travel · 2 min read
Sri Lanka's Hill Country: Kandy, Nuwara Eliya and Ella
Tea estates, cool air, colonial towns and one of the world's great train journeys. A guide to the central highlands and how to travel between them.
· Galle
Climb inland from the coast and Sri Lanka changes completely. The hill country is cooler, greener and slower — terraced tea estates, mist that burns off by mid-morning, and a chain of towns linked by a railway that's a destination in itself.
Kandy
Kandy is the cultural heart of the island and the gateway to the hills. Its centrepiece is the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic (Sri Dalada Maligawa), which houses a tooth of the Buddha and anchors the city's identity. Walk the lake, visit the Royal Botanical Gardens at Peradeniya, and if you're here in July or August, the Esala Perahera is one of Asia's great festival processions.
The train to Ella
The Kandy-to-Ella railway is regularly called one of the most scenic train journeys in the world — six to seven hours climbing through tea plantations, tunnels and hillsides. A few tips:
- Book reserved seats in advance (first or second class) in high season; the observation carriage sells out fast.
- Even an unreserved third-class ticket, with the doors open and your feet on the step, is a fine way to do it.
Nuwara Eliya
At 1,900 metres, Nuwara Eliya earned the nickname "Little England" — mock-Tudor houses, a colonial golf course, and genuinely cold evenings (bring a jacket). It's the centre of the Ceylon tea industry; estate and factory tours are easy to arrange. Nearby Horton Plains National Park has the cliff-edge viewpoint known as World's End.
Ella
Ella is the small, walkable town everyone ends up loving. Within a short walk you'll find the Nine Arch Bridge, the easy climb up Little Adam's Peak, the tougher Ella Rock, and Ravana Falls just out of town.
Travelling the hills
Trains and buses connect all three towns, and the roads are winding but scenic. Pack layers — it can be warm in the sun and genuinely cold after dark.