Dehiwala Zoo Open Time & Opening Hours (2026)

The zoo is officially the National Zoological Gardens of Sri Lanka. Many people call it Colombo Zoo. It sits on Anagarika Dharmapala Mawatha in Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia, about 10 km south of Colombo Fort. This page covers when it opens, what happens on poya days and holidays, show and feeding times, and how to plan your hours inside. For everything else about the zoo, from its animals to its history, see our Dehiwala Zoo guide.

Dehiwala Zoo Timings 2026

The zoo keeps the same hours on Monday to Sunday, 8:30 am to 6:00 pm. The table below sets out the details searchers ask about most, including the ticket cut-off.

Is Dehiwala Zoo Open Today?

Almost certainly yes. The zoo opens every day of the week, Sunday included, so today, tomorrow and this weekend all follow the 8:30 am to 6:00 pm pattern. Closures are rare and tied to safety. The most recent came in late November 2025, when Cyclone Ditwah brought down trees across the grounds. The zoo shut for the clean-up and reopened on 1 December 2025.

So the one time to check before leaving home is after a night of heavy rain or a storm warning. Call the zoo office on 0112 712 752, or look at the zoo's official Facebook page, which posts closure notices faster than news sites.

Dehiwala Zoo on Poya Days and Public Holidays

Dehiwala Zoo opens on poya days with its usual hours, as it does on most public holidays. The official FAQ only says "most public holidays", so call ahead on Vesak. Every full moon is a public holiday in Sri Lanka, so poya days fill up with families, and a handful of dates are far busier than the rest.

On these days, be at the gate at 8:30 am. By 10 am the counter queue grows and the car park near the entrance fills, so a bus, train or tuk-tuk saves time. Buying your ticket in advance on the zoo's eTicket site, tickets.nationalzoo.gov.lk, lets you skip the counter.

Opening Time, Closing Time and Last Entry: Why Websites Disagree

Search for Dehiwala Zoo hours and you will find at least four versions, and three of them come from the zoo's own website. On 22 October 2026, nationalzoo.gov.lk showed 8:30 am to 5:00 pm in its header, 8:30 am to 6:00 pm on its contact page and in its location list, and 9:00 am to 6:00 pm in its FAQ, which adds that the last entry is at 5:00 pm.

These figures describe one day seen from different angles. The gates open at 8:30 am. The ticket counter closes at 5:00 pm, which is the figure in the header. The grounds close at 6:00 pm. Third-party guides that say 8:00 am, or that list a 5:30 pm entry cut-off, are working from old information.

The other stale detail is the night zoo. In 2017 the zoo announced a trial to stay open until 10 pm, and some sites still advertise a weekend night safari or a sea lion show at 7:45 pm. The zoo's current hours end at 6:00 pm and it lists no evening programme, so do not plan around one.

Dehiwala Zoo Show and Feeding Times

Only one timed programme has a published slot, and it is the paid Elephant Friends encounter. Everything else is scheduled by the keepers on the day and posted at the entrance.

If a show is the reason for your visit, read the notice board at the gate first and plan the rest of your loop around it. Feeding animals outside the Animal Interaction Program is banned, and staff do enforce it.

Best Time to Visit Dehiwala Zoo

Best time of day

Go at opening time. From 8:30 am to about 10:30 am the big cats and primates are up and moving, the paths are shaded and cool, and the school buses have not arrived yet. Between noon and 2 pm many animals retreat into the shade and the heat is hardest on small children. That is the time to be in the aquarium, the reptile house or one of the cafeterias. The light softens again after 3:30 pm, but by then you are racing the 5:00 pm ticket cut-off.

Best day of the week

Tuesday to Thursday mornings are the quietest. Saturdays, Sundays and poya days are the busiest, and so is any weekday during the April, August and December school holidays.

Best months

December to March is the driest stretch in Colombo and the most comfortable for a long walk. May and June bring the southwest monsoon, and October and November are often the wettest months of all, with heavy afternoon showers. The zoo stays open through the rain, so in those months arrive early and carry an umbrella. For a month-by-month view of the city, see the best time to visit Colombo.

How Long Do You Need? A Three-Hour Plan Built Around the Clock

Three to four hours covers the main sections at an easy pace. The order below follows the animals and the heat rather than a fixed path, so use the map at the gate to link the stops.

1. 8:30 to 9:30 am. Start with the big cats (lions, tigers and leopards) and the chimpanzees and smaller monkeys, while they are most active.

2. 9:30 to 10:15 am. Walk through the bird aviary. If you have booked Elephant Friends, peel off for the 10:00 am slot.

3. 10:15 to 11:00 am. See the butterfly garden before the midday sun flattens the activity.

4. 11:00 am to 12:30 pm. Move indoors to the reptile house, with its snakes, crocodiles and lizards, and then the aquarium.

5. 12:30 to 1:30 pm. Break for lunch at a cafeteria inside. Plastic and polythene are banned at the gate, so bring food in a box or buy it here.

6. After lunch. Finish at the sea lion pool and the elephant area, timing it to the display posted at the gate if you are staying into the afternoon.

Families with toddlers usually do the morning half and leave by 1 pm, which is a full and happy visit. If you want both the morning activity and the afternoon elephant display, budget four to five hours.

Dehiwala Zoo Ticket Price and Getting There

Your ticket covers the whole park until closing. The 2026 fares below include 18% VAT and are paid in Sri Lankan rupees.

School groups of 20 or more pay Rs 59 per child. The full breakdown, with base fares and rupee conversions, is on our Dehiwala Zoo ticket price 2026 page.

The gate is at 120 Anagarika Dharmapala Mawatha, about 2 km inland from Galle Road and roughly 10 km from Colombo Fort. A tuk-tuk or ride-hailing car takes 30 to 45 minutes depending on traffic, so leave the Fort area by 7:45 am to be there at opening. Buses heading south on Galle Road stop at Dehiwala junction, a short tuk-tuk ride from the gate. Parking for cars, motorcycles and buses is next to the main entrance. Routes and fares are covered in how to reach Dehiwala Zoo.

How We Keep These Hours Accurate

The opening time, closing time and last-entry time on this page are checked by our Colombo desk against the zoo's official website and its published FAQ, most recently on 22 October 2026. Where the zoo's own pages disagree, we say so above rather than pick one figure and hide the others. We re-check the hours every quarter, and straight away when the zoo announces a closure.

Plan the Rest of Your Colombo Day

A zoo visit fills a morning. After lunch, Mount Lavinia beach is about 10 minutes west by tuk-tuk, and the rest of the places to visit in Colombo are within an hour. Before you go, our Dehiwala Zoo tips cover what to carry and what the gate staff check. For elephants in a larger setting, the same zoo department runs the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage on the road to Kandy.

Travelling from India? Our Sri Lanka tour packages start or end in Colombo, so a morning at the zoo fits into the first or last day without extra planning.

Edited by TravelTriangle