The trip started with a late arrival into Colombo. We decided to stay a bit out of the city at Negombo beach, a popular out-of-the-city stop for tourists. Even at the late hour with a 30 min drive to the accommodation, the taxi driver asked if we wanted to stop at a 24 hour supermarket. We were like, no…? Later we would realise that he was just being kind, friendly and genuine and this kind of offer was very normal in Sri Lanka and he would happily have waited for us to go shopping with no additional fee on the taxi, even at midnight. Sri Lanka your people are gems! What a treat to have this warmth again.
We didn’t pre arrange any transport and were uncertain how that would go, but it was super easy with Uber and the local ride-hailing app PickMe. Would definitely recommend just winging it with these two apps for transport in Sri Lanka, it was easy and affordable.
After a walk on Negombo beach and a first in-country Ceylon tea, we booked an Uber to our next destination in Kandy. Another super lovely driver! There is not a lot to do in Kandy apart from temple hop, we only had one afternoon and morning and felt that was sufficient. We arrived early afternoon and headed to the Royal Botanic Gardens where we enjoyed a lovely long walk, being outside, the beautiful gardens in general, and had our first sighting of flying foxes! In the evening we went to find somewhere to watch the T20 cricket World Cup. We found out somewhat late that the T20 WC was being hosted between India and Sri Lanka, we need to be more informed lol. Unfortunately we were not able to watch any games live, and it was surprisingly difficult to find places to watch the games, but we did manage to watch a few of them.
The very colonial Queen's Hotel
The next morning we enjoyed walking two laps around Kandy Lake (and skipped the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic) and got ready to move on to our next destination: Nuwara Eliya in the highlands and tea plantations. The night before we had messaged with the lovely Uber driver that had driven us from Colombo to Kandy to see if he could take us onwards to Nuwara Eliya, he agreed and was on time waiting for us the next morning. What we didn’t realise is that he had driven home to the Sigiriya area after dropping us in Kandy, about a 2 hour 30 min drive north, and then driven all the way back in the morning to pick us up! He didn’t think anything of it and apparently that is very normal in Sri Lanka; the drivers make the most of the high season and have no problem driving long distances and indeed we would experience that again later in the trip.
Traffic leaving Kandy was very heavy but orderly. Our driver had kindly offered to stop at some places and viewpoints along the way. First stop was Ambuluwawa Tower for views over the surrounding area, followed by the lovely Ramboda Falls. Last stop of the day was the Bluefields Tea Factory. Founded by the Worms brothers (somewhat unfortunate name lol, would you like some Worm tea?) in the 1840s, Bluefields is still an operational tea plantation and factory. The free tour was interesting and highly informative. We learned the history of the area, the plantation, how the ladies pick the leaves, the drying and sorting process, about the different grades of tea, and much more. We learned that all the tea plants in the area are the same and were brought from India. Each picker picks 20kg or more of tea leaves a day and each tea plant can be picked after just 8 to 10 days thanks to the favourable climate and soil conditions. Most astounding was that all the equipment was imported from Ireland, came in pieces by ship, and is still functional today! They sure don’t make things like they used to. The tour ended with a tea tasting where we tried the regular ceylon black tea, their earl grey blend, and the white tea. It was all really good. Their own label is only available on site. Otherwise you have probably enjoyed their tea in your favourite ceylon blend (Lipton, Dilmah, Five Roses, etc.). It had been a beautiful sunny day but the temperature was noticeably cooler in the highlands and would only drop further at night. We didn’t know it yet, but there were some wet days ahead. This region is not called Little England for nothing.
At Bluefields Tea Factory
One of the tea leaf drying conveyer belts at the factory
We had one full day to explore Nuwara Eliya. It was a very wet day but we headed out anyway. We went to go find the Lover’s Leap Waterfall in the pouring rain lol. The Tudor-style post office is a popular spot but not so pleasant in the rain, we came back later after lunch when the rain had calmed down. It is possible to freely wonder around any of the tea plantations; there was one directly behind our accommodation so the afternoon was spent getting lost among the tea plants. Our hotel and all the staff were really lovely. We had dinner there both nights and each meal was made from scratch per order. They were so kind to us and accommodated some meal requests. Sri Lankan curries are super yum and slightly different to Indian curries in that they are coconut milk based rather than tomato based. We would enjoy many amazing curries this trip!
The Tudor style post office
Walking in the tea fields behind the hotel
Initially we had planned to take the very popular scenic train from Kandy to Nuwara Eliya and on to Ella. We were puzzled when we couldn’t find any tickets available well in advance of our trip. Then it dawned on us and a google search confirmed that the trains were not running on certain routes due to the typhoon that had passed through Sri Lanka in Oct/Nov 2025 and the resulting floods. Indeed a lot of damage was still evident on the roads driving between these highland cities. Some of the train routes had been restored but not all due to structural damage to some bridges. We decided to stick with using cars as our main transportation.
Uber is not so big in the smaller towns so we took a PickMe to our next destination of Ella, still in the tea plantations but somewhat more touristy. Another rainy day but it let up enough for us to walk to the famous Nine Arch Bridge. The 100 year old colonial era railway bridge was designed to accommodate a nine degree curve and steep gradient, and was constructed entirely out of stone, brick and cement, no steel due to the commencement of WWI. The trains don’t run very often so it is safe to walk along the tracks. We decided to walk up the steep cliffside to a local cafe for a drink and views over the bridge and were treated to a train crossing the bridge in each direction at the perfect time of late afternoon. It is very touristy but still worth a visit.
We really wanted to do some hiking in Sri Lanka and had our sights on Horton Plains National Park but didn’t realise it was so far from everywhere and a bit of a logistical challenge from where we were staying (if you want to visit here, it seems worth it but we recommend staying closer nearby). However, we were happy there were some other options in Ella. Our time in Ella was predicted to be good weather in the morning with rain later, so we planned hikes in the morning with chilling in the afternoon.
The first morning we went for a walk up little Adam’s Peak. Easily accessible, very touristy, but with lovely views over the area. After that we rather enthusiastically went to find Kuda Ravana Waterfall. Just out of town and an interesting climb, but worthwhile none the less. The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent chilling, watching cricket, and window shopping.
Kuda Ravana Waterfall
The second morning we got going a lot earlier to tackle the rather steep Ella Rock in the cooler early morning weather and before the rain. The route starts nicely flat along the train tracks and then veers off and gets steep fast, but the view and peace at the top are well worth the climb. A beautiful pooch and the goodest boy joined us from early on in the walk all the way to the top. I specially saved him half of my potato samosa snack which he promptly rejected in favour of sugary cookies, thanks boy. He abandoned us at the top and joined another group with said cookies. We got down just before the rain and went to go find our by now favourite cafe for lunch.
Post hike refuel
From Ella we headed south to Yala National Park, the best park in the country to see leopards. Indeed, there were three good leopard sightings on the day we arrived so we were hopeful for our safari the next day. We had booked a great looking accommodation for this area and were super excited to stay there, sadly it turned out to be very different to what was advertised. The bathroom was outside, which in itself is not a problem, but it was very open so if it was raining, which it did all night, you would get soaked, combined with treacherous stairs and only cold water it was not a fun experience. We also had to change rooms halfway, the second room was a treehouse with even worse stairs, open air with no ac, and a leaking grass roof. It was difficult to communicate with the staff and also difficult to believe all they were saying. Anyway. We still had a nice time. Their redeeming factors were the wonderful dinners and the super friendly pooches that stayed with us almost the whole time. The park was amazing, and the sunset views from our treehouse room were very special.
Sunset from our treehouse
We had high hopes for our early morning safari, however it rained heavily all night and all the cats were taking it easy in the morning. There were two leopard sightings on our safari, but we didn’t see either of them lol. The first leopard had moved off before we got to the front of the queue of jeeps. The second was there but only partially visible, neither of us could see it. Even though there were sooo many jeeps in the park, it was all very orderly. All the vehicles queued and patiently waited their turn, there was a maximum viewing time which was respected so the queue kept moving, and there were park officials at the leopard sightings helping to keep things orderly. A pleasant and very different experience to our safari in India last year and other countries in general.
We were sad to not see any leopards but Yala is still a very cool park and well worth the visit, we saw loads! The safari started with a cheeky elephant relieving the car behind us of their packed lunch. He is well known in the park and amongst the jeep drivers, he first tried his luck in our jeep but fortunately our driver was fast enough and able to get past him, the car behind was less lucky. We saw loads of cool birds, elephant including many babies, buffalo, crocodiles, monitor lizards, monkeys, and a mongoose. Birds we saw included the little green bee eater, stork billed kingfisher, oriental darter, woolly necked stork, yellow billed stork, unknown kind of eagle, Eurasian spoonbill, and others.
Ellies
Buffalo
Mongoose
Monitor lizard
Crocodiles
Monkeys
and lots of very cool birds.
