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

1. Day 1: Arrive in Negombo

   Bandaranaike International Airport to Negombo, about 10 km

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Negombo
   Day 1 details

   Your trip starts at Bandaranaike International Airport (CMB) at Katunayake, Sri Lanka's main international airport, about 35 km north of Colombo. A driver meets you in the arrivals hall for the drive of about 30 minutes to your hotel in Negombo, a fishing town where a lagoon meets the Indian Ocean. Starting here rather than in Colombo means no city traffic on the day you land and a head start on tomorrow's drive inland. 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.

   Included

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

   Free time: Free until the evening briefing

2. Day 2: Inland to Dambulla and Sigiriya

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

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Sigiriya
   Day 2 details

   We leave Negombo at about 8 am and head inland, about 150 km and three to three and a half hours to Dambulla, partly on the Central Expressway, with a coffee stop halfway. The coconut country of the west coast gives way to paddy fields, reservoirs and the granite outcrops of the dry zone. 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. Then it is about half an hour to your hotel near Sigiriya, home for two nights, with the evening free.

   Included

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

   Free time: Evening free

   Activity: About 20 minutes of steps up to the cave temple, and a hot stone terrace barefoot; bring socks.

3. Day 3: Pidurangala sunrise and Polonnaruwa by bicycle

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

   • Drive about 2.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Sigiriya
   Day 3 details

   For a view of Sigiriya itself, you climb the rock next door. We leave the hotel at about 5:30 am for Pidurangala, past a small Buddhist temple at its foot and up a forest path of rough stone steps, about 30 to 45 minutes to the top, with a short scramble over boulders at the end. 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. After a sit-down lunch near the ruins we are back at the hotel by mid-afternoon, with the rest of the day free.

   Included

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

   Easier option: Sleep in and skip Pidurangala, then join the group after breakfast; at Polonnaruwa ride in the vehicle between the ruin groups and walk the short distances.

   More active option: Ride the full loop on to the northern group of ruins, Lankatilaka and the Kiri Vehera stupa, before lunch.

   Free time: Afternoon free

   Activity: Pidurangala ends in a short boulder scramble; bring a small torch and shoes with grip. Bicycles are on flat paths and the vehicle follows.

4. Day 4: Sigiriya at opening, Kandy by evening

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

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Kandy
   Day 4 details

   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. Lunch is a sit-down stop on the way. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Easier option: Stay at the base of Sigiriya: walk the water and boulder gardens and see the lion paws from below while the others climb. In Kandy, watch the drummers from the hall below instead of joining the queue upstairs past the relic chamber, or go straight to the hotel to rest.

   Free time: Evening free after the ceremony

   Activity: About 1,200 steps on Sigiriya, some on narrow metal stairways against the rock face; the guide sets the pace. Light clothing that covers shoulders and knees for the Temple of the Tooth.

   

5. Day 5: Tea country and the hill train to Ella

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

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Ella
   Day 5 details

   We leave Kandy at about 7:30 am and climb by road into tea country, about 80 km and three hours with stops. The road winds up past Ramboda Falls and estates where tea pickers work the slopes, and we stop at a working tea factory to see how green leaf becomes black tea, with a tasting. Tea has grown here since the 1860s, when it replaced coffee after a leaf blight. 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. The evening is free.

   Included

   • 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

   Free time: Evening free in Ella

   Activity: The train service and its time are confirmed with your final itinerary, as the timetable on this line changed after the cyclone.

   

6. Day 6: 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

   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay in Ella
   Day 6 details

   An early start pays off here. We walk to the Nine Arch Bridge before 7 am, when mist still sits in the valley and the crowds have not arrived. 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. 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.

   Included

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

   Optional experiences

   • Ayurvedic massage (paid locally)

   Easier option: Take a tuk-tuk to the viewpoint above the Nine Arch Bridge and skip the climb up Little Adam's Peak.

   More active option: Swap Little Adam's Peak for Ella Rock with a local guide, about 3 to 4 hours return through eucalyptus and tea, back in time for the cooking.

   Free time: Middle of the day free

   Activity: Stay back from the bridge edge and off the track; there are no railings.

   

7. Day 7: Down to Udawalawe for an elephant safari

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

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Udawalawe
   Day 7 details

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

   Included

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

   Free time: Early afternoon free at the hotel

   Activity: About three hours in an open jeep on dirt tracks; bring a hat, sunscreen and binoculars if you have them.

8. Day 8: Orphaned elephants, then back to Colombo

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

   • Drive about 4.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   Day 8 details

   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. 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. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Easier option: For an earlier flight, we skip the feeding and leave straight after breakfast.

   Activity: Book a flight leaving after about 8 pm; exact timings come with your final itinerary.

Wildlife and weather: December to April is the dry season in the hill country and on the west coast, with warm days in the lowlands and cool mornings around Nuwara Eliya and Ella. The Cultural Triangle can still see north-east monsoon showers in December and early January. From about May to September the south-west monsoon brings rain to the hill country, so we do not run then. Wild elephants are seen in Udawalawe National Park year round; sightings are likely but never guaranteed. Around 13 to 15 April, the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, much of the country closes.

• Negombo1 night
• Sigiriya2 nights
• Kandy1 night
• Ella2 nights
• Udawalawe1 night