Sri Lanka’s Hill Country: Ella, Nuwara Eliya and Kandy

Ella is a small village in Sri Lanka’s Hill Country. Surrounded by beautiful countryside and green hills it is very picturesque but the first thing that struck me on our arrival was the large number of tourists. It was by far the busiest place that we had visited during our stay in Sri Lanka (at least it felt like that to me) and it took me a little while to warm up to this little town. 

We stayed at the Ella Guest Inn which was clean, very close to town, and had very helpful and friendly owners. It was not, however, our first choice and lacked the scenic views and the tranquility that I imagined when we started planning our trip. We originally had other accommodation booked but they cancelled on us at the last minute leaving us with very few decent and budget friendly options. 

In saying all of this, I did really like Ella. There are beautiful walks which you can do from town and which we did. After a few days at the beach it was great to be more active and enjoy some beautiful scenery. The food at Ella was also some of the best that we had eaten in Sri Lanka (but more on this later). 

One of the most popular walks from Ella town is the short walk up to Little Adam‘s Peak – it takes about half an hour to reach the top. We went up for sunset, which is one of the busier times (as is sunrise) but the views at that time are worth it. Little Adam’s Peak actually consists of a few peaks and the further you go the less busy it gets – although it is best to be back at the first peak before dark as the paths are narrow, can be slippery and there are no lights. 

My favourite walk, however, was to Ella Rock. The total round trip from town takes about three hours and for the first hour or so you walk along the train tracks. This is a working train track so when you hear a train approaching you need to move to the side and wait for the train to pass. Obviously it is very safe! The train track is surrounded by beautiful greenery and occasionally you pass some friendly locals who try to give you directions. The challenging part is to know when to get off the track – there are no markers and the entrance to the path (which leads you towards Ella Rock) is tiny and easily missed. We used the entertaining blog of the Nomadic Boys for directions but still got lost. But all was well as it led to us meeting a lovely Aussie couple (who were on their honeymoon) and together we found our way. As you get off the train tracks you begin your ascend and have to walk up for about 30 – 45 minutes. The last bit can be challenging but again the views are absolutely worth it (and on the way down you can buy some refreshing coconuts!). 

Ella has many restaurants to choose from and we tried a few places but the two that really stood out for us were Jade Green and Matey Hut. Both small family run restaurants with incredible Sri Lankan food – our favourites were the rice and curry and roti. We also liked the Art Cafe Umbrella (with its quirky decor) for lunch or a snack and Ella Flower Garden Resort for an early evening drink. Unfortunately we didn’t make it to the 98 Acres Resort and Spa for drink. It is a popular spot for sunset but when we arrived (half an our before sunset) it was already full and we couldn’t go in. 

On our final morning in Ella we headed to the Nine Arches Bridge. This iconic bridge was built by the British and is a beautiful structure in its own right but most people head there in time to see the train go over the bridge. From memory this happens three times per day but it is best to check the train times when in Ella.  The whole event does not take long but it is quite fun to take photos and watch the train and it’s waving passengers go by. 

It was then time for us to say goodbye to Rochelle (who was heading to Aus) and for us head to Kandy via Nuwara Eliya.

Nuwara Eliya is a a larger town in the Hill Country and is about a two and a half hour train ride from Ella. It is often referred to as ‘Little England’ due to its colonial architecture and pretty gardens. 

We hadn’t planned to go to Nuwara Eliya but after talking to the Aussie couple we met on our Ella Rock hike we decided to catch the train from Ella as far as Nuwara Eliya only rather than all the way to Kandy, which takes about seven hours. Our decision was made easier when we couldn’t reserve seats all the way to Kandy – as we had learnt the trains are very popular – and we didn’t want to be crammed in second class for seven hours (terrible backpackers!).  We did find some first class tickets on the 6ish am train and arranged with our guesthouse for a driver (with our rucksacks) to meet us at Nuwara Eliya in the afternoon and to take us to Kandy. Meanwhile, we hopped on the train to Nuwara Eliya with our small backpacks only. It was not the most economical option but with trains costing very little (from memory even first class tickets were around $5) we decided that that it was worth it.

We had read that the scenery on the train ride from Ella to Kandy (and especially the section between Ella and Nuwara Eliya) is incredible and we were not disappointed. The Sri Lankan railway system was built by the British in the 19th century and from the looks of them, the trains themselves haven’t really been updated much since. There is something very romantic about travelling on these old trains especially when they are winding through picturesque scenery.  It was definitely the most scenic train ride that I have ever been on. 

Nuwara Eliya is famous for its tea plantations and factories so from the train station we caught a tuk tuk straight to the Pedro Tea Estate (one of the most popular tea estates for visitors). The Estate offers short tours where you can learn more about different types of tea and see a working factory. You also get a cup of tea included with your tour ticket. I found the tour interesting but it may not be everyone’s cup of tea.  I would, however, recommend the walk to Lovers Leap. It is about a 30 minute walk from Pedro Tea Estate at the end of which is a waterfall. We didn’t find the waterfall very impressive (hence I haven’t included any photos) but the walk is lovely as you are surrounded by tea plantations and may even spot a few workers picking tea leaves.

For lunch we headed to the Grand Hotel, as the name suggests the hotel is quite grand and has a lovely garden and beautiful dining rooms. Although we found the service to be terrible and the food not that great. They do, however, have an extensive selection of teas, from memory there were over 300 teas on the menu. I also read that they do afternoon tea which is quite popular and meant to be quite nice.

We were picked up by our driver at the Post Office (one of the oldest in Sri Lanka and they still offer telegrams). The drive to Kandy was equally as beautiful as the train ride and at one point Dale yelled at me to put the camera away – our sweet driver kept slowing down or stopping for me to take photos and Dale thought we would never arrive at our destination.  

Kandy is one of Sri Lanka’s major cities and to say that we didn’t like it would be an understatement. From everything we read we knew we wouldn’t like it but with us deciding not to go to Colombo we thought we should at least check out one city. In hindsight, we should have done Adam‘s Peak instead and if we had more time I would have also liked to go to Horton Plains National Park. 

Unfortunately, our accommodation in Kandy, The Skyloft–Kandy was a little strange. It only recently opened and was quite far from town which made it incredibly difficult to find. The rooms were nicely decorated and the place had amazing views but everything else just didn’t work properly. The worst, however, was the smell in our room from the drainage pipes. It got so bad we had to ask to change rooms, something that we have never done before.  I felt like a spoilt brat, here I was in a nice hotel but all I wanted was to be back in one of the simple guesthouses that we had stayed at previously. 

We only had two nights in Kandy, but arriving quite late on to the first it only left us with one full day to explore (which for us was more than enough).  One of the main attractions in Kandy is the Temple of the Sacred Tooth which apparently houses Buddha’s tooth. We decided to check it out but gave up on trying to see the main attraction within two minutes of arriving. The place was packed, super hot and there was a massive queue to see the tooth with people pushing and shoving. We wandered around the other parts of the temple which were a bit more peaceful and then got out of there.

Outside views from the Temple.

There’ not much else that I can say about Kandy except it was the only place in Sri Lanka and possibly in our whole time in Asia that we didn’t like (Hue in Vietnam may be a close second). 

We were so eager to get out of Kandy we booked a car for 5.30am the next day…

NEXT: Sigriya Rock and Polonnaruwa.