meet during a safari, which cannot be said about the Ridiagama Safari Park. Here you will certainly meet a large number of exotic animals, and a visit to the agricultural botanical garden will be a pleasant end to this trip.

It is no secret that in a relatively small area of Sri Lanka, there are quite a large number of nature reserves and national parks. For those who want to see animals with a 100% guarantee, a safari park was opened relatively recently—a cross between a zoo and a nature reserve. The peculiarity of the park is that the animals live in a huge, closed area, and visitors can inspect them from a latticed open jeep. The lattices were not installed by chance, because in the park you will certainly meet lions, Bengal tigers, elephants, ostriches, zebras, antelopes, and many other animals and birds.

The duration of the safari is about 1.5–2 hours, and then you will go to the Bata Ata State Agricultural Botanical Garden. This unique garden contains fruit trees, shrubs, and flowers (including endemic ones) grown by local farmers. In addition to its educational function, this beautiful garden is also a great place for walking. At the end of the excursion day, we will definitely try local dishes of traditional Sri Lankan cuisine, which is usually rarely found in tourist destinations, as well as try traditional herbal tea, which has been drunk in Sri Lanka for centuries, from the time when the existence of ordinary tea here was not heard.

The tour will end with a cluster of ancient Buddhist cave shrines on a natural rock that rises 673 feet (205 meters) from the jungle floor. The Mulkirigala Rock Monastery is one of South Sri Lanka’s must-sees. While temples have existed here for 2,000 years, the caves are brimming with colorful Buddha statues and frescoes dating from the 1700s.