Kandy, and the hills beyond it.
The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic beside the lake, the climb up Sigiriya, the slow train to Ella and the elephants at Pinnawala. What each day is really like, what it costs, and where to book.
Seven days worth booking.
First visit or fifth, these carry the itinerary: the tuk-tuk loop past the lake, the long day up to Sigiriya and the painted Dambulla caves, a village kitchen and the reserved seats on the train to Ella.
Kandy Village Cooking Class
Learn Sri Lankan curry basics in Kandy, start with a market ingredient hunt, cook with a host family, and eat what you make for about $25.
From $25 per person
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Up the rock, into the caves.
Leave Kandy before the heat, climb the Lion Rock while the plain below is still cool, then drop down to the painted cave temples at Dambulla on the way back. It is the day most travellers build the whole trip around, and the long drive north through the Cultural Triangle is half of the reward.
Which day out from Kandy?
Kandy sits in the middle of everything, so the hard part is choosing a direction. Three honest ones, and every option behind them is already reviewed and priced.
North to the plains
The Cultural Triangle
10 hours · from $29 · 785 reviews
Sigiriya Rock and the painted cave temples at Dambulla, the ancient cities and the Minneriya herds. An early start and a long, rewarding day down on the dry-zone plain, north of the hills.
See the Cultural Triangle days →
Up into the tea
The tea country
10 hours · from $27 · 198 reviews
Higher and cooler: the estates around Nuwara Eliya, a factory tour and a tasting, the waterfalls, and the famous rail line on to Ella. Green the whole way up, and slow in the best sense.
See the tea-country days →
Into the range
The Knuckles
from $120 · 47 reviews
For walkers: the cloud forest and ridge trails of the Knuckles range, cardamom gardens and quiet village tracks. Steep, green and far from the crowds, and barely an hour from the city.
See the Knuckles treks →
The plains belong to the elephants.
Game drives run at the cool edges of the day, when the herds come down to the tanks at Minneriya and Kaudulla in their hundreds. A dawn start from Kandy puts you on the plain before the heat, and the drive back climbs into the hills by dark.
Learn it in a Kandy kitchen.
The best classes here start in a garden or a village home: pick the vegetables, grind the spices, cook eight or ten curries over a wood fire, then sit down and eat the lot. Come with an appetite and leave able to make it at home.
The elephants at Pinnawala.
Pinnawala is an easy half-day from Kandy. The elephants are fed and bathed in the river on a set daily schedule, and most tours pair the visit with a spice or tea garden on the road back. Unhurried, factual, and a favourite with families.
Kandy keeps the relic.
The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is one of the most revered places in Buddhism, home to a relic of the Buddha and the reason Kandy has drawn pilgrims for centuries. A good guide walks you through the ritual of the evening offering with the respect it asks for, then out along the lake to the old royal quarter.
Pick your day, place by place.
Kandy is the base; the hill country is the reward. The Cultural Triangle to the north, the tea estates to the south, the Knuckles range to the east, and the lake and the temple in the middle of it all.
Know what you are after?
Twelve ways into the hill country. Pick the one that sounds like your kind of day, and every option behind it is already reviewed and priced.
Most of the island, a day away.
The hill roads make short work of the map. Ancient rock fortresses, tea towns, elephant herds and cloud-forest ridges are all a morning from Kandy, and the drive back is part of the day.
Three days, done right.
You cannot see all of the hill country in one trip, but you can do the right three days from Kandy. This is the order we would give a friend arriving tomorrow.
Day 1
Settle into the city
The tuk-tuk loop past the lake, the market and the old royal quarter, then the evening offering at the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic. An easy first day while the travel wears off.
Plan day one →
Day 2
Up the Cultural Triangle
The early drive north to climb Sigiriya before the heat, the painted caves at Dambulla, and the Minneriya herds if the season is right. The biggest day of the trip.
Plan day two →
Day 3
Into the tea country
South into the estates around Nuwara Eliya, a factory tour and a tasting, then the famous train down towards Ella. Book the reserved seats ahead. Green the whole way.
Plan day three →
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