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The Escape Routes
Hill Country, Sri Lanka

Hill Country

Tea-shawled mountains, mist-blue mornings, slow trains.

What defines the Hill Country.

Above 1,000 metres the heat falls away and the island turns green and cool. Tea-shawled ridges, colonial hill stations and the most scenic rail journey in Asia thread between Kandy, Nuwara Eliya and Ella.

January – April (clearest highland skies)
Best time
10
Main regions
63
Landmarks

Every corner of the Hill Country.

Explore the Hill Country.

Browse the regions that make up this theme. Pick a place to see it come alive, then wander into the one that calls you.

Kandy

Kandy

The island's cultural soul around a misty lake.

Set around a misty lake in the heart of the highlands, Kandy was the last capital of the Sinhalese kings and remains the island's cultural soul and a UNESCO World Heritage city. The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, which enshrines a tooth of the Buddha, draws pilgrims to its thrice-daily drumming and offerings, while the compact lakeside core makes Kandy rare among Sri Lankan towns in being a genuine pleasure to explore on foot. The kingdom held out against the Portuguese and Dutch and fell to the British only in 1815, and that proud independence still shapes its temples, its Kandyan dancing and the spectacular Esala Perahera procession of caparisoned elephants. It is also the natural gateway to the tea hills, where the celebrated rail climb to Nuwara Eliya and Ella begins.

Explore Kandy

Travel the theme

Tours through the Hill Country.

View all tours

Every tour is a starting point that we tailor around the places that move you.

Make the Hill Country yours.

We thread the corners that move you into one tailor-made trip.

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