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Tree Tops Jungle Lodge is an authentic Sri Lankan wilderness experience situated in a wild environment. We are located in the Buttala area, 9 kilometres from the town center. Buttala is a town on the northern side of Yala National Park and it is only 40 kilometres from Ella. Our eco-camp property is elephant habitat and is merged with protected forest in a remote area of great, untamed, natural beauty. Come for silence, natural sounds, unique birdlife and relaxation combined with local walks in the vicinity of the lodge. The stay is all about genuine, experiential, nature living. Accommodation is in super comfortable tented rooms set directly in and blending naturally with the bush and forest. Yala National Park is close and safari tours is an enjoyable and exciting option. The less visited northern block 5 of Yala is a really nice alternative safari and access is easy, since the entrance is just a 35 minutes jeep drive away.
We had booked three nights and are travelling with our girls - 11 and 9 years old. We could have stayed for longer and wished we would have booked at least one night more.
Kamal and the staff at the lodge made us feel very welcome and safe. With so few guest staying, you feel that they have all focus on making your stay special and memorable. And so they did. Staying in the jungle far away from wifi, noise and lots of people was just what we needed.
We saw elephants up close on our daily walks in the jungle. And on our jeep safari, we saw leopards, crocodiles, elephants, monkey and many birds. On our last morning they woke us up as en elephant was outside the tents - such a great experience and feeling.
The kids and ourselves were welcome to enter the kitchen and help chopping and just have a chat. The food was the best we have had in Sri Lanka so far. Home cooked meals and week tasted food.
The kids didn’t want to leave the lodge and they still talk about the lodge and Kamal and the staff.
Definitely a place to stay- and at least for four nights. This was our favourite place in Sri Lanka.
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Date of stay: July 2024
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Trip type: Traveled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Go visit this place if you want to experience the best of Sri Lanka - and with a sustainable approach!
We felt like kings and queens at Tree Top Jungle Lodge with Kamal and his crew taking care of us. Cooking us the best food we had in Sri Lanka and serving it in the restaurant with only candle lights to light up the table.
Sleeping in the two well equipped glamping tents - waking up in the morning to the sound of nature. Relaxing on the terrace looking after animals, and Kamal and his crew taking us for private walks in the sorrounding rainforest or rice fields, where the local farmes are guarding their fields during the night - looking for elephants.
The highlight of our trip and an experience to be remembered.
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Date of stay: December 2023
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Trip type: Traveled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
There are just two tents here. They are well equipped and very spacious. The restaurant is in an open-sided mud brick building. The surroundings are fantastic with the forest that surrounds the tents forming part of the Yala buffer zone. The staff are all local and were extremely welcoming and the way they served the food and explained what the ingredients were added to the dining experience. We were treated to evening and morning walks to look at birds and these were also excellent. In fact we saw more here than we did in Yala itself! This is not a location for luxury and there is limited power and no wi-fi. but was easily one of the best places we have stayed in in Sri Lanka. Kamal and the rest of the team should be congratulated on creating and running a place like this. When I say created, Kamal told us that they have planted most of the trees themselves over the past 18 years, so they a really have. They are already growing more to plant next year.
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Date of stay: February 2025
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Trip type: Traveled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Tree Tops Jungle Lodge is an authentic wilderness camp with two spacious and comfortable tents with large shaded porches. Although the location and accommodations are unique and authentic, the staff of Kamal, Gayan, Raja, Sudeera, Nasanka really make this place special. They cheerfully take care of everything around camp and are a great team cooking, tracking, cleaning and patrolling at night. Kamal is very knowledgeable about the natural environment and we learned so much. We saw elephants on our first afternoon walk, and had some excitement when one of them blocked the gate back into camp. We had to bushwhack quickly to get to the safety of camp. Then the elephant decided to enter camp and walked between the tents. We could hear him walking, breathing and munching nearby as the sun set. It was an incredible experience. Kamal arranged a safari for us to block 5 of Yala National Park. In addition to the usual wildlife and birds, we had two leopard sightings. Thank you Kamal and team for a top notch memorable experience!
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Date of stay: August 2023
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Trip type: Traveled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Lars and his staff have created something very special! This small lodge contains only of 2 luxurious tents that is situated in beautiful wild (and very alive) nature. It offers a fantastic and authentic nature experience that it's hard to find now days. The staff is excellent both when it comes to service but also sharing knowledge about plants and animals. The food is great. It might sound a bit pricey to stay here but it's well worth it for the experience and because you support a good case (nature protection and people from the local village). Go go go!
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Date of stay: December 2023
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Trip type: Traveled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Treetops is an amazing experience. We were here with our teenage children , we all loved it. You are immersed in nature, the sights and sounds of the jungle your background music. Watching the numerous birds from the dining area was a special experience. Elephants are all around, you may be lucky and see them, or like us see their footprints in the mud. Kamal and his team look after you with thoughtful service, even bringing tea to our tent for a 5am start to our safari! Their knowledge of the area is fantastic and the daily nature walks are beautiful and educational. The tents are spacious and comfortable. The food is exceptional, so delicious, fresh and varied, all carefully prepared with local ingredients and served with care and pride. The best food we ate in Sri Lanka. Go here, it is one of the best experiences we have had, such a fantastic example of truly sustainable tourism.
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Date of stay: August 2024
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Trip type: Traveled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Such a wonderful stay here! A really authentic, traditional but truly comfortable open sided mud hut with a beautiful rattan roof and wonderfully designed with the comfort of its guests in mind. This forms the sitting, eating, bird/animal watching area. Two superb comfortable large tents with their own bathrooms - (glamping!) - provide everything one requires for a fabulous stay, lie close by. The staff are brilliant, led by lovely Kamal - all knowledgeable and charming, hosts and guides who imparted their knowledge generously and showed us how to live sustainably in this jungle setting. The food was utterly superb too, zingingly fresh and fragrant offering variety and outstanding flavour, it was such a treat! We visited Yala from the North entrance to Block 5 where we saw so much wildlife including elephants, jackal, boar, spotted deer, land monitors, water buffalo and birds too numerous to mention and all without the clamour of competing safari jeeps. We also were taken by the team on a bird watching afternoon safari. Our stay here was our most memorable experience in the best possible way, of our fabulous trip to Sri Lanka and all made possible by Lars, the charming owners’ dream, of sustainable, really comfortable travel.
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Date of stay: February 2024Trip type: Traveled with friends
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
If we could give more than 5 stars we surely would have done that! Tree Tops Jungle Lodge is the place to be when you like the flora and fauna, wild life and good food 😋.
As there are only two very large spacious tents there are no crowds, just a couple of people. That makes it the most relaxing place you can imagine.
Just sitting there with a pair of binoculars and watching the birds. They gave us a wonderful show every day, singing and showing their beauty. Kamal knows incredible many bird’s, even more than “Mr blue-eyed (B)Lars” 😉.
The team is wonderful, very polite and discrete and they treat you like VIP’s. We really felt like “Out of Africa“, dinner with candle lights and just the sound of the wild nature.
Every breakfast, lunch and dinner was delicious. We loved it that they used so many local/wild vegetables and fruits for the meals.
We had great chats with Lars and Kamal. And they arrange everything for you. The walks in the morning and late afternoon are relaxing too. Do go on a safari in Yala block 5, the driver is a very good tracker as well! We were so lucky to see twice a leopard 🤗.
We really had to tear us apart from this location when we had to go. An incredible experience this place.
Huge thanks to Lars, Kamal and the rest of the team. If possible we do come back!
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Date of stay: January 2024Trip type: Traveled as a couple
Room Tip:You love nature? Go and stay at least three nights.
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
After two years of pandemy and in spite of a current economy crisis, Tree Tops Jungle Lodge has reopened with refurbished luxurious tents.. These tents include a front veranda, a large bedroom with a sitting corner and a bathroom. There is a lot of space inside that makes you feel comfortable and satisfied. The view from the veranda is superb as it faces jungle covered mountains. These luxuriant mountains are everywhere around the lodge and cover a large territory. They provide a feeling of grandeur and serenity far from noise and pollution. The walks organized by the management are a must They take you to a vast, untouched nature with elephants in the background. It is like being in a private natural park without the safari jeeps and the crowds. A great experience indeed.
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Date of stay: September 2022
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Lars Sorensen, Owner at Tree Tops Jungle Lodge
Responded Jan 10, 2023
Monsieur Alain, Thank you very much for your kind feedback. It's great to read that you enjoyed staying in our new room set up. A redesigned and refurbished version of our tented chalet rooms. They were develop with the intention to retain the past feel and tent look while carefully lifting the comfort to an elevated bush-forest living experience. Apart from that our concept is exactly the same as before the corona pandemi and other international crisis issues that had a great impact on tourism and our business. We will continue operating as a genuine ecolodge, work with locally recruited staff and provide the same authentic, local community experience in this remote Yala jungles bufferzone area where the people in nearby hamlets live on the boundary of rural and wild districts. We wish to thank you for appreciating our efforts and hard work in good and bad times over two decades.
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Our stay at the lodge has been the highlight of our trip! Everything exceeded our expectations. We loved sitting in the mud hut restaurant relaxing, enjoying the views and watching the wildlife. The food was delicious, we loved how it was prepared and served with such thought and made with amazing local ingredients. Kamal made the experience unforgettable! His local knowledge and his calm and thoughtful nature made our stay so special. We are so grateful to the whole team at the lodge, the service was fantastic!
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Date of stay: April 2024
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Trip type: Traveled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
HI Susan, we didn't see your Yala safari questions until now. A bit late but here are a few comments.
For a Yala Block 1 tour there is a transfer that will take about 80 minutes. We use the "backdoor entrance" called Katagamuwa. Given the transfer we do only full day tours to Yala Block 1.
Block 5 of Yala is closer to us with only 35 minutes transfer to the entrance. We do half and full day safari in Yala Block 5.
First of all consider Tree Tops Jungle Lodge an authentic living in wild nature experience in a remote area, away from busy tourism areas . With safari as an added optional experience.
Yes! All meals during the stay are included in the rates. Also included is all refreshments, tea/coffee, fruit juices, soft drinks. All 'basic needs. No extras to be charged, no service charge and any applicable tax is included in rates. The rates are the 'final' price .
Hi, thank you for the question.
We are happy to assist with this. We have a small network of local drivers / van owners and this should be easier for you than to organise it yourself.
Practically also more simple and effective if you are going to Ella train station. We'll handle it from the lodge from where you are probably sent out in a 3-wheeler. Then meeting the car at the nearest carpet road. Expect the price will be USD40 to Ella.
Driving time between Buttala and Ella is one hour.
Kind regards
There are more places to choose from in the Buttala area.
ALSO KNOWN AS
tree tops jungle hotel buttala
LOCATION
Sri LankaUva ProvinceButtala
NUMBER OF ROOMS
3
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