15 Shore Excursions in Sri Lanka, Costed and Compared

1.Yala Safari Tour from Hambantota Port area (Shore Excursion)

★★★★★★★★★★4.8 · 64 reviews · 5 hours · from $67Our pick

Review of Yala safari from Hambantota Port, with wildlife sightings, guide quality, costs, park hours, jeep comfort, and practical cruise tips.

“Very knowledgeable pleasant guide. Saw lots of animals and birds but no leopards ( unavoidable as wrong time of day). Only negative, guide drove too fast on return journey to ship - there was no need to rush as we had plenty of time. No seat belts provided.”

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2.Yala National Park Safari |From Hambantota Port (Shore Excursion)

★★★★★★★★★★4.5 · 61 reviews · from $75

Review of Yala National Park Safari from Hambantota Port, with wildlife tips, guide notes, transport details, value advice, and booking help.

“The animals are more active in the early or later part of the day. The jeeps are required to stay on the path and when there is an sighting the road path gets very crowded and some jeeps do not move until the sighting is over.”

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3.Udawalawe Safari Tour from Hambantota Port (Shore Excursion)

★★★★★★★★★★4.7 · 57 reviews · 5 hours · from $67

Review of the Udawalawe safari from Hambantota Port, with elephants, the Elephant Transit Home, transport tips, costs, and honest advice.

“the greatest part of our tour was the variety of wildlife. Our guide kept stopping for photo opportunities and didnt move on until all the group were happy. We werent rushed and our guide was great from start to finish. The transportation was brilliant, the trip from cruise port to the park was in an airconditioned vehicle for comfort then transferred to a jeep for our trip round the park.”

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4.UDAWALAWA SAFARI TOUR from HAMBANTOTA PORT (Shore Excursion)

★★★★★★★★★★4.7 · 48 reviews · 1 day · from $51

Review of the $51 Udawalawe safari from Hambantota Port, with elephants, birdlife, expert guides, transport, costs, and practical tips.

“It was convenient as you were picked up at a chosen time and then dropped off at your hotel on the south coast- this saves some time. The guides were friendly and stopped at every opportunity to see an animal. We saw 5 or 6 elephants. The taxi and jeep were shared with 4 others (6 people overall), which we wasn’t aware of- this makes it feel like the pricing is a little too much.”

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5.Yala National Park Safari from Hambantota port (Shore Excursion)

★★★★★★★★★★4.5 · 25 reviews · from $45

Review of a Yala safari from Hambantota port, including wildlife, costs, timing, transport, guides, group size, and practical booking advice.

“Booked for 11am, kept getting texts to say meet at 9am, then when we said we couldn't, constantly pestering us to come quick. Met by 5 men to rake us to car - quite scary. Drove to Yala with driver on phone most of the time - that cost £104 tRead more”

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6.Shore Excursion Colombo City Tour Highlights

★★★★★★★★★★4.5 · 21 reviews · from $50

Review of Colombo’s private 4 to 5-hour shore tour, with temples, museums, city sights, port pickup, pricing, and practical booking advice.

“You can tailor your trip as you go. Just work it out with your driver. Be sure to tell him where you might want to get out and enter a building.”

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7.Shore Excursion Kelaniya Temple & Colombo City Tour

★★★★★★★★★★4.5 · 21 reviews · from $45

Review of Colombo’s Kelaniya Temple and city tour, with port pickup, key sights, guide quality, value, shopping stops, and cruise timing tips.

“Great experience Lucky our driver showed us all around and we had an amazing day. Van and Lucky were immaculate and so polite and gracious. He was on time for pick up and we were back safely and on time. Took us to a amazing place for lunch. Fabulous day thank you Lucky”

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8.Yala Safari Tour from Hambantota Port (Shore Excursion)

★★★★★★★★★★3.5 · 20 reviews · from $58

Review of the Yala safari from Hambantota Port, covering wildlife, jeep comfort, park fees, timing, value, and practical booking advice.

“Unfortunately we were kept waiting for 55 minutes as other guests did not show up. It was ridiculous to wait that long - I had to go to the tour operator and demand a refund if we didn’t leave right away. The driver did his best but spoke no EnRead more”

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9.Hambantota Port: Yala National Park Safari (Shore Excursion)

★★★★★★★★★★4.3 · 19 reviews · 5 hours · from $49

Review of the $49 Yala safari from Hambantota Port, including wildlife, extra park fees, timing, transport, and booking advice.

“Provider did not show up. I was let down terribly absolutely devastated.”

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10.SriLanka Shore Excursion by Genuine Srilankans

★★★★★★★★★★5.0 · 18 reviews · from $140Top rated

Review of Genuine Srilankans’ private Colombo shore excursion, with temples, markets, museums, port pickup, pricing, itinerary, and practical tips.

“Our purpose for visiting Sri Lanka was to visit the Buddha temples and to pray. Our tour guide Mr. Kosala was an excellent and professional person. He constantly made efforts to explain Buddhism along the journey, and also diligently Read more”

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11.Colombo Port Private Shore excursion and Tours

★★★★★★★★★★4.5 · 12 reviews · from $40

Review of Colombo’s private port tour, covering sights, value, timing, transport, guide service, and practical tips for cruise passengers.

“Great guy - Zak - met us at the port in Colombo. We was quite early but Zak was prompt picking us up at the requested time of 08.30am. He took us to see the historic mosque - Jami Ul Alfar Mosque, followed by a brief stop to grab a couple Read more”

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12.Shore Excursion Colombo City tour

★★★★★★★★★★4.5 · 12 reviews · from $30Best value

Review of Colombo’s $30 shore excursion, with temples, markets, historic sights, air-conditioned transport, tips, and honest value advice.

“A good tour with our excellent driver who took us in 4 hours around all the main sights in Colombo in his air conditioned car.”

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13.Shore Excursion From Colombo port to Ingiriya Tea Plantation & back for 2 People

★★★★★★★★★★4.5 · 11 reviews · from $135

Visit Sri Lanka’s tea and rubber country from Colombo, with plantation stops, tea making, rice fields, city sights, and port pickup.

“Our guide was terrific. He wanted to share as much about his country as he could. Tea, orange coconuts, ginger beer and a fruit that I can’t remember the name of. Great tour. Was to be about 4 hours and became just over 5! Very interesting.”

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14.Yala Full Day Safari from Hambantota Port Shore Excursion

★★★★★★★★★★5.0 · 10 reviews · from $212

Review of Yala National Park from Hambantota Port, with private 4WD, English-speaking guide, park fees, lunch, and wildlife tips.

“Henry did a brilliant job from the booking experience all the way through transitions necessary for ourYala safari!! 🤩Dela was an outstanding driver, often driving backwards with skill and speed to site leopards in the brush and provided us opportunities for great videos of the rare Sri Lankan elephants and their babies. We had a fabulous day with DELA‼️”

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15.Hambantota Shore Excursion: Village and Cultural tour

★★★★★★★★★★3.8 · 9 reviews · from $60

Explore Hambantota villages, temples, wildlife, beaches, and local food on a private five-hour Sri Lankan shore excursion.

“It wasn’t quite as we thought as there was no visit to a village but a rather lengthy visit to a temple which incurred a long walk in our socks. We loved the drive, the countryside and the beach. The driver was very kind and drive very safely.”

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