A Virtual Experience
The Kandy to Ella Train Ride
Kandy · km 0 — Ella · km 166
Widely called the most beautiful railway journey on Earth. Scroll to ride it — seven stops, a hundred tunnels and bridges, and a slow climb into the clouds.
Stop 1/7 · elev 500 m · km 0
Kandy
The journey begins beside the sacred lake, where the Temple of the Tooth keeps watch over Sri Lanka's last royal capital. The blue carriages fill early — by the time the whistle sounds, half the platform seems to be leaning out of the doorways.
Stop 2/7 · elev 476 m · km 8
Peradeniya
Minutes down the line the train skirts the Royal Botanic Gardens — 147 acres of orchids, giant bamboo and a palm avenue planted for visiting royalty. The Mahaweli, Sri Lanka's longest river, curls around the gardens as the climb begins in earnest.
Stop 3/7 · elev 1,271 m · km 69
Hatton
Now the tea begins. Hatton is the working capital of Ceylon tea country and the classic jumping-off point for the night ascent of Adam's Peak, the 2,243 m pilgrimage mountain. Pluckers in bright saris work slopes so steep they look painted on.
Stop 4/7 · elev 1,614 m · km 90
Great Western
The loneliest, loftiest stretch of the line, in the shadow of the 2,212 m Great Western mountain. Above 1,600 m the air turns cool and eucalyptus-scented, and clouds drift straight through the open carriage windows.
Stop 5/7 · elev 1,613 m · km 105
Nanu Oya
Alight here for Nuwara Eliya, the misty 'Little England' of grand colonial hotels, strawberry farms and a racecourse at 1,868 m. Just beyond, at Pattipola, the rails top out at 1,898 m — the summit of Sri Lanka's railways.
Stop 6/7 · elev 1,431 m · km 142
Haputale
Haputale clings to a ridge with the southern plains laid out nearly a kilometre below; on a clear day you can see almost to the coast. A short ride above town is Lipton's Seat, where Sir Thomas Lipton surveyed his tea empire.
Stop 7/7 · elev 1,041 m · km 166
Ella
The finale: the train eases across the Nine Arch Bridge, a 30 m brick-and-stone viaduct completed in 1921 without a single girder of steel, then rolls into laid-back Ella. Ella Rock and Little Adam's Peak rise straight from the platform.
End of the line
Ride it yourself
Trains run daily in both directions, and the real thing comes with tea, wind and the smell of eucalyptus. Start in Kandy, finish in Ella — or let our free planner build the whole trip around it.