Sri Lanka 7-day itinerary: Sigiriya, Kandy and the Ella train

Four bases, one direction, six nights

A week in Sri Lanka works if you decide early what to leave out. This route keeps the ancient north-centre, the hill capital of Kandy and the railway to Ella, and it finishes in Colombo for the flight home. That makes four bases for six nights: two nights in the Sigiriya area, two in Kandy, one in Ella and one in Colombo, with departure on day 7. The loop never doubles back: Bandaranaike International Airport to the Sigiriya area by car with a driver, on to Kandy by road, up the hill line to Ella by train and back down to Colombo.

The south coast is left out because six nights leave no room for it; the ten-day itinerary adds Galle Fort on the south coast.

The nights follow the destination guides. Two in the Sigiriya area let you reach the ticket counter at opening time and climb before the heat. Two in Kandy give the temple a morning, the gardens an afternoon and the dance show an evening. One night in Ella is enough to get off the train, walk to the Nine Arch Bridge and watch the evening, but it leaves no room for a morning that clouds over. The last night is in Colombo because, according to the UK Foreign Office (page checked on 16 October 2026), heavy rain and landslips can close roads and affect local transport links, and a flight is better not left to the morning you come down from the hills.

Both ends of the trip are at Bandaranaike International Airport (CMB), so a return ticket to Colombo works without any backtracking. Book the flights first, then the seat on the Kandy to Ella train on the day its window opens, and the rooms after that. Every foreign national needs an Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) before arriving, applied for only on the official site, eta.gov.lk. Since 25 May 2026 the tourist ETA is free for 30 days for passport holders of 40 countries, among them Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, and for children under 12 of any nationality; most other nationalities pay USD 50 online or USD 60 at the airport (USD 20 or USD 25 for South Asian SAARC countries), as listed on the site on 16 October 2026. The entry guide has the fee table and the rules for staying longer.

Days 1–2: the cave temple and the rock

Day 1 — land and go north. Sri Lanka Tourism gives the distance from Colombo to Sigiriya as 169 km; add the airport leg and stops, and ask your driver for the time when you book. No official page lists the airport's taxi counters, bus services or fares; book your car with a driver in advance. Cinnamon Air, which has a domestic terminal at the airport, lists a winter offer for Colombo to Sigiriya of USD 100++ one way per person (regular fare USD 150++) for travel from 1 November to 15 December 2026, booked and paid by 15 December 2026; for other dates and times ask the airline. If you land late, sleep in Negombo, the nearest town to the airport, or in Colombo and go north the next morning; that adds a night and turns this week into an eight-day trip.

Four legs of this plan are road legs: the airport to Sigiriya, Sigiriya to Kandy, Ella to Colombo and Colombo to the airport on day 7. No official page publishes the road distance or time between Sigiriya and Kandy, or between Ella and Colombo; ask your driver or hotel. Hire a car with a driver and check the driver's SLTDA registration on the national list of Authorized Tourist Drivers. No official page publishes a rate for a car with a driver; ask your driver's company for the all-in price. The transport guide covers fuel. Keep the road days free of fixed appointments.

If the transfer gets you there by early afternoon, spend the last hours of the day at the Dambulla cave temple, which the Central Cultural Fund lists as open from 07:00 to 17:00: five caves at the base of a rock about 150 m high, with more than 150 Buddha statues and murals on the walls. Sri Lanka Tourism says Sigiriya is about 25 km from Dambulla. The ways up are long flights of granite steps, best climbed in the morning or the evening. Foreign visitors buy tickets at the office near the golden temple. Sri Lanka Tourism lists the entrance fee as USD 10; confirm at the ticket office. The German Foreign Office (checked on 17 October 2026) asks for covered shoulders and trousers or skirts that reach below the knee in every temple, and visitors should never pose with their back to a Buddha statue. Our Sigiriya and Dambulla guide has the caves and the climb in detail.

Day 2 — Sigiriya at opening. Be at the ticket counter when it opens at 07:00 and climb straight away. Sigiriya is a rock fortress about 200 m high, the plug of an ancient extinct volcano, ringed by the remains of gardens, reservoirs and other structures, and the climb passes the frescoes, the Mirror Wall and the Lion's Paws Terrace before the summit and its panoramic views. The site is open from 06:30 to 17:30, but the ticket counters only from 07:00 to 17:00, so arrive within the counter hours. Take a hat and a bottle of water: drinks are sold only at the tourist exit. The Sigiriya Museum stands outside the main entrance and takes about an hour. The Central Cultural Fund's tickets page says the museum is included with the Sigiriya ticket, but its price table lists the museum at USD 6; ask at the counter.

Two rules belong to the rock. Photographing the Sigiriya frescoes is forbidden, and the German Foreign Office (checked on 17 October 2026) says that breaking the ban can mean heavy fines and the seizure of your camera. France Diplomatie (checked on 17 October 2026) says hornet attacks are possible at the site, and the Fund's e-ticket terms (checked on 17 October 2026) ask visitors to follow its officers' instructions about forest elephants and wasps.

Rest through the heat of the afternoon. For the free hours of day 2 there are two options. Pidurangala, the neighbouring rock, is an ancient rock temple with the best panoramic views of Sigiriya itself and a challenging climb; a sunrise climb followed by Sigiriya makes a long day in the heat, so it suits a third night. For wildlife, Minneriya National Park is where elephants gather around the tanks towards the end of the dry season; Sri Lanka Tourism's Minneriya page says May to October is a popular time to visit because of the Elephant Gathering, and the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority names the park in the online permit system of the Department of Wildlife Conservation. The Department of Wildlife Conservation sets the fees in Gazette 2292/11, applying from 2 September 2022; that link was dead when we checked on 17 October 2026, and the ePermit shows no amount until you choose a park and date; the charge depends on the park, the group and the vehicle. To book, open the Department's website (dwc.gov.lk), go to eServices and choose the menu entry "Day Visitor ePermits"; the ePermit terms on dwc.lankagate.gov.lk call a printout of the permit mandatory. Polonnaruwa needs a day of its own, which six nights do not have.

Days 3–4: Kandy, the temple, the lake and the gardens

Day 3 — road to Kandy. Leave Sigiriya after breakfast and keep the afternoon free. The Golden Crown Hotel stands on Ampitiya Road, in Kandy but away from the city hustle, among paddy fields; the lake and the Temple of the Tooth are a ride away, not a walk. The temple's own history page places Kandy Lake, also known as Kiri Muhuda, to the south of the temple. From the shore you see a small island planted with palms and a fountain, and behind the water the town climbing the hills among trees. If you arrive in time, the Kandy Lake Club Cultural Show runs for one hour, from 17.00 to 18.00 every day, with online booking; the club lists no ticket price. Our Kandy guide covers the town in more detail.

Day 4 — the Temple of the Tooth and Peradeniya. The Sri Dalada Maligawa, the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, stands beside the lake and is open to devotees every day from 5.30 a.m. until 8.00 p.m. The morning service runs from 5.30 a.m. to 7.00 a.m., the Mid-Day Service from 9.30 a.m. to 11.00 a.m. and the evening service from 6.30 p.m. to 8.00 p.m. Go to a service for the atmosphere and the drumming and expect a crowd; go between services if you want room to look at the building. One ticket covers the temple, the Dalada Museum, the World Buddhist Museum, the Tusker Museum and the Royal Elephant Stable. Machines at the temple issue the tickets, and tickets issued by other individuals or institutions are not valid. Shorts, sleeveless and body-revealing clothing are not admitted, and appropriate clothing can be obtained at the entrances.

In the afternoon, take a ride west to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Peradeniya, less than 5.5 km from Kandy on the Colombo Road. The gardens cover 147 acres, hold more than 4,000 species of plants and are renowned for their orchids. They open from 7.30 AM to 6.00 PM, but ticketing closes at 5.00 PM.

The Esala Perahera, the festival that brings the temple out into Kandy's streets, falls in July or August, but its dates change each year and the temple announces them on sridaladamaligawa.lk, so choose your Kandy nights once the schedule is published.

Day 5: the hill line from Kandy to Ella

The train is the reason this week goes to Ella, 162.63 km from Kandy. The railway's reserved-seat leaflet of January 2024 lists three through trains from Colombo Fort to Badulla with reserved second class: the daily Podi Manike leaves Colombo Fort at 05.55 AM and reaches Badulla at 03.54 PM, the daily Udarata Manike runs 08.30 AM to 05.44 PM, and the Ella Odyssey runs 05.30 AM to 04.01 PM, which the leaflet shows on Thursdays and Saturdays. The railway's notice for 20 June 2026 (a Sinhala and Tamil scan) schedules trains between Nanu Oya and Badulla and lists no Colombo or Kandy trains, so check the booking site's train list for your date. The notice gives the Ella Odyssey (train 1043) on Wednesdays only, leaving Nanu Oya at 01.00 PM and reaching Ella at 03.21 PM. The booking site's train list for your date gives the Kandy departure. A reserved second-class seat from Kandy to Ella costs LKR 1,700 per person on the railway's 2022 table, which is the whole price of the seat. If the list shows no through train, the fallback is Kandy to Nanu Oya and then Nanu Oya to Ella, a reserved second-class seat at LKR 1,200 on each half in the same table. The slow mixed train leaves Kandy at 03.35 AM and reaches Badulla at 02.28 PM, 10 hours 53 minutes for the whole run; its only reserved seats are in the first-class observation saloon, third class is not reserved, and the booking site shows the saloon price; the June 2026 notice does not list the mixed train, so check the train list before you plan around it.

Book on the railway's seat-reservation site, seatreservation.railway.gov.lk, and nowhere else: the German Foreign Office (checked on 17 October 2026) advises booking trains only on the state railway's official site. You create an account and enter the passport or NIC number of every passenger, and the system allocates the seats. Reservations open 30 days before the date of travel and close 2 hours before the train leaves; a booking holds up to five seats, and the e-ticket arrives by e-mail.

Cancelling is the one step that cannot be done online. You go in person, with your passport, to a railway station that offers the mTicketing service, and the railway refunds 75% of the ticket fee more than 168 hours before departure, 50% from 168 hours to more than 48 hours before, and nothing inside 48 hours; the service charge is never returned. Rain can interrupt the hill line: the railway's home page says train services from Badulla to Nanu Oya have resumed after the Ambewela to Nanu Oya section, damaged by Cyclone Ditwah, was restored. On board, stay inside the carriage while the train moves; the UK Foreign Office (checked on 16 October 2026) records fatal accidents among visitors who hung out of open doorways or windows.

Ella is a small town on a mountain shoulder, at 1,041 metres. Ella Flower Garden Resort stands on Passara Road, 2 km from the centre of Ella and a 5-minute drive from the station by its own pages, and it offers a free pick-up from the station on request. The Uva Provincial Council's tourism site gives the Nine Arch Bridge as 10 to 15 minutes' walk from Ella station through the countryside, or a tuk-tuk ride from the town, and early morning or late afternoon gives cooler air and softer light. The bridge carries the working railway: keep clear of the track when a train is due and do not treat the bridge as a place to stand and pose. Our Ella guide has the walks and the weather in detail.

Days 6–7: Little Adam's Peak, Colombo and the flight home

Day 6 — dawn at Little Adam's Peak. Little Adam's Peak is the easy summit and the best use of the one morning, a very popular 360-degree viewpoint 2.5 km from the town: you walk about 1.5 km along the Ella to Namunukula road, then turn onto the Little Adam's Peak road, and a tuk-tuk can take you near the start. The trail is short, suitable for beginners and uneven in places. Go early and climb before it gets hot, with water. On the walk up, the Uva Provincial Council's page says, you see Ella Rock and the Ella to Wellawaya road like a ribbon. Ella Rock is the longer walk: its route follows the railway track for about 2.5 km and needs the whole morning, so it would replace Little Adam's Peak, not join it. The other morning option is the Uva Halpewatte Tea Factory, which takes visitors through plucking, withering, rolling, fermenting, drying and grading, with a tasting of Uva teas and packed tea to buy; go in the morning, when the factory is working. Choose the peak or the factory, because the road to Colombo takes the rest of the day.

Then head for Colombo, the longest leg of the week. Leave after breakfast, because the German Foreign Office (checked on 17 October 2026) finds night driving outside towns not advisable. The railway puts Ella 271.59 km from Colombo Fort by rail, so plan a full day on the road. By train instead, a reserved second-class seat between Ella and Colombo Fort costs LKR 1,800 on the railway's 2022 table; the booking site's list for your date shows the train from Ella.

Colombo is where the week ends. Fairway Colombo stands on Hospital Street in the Fort district, where Colombo Fort station is. Galle Face Green, on the sea front, is where the city goes at the end of the day, for kottu or wade from the stalls.

Day 7 — the flight. Book the car to the airport and leave a wide margin before the flight. No official page gives the drive time from Colombo to the airport, so allow extra time at peak hours; your airline's message for your flight gives the check-in time.

What six nights cost for two

Prices checked on 17 October 2026, for two adults sharing a room, from the hotels' own pages and the tables of the Central Cultural Fund, the temple, the botanic gardens and the railway. Each room is the rate the hotel's own page prints for the room named.

• Sigiriya, two nights: Tranquil Trails Sigiriya, Double Room with Garden View, USD 50 per night with breakfast and taxes included: USD 100.
• Kandy, two nights: The Golden Crown Hotel, Deluxe Room, starting from LKR 14,500 per night: LKR 29,000. The hotel's page also lists a Sri Lankan residents' rate and does not say which rate its rupee figure is, so ask which one a guest from abroad pays.
• Ella, one night: Ella Flower Garden Resort, Standard Garden Room, from USD 55 per night: USD 55.
• Colombo, one night: Fairway Colombo, Superior King Room, from USD 55 per night: USD 55.
• Sigiriya tickets: USD 35 for a foreign visitor's full ticket in the Central Cultural Fund's table, payable in rupees at the day's rate: USD 70 for two.
• Temple of the Tooth: LKR 3,000 per foreign visitor, or LKR 2,500 for visitors from SAARC countries, Thailand and Myanmar: LKR 6,000 for two at the higher rate.
• Peradeniya gardens: LKR 3,540 for a foreign adult: LKR 7,080 for two.
• Kandy to Ella train, second class: 2 × LKR 1,700 = LKR 3,400, plus the 5% online fee of LKR 170: LKR 3,570. The railway's seat table gives the whole price of the seat; the booking site shows the price for your train.
• Total: USD 280 plus LKR 45,650 (LKR 29,000 + 6,000 + 7,080 + 3,570) for two. At the Central Cultural Fund's rate of LKR 336 per USD (its table of 14 October 2026) the rupee part is about USD 136, so about USD 416 in all.
• If you take the train down from Ella instead of a car: 2 × LKR 1,800 = LKR 3,600, plus the 5% online fee of LKR 180: LKR 3,780, not in the total.
• If no through train runs on your date: Kandy to Nanu Oya and Nanu Oya to Ella, 4 × LKR 1,200 = LKR 4,800 for two, plus the 5% online fee of LKR 240: LKR 5,040 instead of the LKR 3,570 above, not in the total.
• Not included: flights, the ETA fee where one applies, meals, the car with a driver for the four road legs and the airport runs, the Cinnamon Air flight, the Dambulla cave temple ticket, the dance show and tuk-tuk rides.

Rain, the hill roads and who to call

Because the plan leaves out the sea, it does not depend on the beach season. The German Foreign Office (checked on 17 October 2026) puts the rainy season in the south-west from June to October and in the north-east from December to March, and Sri Lanka Tourism calls the central highlands pleasantly cool and relatively dry from January to April. If you travel in the north-east rainy season, the two Sigiriya days are the ones to swap if the weather turns. The Disaster Management Centre's site, dmc.gov.lk, carries weather reports and a landslide warning page, and its hotline is 117. The tourist hotline 1912 answers from any phone network and can connect you to the Tourism Police Division.