Hill Country
Tea estates, cool air, and the hill towns strung along the highland railway
Sri Lanka's central highlands sit 1,000 to 2,000 metres up, which changes everything about how a day here feels. Mornings are cool enough for a jacket, tea bushes cover the slopes in every direction, and the towns, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Ella, Haputale, developed around the colonial-era tea trade rather than the coast. This is also where the train line that everyone photographs actually runs, cutting through pine forest and tea country between Nanu Oya and Ella.
Kandy
Home of the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic
Nuwara Eliya
Little England of Sri Lanka
Ella
Gateway to the Highlands
Haputale
Misty Mountains & Tea
Build a trip through Hill Country
Pick the destinations above, add the sites you want to see, and we'll pace out realistic days around them.