Sri Lanka: Sigiriya, Kandy and the Hill Train to Ella

Arrive in Negombo

Bandaranaike International Airport to Negombo, about 10 km

• Welcome dinner
• Nuit : Negombo
• Environ 30 min de route

Soir

Long-haul flights arrive at all hours, so nothing is planned before the evening: sleep, swim, or walk the beach, which faces west, so the sun sets over the sea. At about 6 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a briefing on the week ahead, with every drive time and early start spelled out, then we sit down together for a welcome dinner of rice and curry, seafood and hoppers at a local restaurant.

Compris

• Pick-up at Bandaranaike International Airport (CMB)
• Welcome briefing with your guide
• Welcome dinner

Inland to Dambulla and Sigiriya

Negombo to the Dambulla cave temple, then Sigiriya, about 170 km

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Sigiriya
• Environ 4 h de route

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down rice and curry in Dambulla. In the afternoon we climb the stepped path up the rock to the Dambulla cave temple, a place of pilgrimage for more than two thousand years and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Five caves hold more than 150 Buddha statues under painted ceilings that cover almost every surface of the rock. Cover shoulders and knees, and leave shoes at the door. From the terrace the plain runs away to Sigiriya Rock on the horizon.

Soir

Then it is about half an hour to your hotel near Sigiriya, home for two nights, with the evening free.

Compris

• Drive to the Cultural Triangle with your guide
• Sit-down lunch in Dambulla
• Dambulla cave temple

Pidurangala sunrise and Polonnaruwa by bicycle

Pidurangala Rock, then the ruins of Polonnaruwa and back to Sigiriya

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Sigiriya
• Environ 2.5 h de route

Matin

You watch the sun come up over the forest with Sigiriya Rock in front of you, then walk down for breakfast at the hotel. Mid-morning we drive about an hour and a quarter east to Polonnaruwa, the royal capital in the eleventh and twelfth centuries and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, whose ruins spread across flat parkland beside the Parakrama Samudra reservoir. We ride between them on bicycles with a local site guide: the Royal Palace, the circular Vatadage in the Quadrangle and the Gal Vihara, where four Buddha figures, one of them reclining, are cut from a single granite face.

Après-midi

After a sit-down lunch near the ruins we are back at the hotel by mid-afternoon, with the rest of the day free.

Compris

• Pidurangala Rock at sunrise with your guide
• Polonnaruwa ancient city by bicycle, with a local site guide and entry
• Sit-down lunch near Polonnaruwa

Sigiriya at opening, Kandy by evening

Sigiriya Lion Rock, then Aluvihare and Kandy, about 95 km

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Kandy
• Environ 3 h de route

Matin

An early breakfast, then we are at the Sigiriya gate when it opens, about 7 am, ahead of the heat and the queues that build on the upper stairs from mid-morning. King Kashyapa built his palace on top of this rock in the late fifth century. The climb, about 1,200 steps, passes the water gardens, the painted women of the frescoes, the polished Mirror Wall and the giant stone paws of the lion gate before the summit, nearly 200 metres above the plain, where brick foundations look out over forest and reservoirs. We are down by about 10 am and drive south into the hills, about three hours, broken at Aluvihare, a rock temple near Matale where, Buddhist tradition holds, monks first wrote down the Buddha's teachings on palm leaves.

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down stop on the way.

Soir

In Kandy, the last royal capital until 1815, we visit the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic in the late afternoon and stay for the evening ceremony of drums and offerings. After that the evening is free by Kandy Lake.

Compris

• Sigiriya Lion Rock at opening, with a local site guide and entry
• Aluvihare rock temple
• Sit-down lunch on the way to Kandy
• Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, with the evening ceremony

Tea country and the hill train to Ella

Kandy to Nanu Oya by road via Nuwara Eliya, then the train to Ella

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Ella
• Environ 3 h de route

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal in Nuwara Eliya, the old hill station at about 1,870 metres, cool enough for a jacket. At Nanu Oya, the station for Nuwara Eliya, we board the train with reserved seats. For about three hours it climbs past Pattipola, the highest station on the line, then runs down through Haputale and Bandarawela, tea on both sides, to Ella. The Kandy to Nanu Oya rail section has been closed since Cyclone Ditwah in November 2025, which is why we drive that part, and if the train is cancelled on the day the vehicle drives you to Ella instead.

Soir

The evening is free.

Compris

• Ramboda Falls viewpoint
• Working tea factory visit with a tasting
• Sit-down lunch in Nuwara Eliya
• Reserved seats on the train from Nanu Oya to Ella

Nine Arch Bridge at dawn and Little Adam's Peak

Ella to the Nine Arch Bridge and Little Adam's Peak on foot, then dinner with a local family

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du soir
• Nuit : Ella

Matin

Completed in 1921, the bridge curves across a ravine on stone and brick arches about 24 metres high, and your guide will know the morning train times so you can watch one cross. Then we walk on to Little Adam's Peak, about 45 minutes up a path through tea gardens to a grassy ridge with long views down the Ella Gap to the plains. You are back for a late breakfast, and the middle of the day is free: a massage, a nap, or a cafe above the valley.

Après-midi

In the late afternoon a local family shows you how they cook rice and curry at home: dhal, a vegetable curry, coconut sambol and more, ground and stirred by hand, which we then eat together around their table.

Compris

• Nine Arch Bridge before 7 am with your guide
• Little Adam's Peak walk
• Cooking and dinner with a local family

Activités en option

• Ayurvedic massage (paid locally)

Down to Udawalawe for an elephant safari

Ella to Ravana Falls, Buduruwagala and Udawalawe National Park, about 110 km

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Udawalawe
• Environ 3 h de route

Matin

We leave Ella after breakfast and drop through the Ella Gap, stopping at Ravana Falls by the roadside, to the dry lowlands at Wellawaya. Just south of town, Buduruwagala is a quiet forest site where seven figures were carved into a rock face around the tenth century, the central standing Buddha about 15 metres tall.

Après-midi

From there we carry on to Udawalawe, about 110 km and three hours of driving in all, arriving for a sit-down lunch at the hotel and a rest through the heat. At about 3 pm we head into Udawalawe National Park by open jeep, two jeeps for the group so everyone has a window. Wild elephants feed here year round in the grassland and scrub around the Udawalawe reservoir, along with water buffalo, crocodiles, peafowl and eagles.

Soir

We stay out until the park closes near sunset, then meet for a farewell dinner, the last evening together.

Compris

• Ravana Falls
• Buduruwagala rock carvings
• Sit-down lunch in Udawalawe
• Jeep safari in Udawalawe National Park, with park fees
• Farewell dinner

Orphaned elephants, then back to Colombo

Udawalawe Elephant Transit Home, then to Bandaranaike International Airport or Colombo, about 250 km

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Environ 4.5 h de route

Matin

After breakfast we drive about ten minutes to the Udawalawe Elephant Transit Home, run by the Department of Wildlife Conservation, which raises orphaned elephant calves and returns them to the park when they are old enough to live wild. We arrive for the morning feeding (time confirmed with your itinerary), when the young elephants come in for their milk, and watch from the viewing platform, which keeps visitors at a distance. Then it is the long drive back, about 250 km and four and a half hours, partly on the Southern Expressway.

Après-midi

That is over our four-hour cap, and there is no shorter road from the south back to the airport, so we break it with a sit-down lunch and a coffee stop. We aim to reach Bandaranaike International Airport (CMB) in the late afternoon, by about 5 pm.

Soir

Book a flight leaving after about 8 pm; many long-haul flights leave late in the evening. If you are staying on, we drop you at a Colombo hotel instead.

Compris

• Udawalawe Elephant Transit Home at the morning feeding
• Sit-down lunch on the way
• Drop-off at Bandaranaike International Airport (CMB) or a Colombo hotel