The Perfect 5-Day Route for Sri Lanka

This five-day loop is for travelers who want the hill country of Sri Lanka in one compact trip: temples, tea estates and two good hikes, linked almost entirely by train. The pace is brisk but never frantic, with one very early start and no day longer than about four hours on the move. You’ll need an airport taxi or bus to reach Kandy, the hill-country railway for the main legs, and tuk-tuks for short hops to trailheads.

Days 1-2: Kandy

Start in Kandy because it sits at the bottom of the railway climb and makes for an easy first day for jet-lagged legs. The ride up from the airport takes 3 to 4 hours; check in, then walk the loop around Kandy Lake as the traffic eases off in the evening. Day 2 belongs to the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic. Go for the evening puja around 6:30 pm, when drummers pound away in the courtyard and the queue shuffles past the shrine room holding the relic casket. Cover your shoulders and knees, and expect to leave your shoes at the entrance.

Days 3-4: Nuwara Eliya

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This five-day loop is for travelers who want the hill country of Sri Lanka in one compact trip: temples, tea estates and two good hikes, linked almost entirely by train. The pace is brisk but never frantic, with one very early start and no day longer than about four hours on the move. You’ll need an airport taxi or bus to reach Kandy, the hill-country railway for the main legs, and tuk-tuks for short hops to trailheads.

Days 1-2: Kandy

Start in Kandy because it sits at the bottom of the railway climb and makes for an easy first day for jet-lagged legs. The ride up from the airport takes 3 to 4 hours; check in, then walk the loop around Kandy Lake as the traffic eases off in the evening. Day 2 belongs to the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic. Go for the evening puja around 6:30 pm, when drummers pound away in the courtyard and the queue shuffles past the shrine room holding the relic casket. Cover your shoulders and knees, and expect to leave your shoes at the entrance.

Days 3-4: Nuwara Eliya and Horton Plains

On Day 3, take the morning train from Kandy to Nanu Oya, the station for Nuwara Eliya, a ride of about 4 hours on switchbacks through tea. The town sits near 1,900 meters, nights can drop to around 10°C, and its red-brick post office and racecourse look like leftovers from a British hill station. Sleep early. Day 4 starts at 5 am with a driver to Horton Plains to World’s End, a 9.5-kilometer loop across misty grassland to a cliff edge that drops about 870 meters. Reach the edge before 10 am, since cloud usually fills the view by late morning. Afterwards, get dropped at Ohiya station and catch the train down to Ella, about 2 hours.

Days 4-5: Ella

Ella is the reason most people ride this line, and two nights is the right amount of time. Day 5 splits neatly: sunrise on Little Adam’s Peak, around 45 minutes each way on a gentle path, then Ella Rock in the late morning if your legs survived Horton Plains, a 3 to 4 hour return walk along the tracks and up through eucalyptus. Spend the afternoon in a hammock with a ginger beer. Getting from Ella back to the airport takes most of a day, so plan an evening flight for the following day.

For a bonus half day, take a tuk-tuk past Haputale to Bambarakanda Falls, at about 263 meters the tallest waterfall in the country and usually close to empty.