Sri Lanka transport: trains, buses, drivers and flights

Choose the legs before the tickets

Start with the trains; everything else on this page can be arranged later.

On the ten-day loop in the first-trip guide, two legs are rail legs: Kandy to Ella on the hill line and Galle to Colombo Fort on the coast line, which brings you back for the flight home. The other legs are road legs: the airport to Colombo, Colombo to the Sigiriya area, the Sigiriya area to Kandy and Ella to Galle. For those you choose between the long-distance bus and a car with a driver, and a short flight can replace the Colombo to Sigiriya leg.

What the two train rides are like

The hill line is the ride people cross the island for. East of Kandy the Main Line climbs into tea country, past plantations where pickers work by hand, misty mountains and green valleys; Nanu Oya to Kandy and Ella to Badulla are among the most scenic stretches. Near Ella the line crosses the Nine Arch Bridge, which joins Demodara and Ella, and Demodara station itself stands on top of a railway tunnel, 277.7 km from Colombo Fort and 912.5 metres above sea level.

Ella is the place to get off. The Nine Arch Bridge is a 10 to 15 minute walk from Ella station; go in the early morning or late afternoon for the light and stand clear of the tracks. Going up to Ella, Sri Lanka Tourism says second and third class can be quite crowded until the last 2 or 3 hours of the journey, which is a reason to hold a reserved seat. Stay inside the carriage while the train moves: when we checked on 16 October 2026, the UK Foreign Office recorded fatal accidents among visitors who hung out of open doorways or windows.

The hill line is also the part of the network that rain can interrupt. The Ambewela to Nanu Oya section was damaged by Cyclone Ditwah in late November 2025; the railway reports it restored. When we checked on 16 October 2026, the UK Foreign Office said monsoon rains can cause floods and landslips that close roads and affect local transport links, and advised monitoring Sri Lanka's Disaster Management Centre and the Department of Meteorology for updates.

The coast line is the shorter ride home. It runs from Colombo through Galle to Matara and Beliatta, and four daily reserved-seat trains serve it; the times and classes are below.

Classes and times

The Main Line runs from Colombo Fort through Kandy, Nanu Oya and Ella to Badulla. The coast line runs from Colombo Fort through Galle to Matara and Beliatta. The booking site lists first, second and third class plus an observation saloon (first class, marked OFV) for Colombo Fort to Kandy and Colombo Fort to Badulla, the observation saloon alone for the slow train between Kandy and Badulla, and first, second and third class for Colombo Fort to Beliatta. No official page lists a separate price for the observation saloon.

Not every class is reserved on every train. These times and classes come from the railway's reserved-seat leaflet of January 2024; the booking site's train list for your date shows the services that run now. Hill-line trains with reserved seats:

• Podi Manike 1005, daily: Colombo Fort 05.55 AM, Badulla 03.54 PM; reserved seats in air-conditioned first class, in second class and in third class.
• Ella Odyssey 1041, Thursday and Saturday: Colombo Fort 05.30 AM, Badulla 04.01 PM; the same reserved classes. The June 2026 notice, below, shows the Ella Odyssey on Wednesdays only.
• Udarata Manike 1015, daily: Colombo Fort 08.30 AM, Badulla 05.44 PM; the same reserved classes.
• Intercity 1007, daily: Colombo Fort 09.45 AM, Badulla 07.20 PM; the observation saloon is the only reserved class, and second class is not reserved.
• Tikiri Manike 1023, daily: Colombo Fort 12.40 PM, Nanu Oya 09.19 PM, with a return from Nanu Oya at 06.00 AM to Colombo Fort at 01.47 PM; air-conditioned first class is the only reserved class, and second class is not reserved.
• Night Mail 1045, daily: Colombo Fort 08.30 PM, Badulla 07.32 AM, with berths and sleepers.
• Mixed train, daily: Kandy 03.35 AM, Badulla 02.28 PM, which is 10 hours 53 minutes, and Badulla 11.00 AM, Kandy 08.37 PM; the first-class observation saloon is reserved and third class is not.

Train journey times

Kandy to Ella is 162.63 km by rail; plan the whole day for it. The railway's notice for 20 June 2026 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 railway's notice for 20 June 2026 (a Sinhala and Tamil scan) shows the pairs 1005 and 1006, 1015 and 1016, and the Ella Odyssey 1043 and 1044 on Wednesdays only, which leaves Nanu Oya at 01.00 PM and reaches Ella at 03.21 PM; the January 2024 leaflet shows the Ella Odyssey on Thursdays and Saturdays. Between Nanu Oya and Ella the trains take 2 hours 14 minutes to 2 hours 46 minutes. If the list shows no through train from Kandy, ride Kandy to Nanu Oya and Nanu Oya to Ella, LKR 1,200 each in second class.

Colombo Fort to Kandy takes 2 hours 31 minutes to 3 hours 20 minutes on the reserved-seat trains that end at Kandy, for example 07.00 AM to 09.38 AM on the daily Intercity 1009, 10.35 AM to 01.55 PM on the Intercity 1019 and 03.35 PM to 06.06 PM on the Intercity 1029. Departures from Colombo Fort toward Kandy and Badulla run from 05.30 AM to 08.30 PM.

On the coast line, four daily reserved-seat trains serve Matara and Beliatta. The railway's January 2024 leaflet shows reserved seats only in air-conditioned first class on the coast trains, the 2022 seat-reservation table also prices reserved coast seats in second class (LKR 900 from Colombo Fort to Galle) and third class (LKR 600), and the booking site lists all three classes. Toward Colombo, one train leaves Matara at 06.05 AM and reaches Maradana at 09.23 AM, and one leaves Beliatta at 05.25 AM and reaches Maradana at 09.47 AM. Away from Colombo, the two afternoon trains leave Maradana at 02.30 PM for Beliatta, arriving at 06.46 PM, and at 03.40 PM for Matara, arriving at 06.52 PM. End to end that is 3 hours 12 minutes to 4 hours 22 minutes. Galle lies between Colombo and both ends, so the ride from Galle is shorter; no official page lists a Galle time for the morning trains, and in the railway's January 2024 booking example the two afternoon trains took 2 hours 25 minutes and 2 hours 20 minutes from Colombo Fort to Galle.

Booking a reserved seat on the railway's own site

Book on the railway's seat-reservation site, seatreservation.railway.gov.lk, and nowhere else; when we checked on 17 October 2026, the German Foreign Office advised booking trains only on the state railway's official site. The site asks you to create an account and log in, and to enter the passport or NIC number of every passenger; its FAQ names a foreign passport as accepted ID. A seat is confirmed only after payment succeeds, and you cannot choose it: the system allocates one, and it can go to another passenger if you do not finish paying in time. You can book up to five seats at a time. The e-ticket arrives by e-mail and can be shown on screen or printed, because the station issues no physical ticket, and a reserved ticket cannot be transferred to someone else.

Reservations open 30 days before the date of travel and close 2 hours before the train leaves. Online tickets carry a 5% convenience fee on the total. Payment is by LankaQR or by a Visa or Mastercard credit or debit card.

Free luggage is 40 kg in first class, 35 kg in second class and 25 kg in third class. Children under 3 who share a seat with a parent travel free, one child per adult, and children of 4 and over pay the full adult rate.

Cancelling and refunds

Cancelling is the one step that cannot be done online: you go in person, with your NIC or foreign passport, to a railway station that offers the mTicketing service. If the railway cancels your train, you can claim a refund of the ticket fee at such a station with the ticket reserved under your NIC or passport; the service charge is not returned. If your card is charged but no ticket is issued, lodge a complaint under Contact Us on the booking site, choosing Payment issue and giving your reference number and the last four digits of the card. For your own cancellation, only the ticket fee is refunded, not the service charge, on this scale:

• More than 168 hours (more than 7 days) before departure: 75% of the ticket fee.
• From 168 hours to more than 48 hours before departure: 50% of the ticket fee.
• Less than 48 hours before departure: nothing.

What a reserved seat costs

Prices checked on 17 October 2026. The railway's seat-reservation table of 1 August 2022 gives the price of the reserved seat itself: the railway's own booking guide shows an air-conditioned seat from Colombo Fort to Galle at LKR 1,100, the table's first-class figure, and a total of LKR 5,500 for five seats with a service charge of LKR 275, which is 5% of LKR 5,500. The table lists one figure per pair of stations. Per passenger in first, second and third class:

• Kandy to Ella, 162.63 km: LKR 2,500, LKR 1,700 and LKR 1,200.
• Kandy to Nanu Oya, 98.1 km: LKR 2,000, LKR 1,200 and LKR 900.
• Colombo Fort to Ella, 271.59 km: LKR 2,800, LKR 1,800 and LKR 1,300.
• Colombo Fort to Nanu Oya, 207.06 km: LKR 2,500, LKR 1,700 and LKR 1,200.
• Colombo Fort to Galle on the coast line, 113.89 km: LKR 1,100 for the reserved air-conditioned first-class seat, with LKR 900 and LKR 600 in second and third class on the same table (see the coast-line classes above); the ordinary fares are LKR 950, LKR 500 and LKR 240.
• Colombo Fort to Kandy, 120.74 km: ordinary fares of LKR 950, LKR 500 and LKR 240; the 2022 table lists two sets of seat prices for this route (LKR 2,000, 1,200 and 900, and LKR 1,500, 1,000 and 600), and the booking site shows the price for your train.

When the reserved seats are gone

The booking site tells you when no seats are left on the date you searched. It suggests searching another date, booking fewer passengers or changing the From and To stations, and a railway station with the mTicketing service can check seats for you. Trains with ordinary second and third class coaches, such as the Intercity 1007 and the coast trains, let you ride without a reserved seat in those classes; the railway's ordinary fare for Kandy to Ella is LKR 600 in second class and LKR 300 in third. For Galle, the Southern Expressway bus below is the other way back to Colombo.

Road distances and journey times

Colombo to Sigiriya is 169 km by Sri Lanka Tourism's figure. Sri Lanka Tourism puts Galle Fort 113 km from Colombo by the A2 road, and its Getting Around chart gives 3 hours by road. The Road Development Authority's gazetted list gives the Colombo to Kandy road a length of 115.85 km.

No official page publishes the drive time from Colombo to Sigiriya, the road distance or time from the Sigiriya area to Kandy or from Ella to Galle, or an expressway time for Colombo to Galle. Keep the road days free of fixed appointments.

Long-distance buses and the expressway

The National Transport Commission (NTC) publishes the official bus fares. It revised them from 6 July 2026 for normal, semi-luxury, luxury and Sisu Seriya services and for inter-provincial and expressway services.

Prices checked on 17 October 2026, from the NTC's expressway fare lists, which are published in Sinhala. Full fares: Makumbura to Galle (route EX 1) LKR 930 and Makumbura to Matara (EX 1-1) LKR 1,170 on the Southern Expressway, and Colombo to Kandy LKR 1,230 and Makumbura to Kandy LKR 1,210. Makumbura is a station on the Kelani Valley railway line, 22.5 km from Colombo Fort in the railway's fare table. No official page gives the expressway buses' journey times or departures; complaints go to the NTC's 1955 line.

Two shorter hops are worth knowing. Sri Lanka Tourism puts Dambulla, the closest city, about 25 km from Sigiriya, lists a regular bus every 30 minutes from 06.30 AM to 06.00 PM, with the last bus back at about 06.00 PM, and gives LKR 800 to 1,000 for a tuk-tuk from Dambulla. From Ella, buses go south through the Ella Gap to Wellawaya, where you change for destinations in the south.

Taxis, tuk-tuks and a car with a driver

Sri Lanka Tourism's Getting Around page says taxis in Colombo are metered but advises agreeing a rate before you set off, and that most tuk-tuks are not metered, so the fare is agreed beforehand. France Diplomatie names PickMe and Uber as the most used apps in Colombo for ordering a tuk-tuk or a car. No official page publishes current taxi or tuk-tuk fares.

A car with a driver is the answer for the road legs. Sri Lanka Tourism calls chauffeur-driven cars less expensive than car hire and recommends them, and, when we checked on 16 October 2026, France Diplomatie advised a car with a driver, an insured vehicle and a driver authorised to carry tourists. Authorized Tourist Drivers are listed on the national tourism site, each with a registration number of the form SLTDA/ATD/ followed by five digits, an association name and an expiry date; you can search by name, registration number or association. On 17 October 2026 the German Foreign Office advised against renting a vehicle without a local driver, especially a tuk-tuk, because after a traffic accident long investigations and exit bans of weeks or months are likely, and found night driving outside towns not advisable, so plan the road legs for daylight. No official page publishes a day rate for a car with a driver, so the budget below leaves it out.

Fuel quotas and your driver

When we checked on 17 October 2026, fuel was sold by weekly quota under a QR system introduced on 15 March 2026. A tourist car with a driver gets its QR through the driver or the driver's company, which applies to the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) with the tour itinerary; ask the driver at booking whether the QR is arranged. Holders of an SLTDA QR code take their quota at the 35 stations assigned to the tourism sector, for example in Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Dambulla, Kandy (Ambatenna), Nuwara Eliya, Bandarawela and Weligama.

On 17 October 2026 the National Fuel Pass site said quotas reset at midnight on Saturday, the German Foreign Office said a quota ends on Saturday and the new one begins on Sunday, and stations apply an odd and even number-plate rule on alternate calendar days. The tourist hotline 1912 answers questions about travel in Sri Lanka and connects to the Tourism Police.

Short flights with Cinnamon Air

Cinnamon Air flies small domestic aircraft with eight seats from its own terminal at Bandaranaike International Airport in Katunayake. Its price guide lists Colombo to Sigiriya, Colombo to Koggala, Colombo to Hambantota, Kandy to Hambantota and Sigiriya to Hambantota. On the ten-day loop, the Colombo to Sigiriya flight can replace the second road leg; it leaves from the airport, so day 2 starts at Katunayake rather than in Colombo.

Cinnamon Air's winter offer for Colombo to Sigiriya is 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, ask Cinnamon Air for the fare.

From the airport to Colombo

Bandaranaike International Airport (CMB) lies at Katunayake, 35 km north of Colombo and 6 km from Negombo (Sri Lanka Tourism's travel-tips page); its airports page says 30 km. Negombo is the nearest town if you land late or leave early. Sri Lanka Tourism recommends chauffeur-driven cars, and the Colombo-Katunayake Expressway, 25.80 km long, is the road link.

The railway lists a station called Airport - Katunayake, 33.44 km from Colombo Fort, with ordinary fares of LKR 350 in first class, LKR 200 in second and LKR 100 in third on its 2022 list, and no reserved seats. Sri Lanka Tourism's list of registered taxi operators marks airport transfers for some of its companies, but no official page lists the airport's taxi counters, bus services or fares, or the drive time to Colombo; allow extra time at peak hours.

The ten-day loop, leg by leg

This is the transport plan behind the first-trip loop: nine nights, with a night in Colombo, two in the Sigiriya area, two in Kandy, two in Ella and two in Galle, and departure on day 10.

• Day 1: land at Bandaranaike International Airport and travel by car with a driver to Colombo, or to Negombo, the nearest town.
• Day 2: Colombo to the Sigiriya area, 169 km, by car with a driver, or by Cinnamon Air flight from the airport.
• Day 4: the Sigiriya area to Kandy by car with a driver.
• Day 6: Kandy to Ella on a reserved second-class seat on the hill line, LKR 1,700 per person if the booking site's train list shows a through train; if not, Kandy to Nanu Oya and Nanu Oya to Ella, LKR 1,200 each in second class.
• Day 8: Ella to Galle by car with a driver, or by bus south through the Ella Gap to Wellawaya and a change there.
• Day 10: Galle to Colombo Fort on a morning coast train, which reaches Maradana at 09.23 AM or 09.47 AM, in a reserved first-class seat at LKR 1,100 per person, or by the expressway bus to Makumbura at LKR 930. Book a flight home that leaves in the afternoon or later: no official page gives the transfer time from Colombo to the airport or says how many hours before departure to arrive, so use the airline's message for your flight.

What the loop costs in transport

Prices checked on 17 October 2026, for two adults, with the 5% online fee added to each booking:

• Kandy to Ella, reserved second class: 2 × LKR 1,700 = LKR 3,400, plus a fee of LKR 170, so LKR 3,570.
• Galle to Colombo Fort, reserved air-conditioned first class: 2 × LKR 1,100 = LKR 2,200, plus a fee of LKR 110, so LKR 2,310. The two rail legs come to LKR 5,880.
• In first class on the hill line too: 2 × LKR 2,500 = LKR 5,000, plus LKR 250, which brings the two rail legs to LKR 7,560.
• If the train list shows no through train: Kandy to Nanu Oya and Nanu Oya to Ella are two bookings of 2 × LKR 1,200 = LKR 2,400, each with a fee of LKR 120, so LKR 2,520 a booking and LKR 5,040 for both, which brings the two rail legs to LKR 7,350.
• If Galle to Colombo goes by ordinary second class instead: 2 × LKR 500 = LKR 1,000, with no reserved seat. By Southern Expressway bus the leg is 2 × LKR 930 = LKR 1,860.
• Not included: the car with a driver for the four road legs, the Cinnamon Air fare, meals, and rooms, which the where-to-stay guide covers.