Hill stations in Sri Lanka

Known For : Kandy Esala Perehera Festival Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic (Sri Dalada Maligawa) Kandy Lake

Kandy sits at 500 m, enough to take the edge off Colombo's heat without being cold, and it is where every hill country trip begins. The last independent Sinhalese kingdom held out here until 1815, and the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic beside the lake still sets the city's rhythm. Be clear about what it is: a working city of well over a hundred thousand people, warm by day, closer to a heritage town than to Ooty. Come for the temple, the lake circuit and the Knuckles trekking country north east of the city, then take the morning train up.

Best Time: December to April

53 Kandy Attractions

Known For : Seeta Amman Temple Horton Plains National Park Gregory Lake

At 1,868 m this is the highest town in Sri Lanka and the only one where you will want a jacket at dinner. January and February nights average about 10 degrees and the record low is below freezing, with frost on the tea in some years. The town itself is scruffier than the estate photographs suggest: a racecourse, Gregory Lake and a lot of traffic. What earns it two nights is the country around it, the working tea estates and factories you can walk into, and the fact that these western slopes are at their clearest from January to March. The station is Nanu Oya, 8 km out.

Best Time: December to April

35 Nuwara Eliya Attractions

Known For : World’s End (Horton Plains) Gommolli Kanda Ohiya

The plateau above Nuwara Eliya, at roughly 2,100 m, and the one place in the hills that reads as moorland rather than tea country. The 9.5 km loop takes about three hours and reaches World's End, where the escarpment falls away more than 800 m with no railing of any kind. Go at first light. The cloud usually closes the view by mid morning, and then you have walked three hours for nothing. Foreign visitors pay a national park entry fee per person, so check the current rate before you set out.

Best Time: January to March

6 Horton Plains Attractions

Ohiya is a railway halt at 1,774 m rather than a town, and it earns a place here for what it gives you: the highest stretch of the Kandy to Badulla line, through Pattipola at 1,897 m, the highest station in the country. It is also the nearest station to Horton Plains, though the park gate is about 10 km of climbing road away, which is a jeep or tuk tuk ride and not a stroll. A handful of guesthouses, cold nights, almost nothing in the way of restaurants.

Known For : Diyaluma Falls Diyatalawa Adisham Hall

Haputale sits at 1,431 m on a narrow ridge, and on a clear morning you can see south across the plains towards the coast, which no other town on the line offers. It is a market and railway town rather than a resort, cheaper than Ella and far quieter. The Dambatenne tea factory and the climb to Lipton's Seat above it are why most people stop. Being on the eastern slope, its drier months run roughly May to September, the opposite of Nuwara Eliya's.

Best Time: May to July

5 Haputale Attractions

Diyatalawa, at about 1,250 m, is a garrison town: the army, navy and air force training academies are here and that is most of it. There is very little visitor infrastructure and no strong reason to book a room. It is worth knowing about for the ridge itself, because the stretch of line from Haputale through Diyatalawa to Bandarawela is one of the prettiest on the route. Bandarawela, 7 km on, is where the hotels are.

Known For : Nine Arches Bridge Little Adam's Peak Ella Rock

Ella is the lowest of the main hill towns at 1,041 m, which makes it the mildest: warm days, cool nights, no jacket needed. It has become the busiest base in the hills, a main street of cafes and guesthouses, and it is the one place on this list where you should expect crowds. The trade off is convenience, since the Nine Arches Bridge, Little Adam's Peak and Ella Rock all start within a few kilometres of town. Eastern slope, so the drier months are roughly May to September.

Best Time: January to September

31 Ella Attractions

Known For : Muthiyangana Temple Badulla Kataragama Devalaya Old Welekade Market

Badulla at 680 m is where the railway stops, about ten hours of track from Colombo. It is a provincial capital, warmer and more workaday than Ella, and few travellers stay the night. Two reasons to ride the last hour anyway: the Demodara loop just before town, where the line spirals under itself to lose height, and the onward buses to the east coast and the south that save you doubling back up the hill.

Best Time: December - March

7 Badulla Attractions

Adam's Peak, or Sri Pada, is a 2,243 m pilgrimage mountain rather than a hill station, and it is on this list because it sits in the middle of the hill country. The footprint at the summit is read as the Buddha's, as Shiva's, as Adam's and as St Thomas's, which is why all four traditions climb it. The route from Nallathanniya, reached from Hatton on the railway, is roughly 5,500 steps done overnight for a sunrise arrival. Season runs from the December full moon to the May one, when the path is lit and the stalls are open. Outside it the climb is dark, wet and unstaffed.

Best Time: December to May

Belihuloya sits at 616 m on the Colombo to Bandarawela road, about 150 km from Colombo, and it is the hill country without the train crowds. Cool river pools, forest, and the quietest road up towards the Horton Plains side of the plateau. Accommodation is a handful of rest houses and small guesthouses rather than hotels. Come for two slow nights, not as a base for touring.

Kitulgala is barely 200 m above sea level, so calling it a hill station is a stretch. This is wet zone foothill country on the Colombo to Hatton road and one of the wettest places in Sri Lanka. It earns a place as the last stop before the climb. The Kelani here is the country's main white water rafting river, and the same stretch is where the bridge was built and blown up for The Bridge on the River Kwai in 1957. Break the drive here, then go up.

Best Time: December - March