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General information about Pinnawala
Pinnawela
Pinnawela is a small town in Central Sri Lanka and is known throughout the country and far beyond its borders for the eponymous elephant nursery. The town itself is completely unremarkable and is visited by tourists solely for the sake of visiting the nursery.
Pinnawela elephant nursery was founded in 1975 to care for baby elephants that were found in the jungle without their mothers. But over time, it was replenished with victims of the long-term civil war, which ended only a few years ago. Here came adult elephants crippled by mine explosions and baby elephants who lost their mothers because of the war. There are elephants that have suffered from poachers, as well as baby elephants born in the nursery. In general, with the support of poachers and the Civil War, this nursery has become the largest in the world where elephants are kept in captivity. Today there are more than 80 elephants.
The nursery is often visited by tourists and is one of the famous attractions of the country. Despite the fact that it is far from the main tourist places, there are always plenty of tourists here. Here you can see how elephants are cared for and even participate in this process yourself. But the most interesting is feeding the elephants and bathing, of which the keepers made almost a show. Tourists are very touched by how elephants are fed with milk from a bottle, and are even willing to pay extra money to feed them themselves. After feeding, the whole herd of elephants is driven from the nursery right through the city streets to the river for swimming, which is also very interesting. This action takes place twice a day:
- feeding at 09:00, bathing 10:00
- feeding 13:00, bathing 14:00
Usually it takes no more than 2 hours to visit, and it is better to adjust it to feeding and bathing, because the rest of the time it is not very interesting here.
It is impossible for tourists to ride elephants and bathe them here. But, of course, next to this nursery there are several small private elephant farms, where it is also offered to feed and buy elephants, and in addition to riding in the jungle. There are several such farms, and they contain only a few elephants. If you want to get to a real nursery without riding elephants, you should be vigilant, as local tuk-tukers and drivers often try to get tourists to private farms, where they receive a commission for them.
How to visit a nursery
Admission fee: 2500 rupees adult / 1250-children (see current exchange rate of Sri Lanka).
You can only watch swimming for free. To do this, you just need to settle in one of the hotels with a view of the bathing place, or pretend to be their guest, and then you can watch the show directly from the hotel restaurant or from the balcony. The manager of one of these hotels, in exchange for the fact that you sit in his restaurant and order something, plays along and confirms that you are staying with him.
Often the nursery is visited together with Botanical Garden of Peradenia. Both attractions can be visited in one day.
If you want to visit them from one of the beachresorts of Sri Lanka for one day, you will have to use a private guide with taxi, rental of transport or excursion. If you are ready to visit this place on your own by public transport, you can spend the night in Kandy, Kurunegale, Matale, Kegalla (not to be confused with Koggale on the coast) or Pinnawala itself.
The best option for an independent visit is to stay in a hotel in Pinnawela itself, because in this case you can see the morning feeding and bathing, which begins at 9 am. There are several inexpensive hotels here, and at least three of them stand right on the riverbank overlooking the bathing place. The place of bathing is marked on our map of Pinnawella.
You can find and book accommodation in Pinnawala on these sites or through the search form. All sites have a Russian interface and Russian-language customer support, a lot of reviews from real guests.
- 🛌 Search for hotels in Pinnawala on Yandex.travel
- 🛌 Search for hotels in Pinnawala/Kandy on Hotellook.com
- 🛌 Search for hotels in Pinnawala/Kandy on Trip.com (💥 our choice)
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How to get to Pinnawela
Pinnawela is located in central Sri Lanka 70 kilometers from Colombo. Even by rented transport or taxi, the trip here only from Colombo will take 2 hours, and from other beach resorts even more. It is possible to get there by local public transport for a mere penny:
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By bus
There are no direct buses to Pinnawala from popular resorts and major tourist towns. We will have to make a transfer in the cities of Kegalle or Kurunegala. Buses around Sri Lanka run only in the daytime from early morning, quite often. There will be no problems with transfers and finding the right bus at the stations, you just need to ask for help from local residents and the bus conductor.
From Colombo
From Colombo bus station Take Bus # 1 (Colombo – Kandy) or 1-1 (Colombo-Kegalle Kegalle) to Kegalle. There you need to change the bus to No. 881 already to Pinnawala. The entire trip will take at least 4 hours at best.
From Kandy
Just like from Colombo, you need to take bus number 1 and go to Kegalle, where you change the bus to number 881. The trip will take 2 hours.
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By train
Just a couple of kilometers north of Pinnawela is the Rambukkana railway station, from which you can even reach the nursery on foot, bargain for a trip with local tuk-tukers, or find bus number 881 towards Kegalle.
Rambukkana can be reached by direct train from Colombo or Kandy, and by connecting to Colombo from anywhere on the island that has a railway. Trains run quite often, for example, from Colombo there are more than 20 of them daily, the journey takes 3 and a half hours, the cost starts from 80 rupees. Train schedules can be checked online here: https://www.eservices.railway.gov.lk.
And yet, if you intend to go to the elephant nursery, and not on safari, do not let yourself be deceived by the cunning Tookers. They often bring tourists to small private farms rather than a nursery.