Elephants in Udawalawe National Park, Sri Lanka

Getty Images/AWL Images RM

The Hill Country

Sri Lanka's Hill Country is the island at its most scenic, a mist-wrapped land of emerald peaks and stupendous views, of hillsides carpeted with tea plantations and graced by astonishing waterfalls. This is a place where you can wear a fleece in the daytime and cuddle up beside a log fire in the evening. Where you can enjoy a memorable meal in the eternal city of Kandy or at a roadside shack in lovely Ella. A region where you can walk to the end of the world, stand in the footsteps of the Buddha and be surrounded by a hundred wild elephants. Ride a train utterly bewitched by the vistas. Paddle a raft down a raging river. Enjoy the drumbeat of traditional dance and then savour the silence on a lonely mountaintop.

Attractions

Must-see attractions

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    Uda Walawe National Park

    Uda Walawe National Park

    With herds of elephants, wild buffalos, sambars and spotted deer, and giant squirrels, this Sri Lankan national park is one of the nation's finest. In…

  • View from World's End within the Horton Plains National Park in Sri Lanka.

    World’s End

    The Hill Country

    The Horton Plains plateau comes to a sudden end at World’s End, a stunning escarpment that plunges 880m. The walk here is 4km, but the trail then loops…

  • buduruvagala buddhist temple sri lanka

    Buduruwagala

    The Hill Country

    The beautiful, 1000-year-old, rock-cut Buddha figures of Buduruwagala are the region's biggest attraction. The gigantic standing Buddha (at 15m, it is the…

  • Royal Botanical Garden in Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.

    Peradeniya Botanic Gardens

    The Hill Country

    These stunning gardens were once reserved exclusively for Kandyan royalty. Today, even commoners are allowed in to enjoy the most impressive and largest …

  • Temple Of The Sacred Tooth Relic, in The Royal Palace Complex Of The Former Kingdom Of Kandy Sri Lanka.

    Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic

    Kandy

    The golden-roofed Temple of the Sacred Tooth houses Sri Lanka’s most important Buddhist relic – a tooth of the Buddha. During puja…

  • Elephants at the Udawalawe Elephant Transit Home.

    Elephant Transit Home

    Uda Walawe National Park

    This complex is a halfway house for orphaned elephants. After rehabilitation, the elephants…

  • View from World's End within the Horton Plains National Park in Sri Lanka.

    Horton Plains National Park

    The Hill Country

    Horton Plains is a beautiful, stark world with excellent hikes in the shadows of Sri Lanka’s second- and third-highest mountains, Kirigalpotta (2395m) and…

  • Lankatilake Temple, Kandy, Sri Lanka.

    Lankatilake Temple

    The Hill Country

    This impressive 14th-century temple, mounted on a rocky bluff, is the most imposing in the region. It's divided into two halves – one half Buddhist and…

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Plan with a local

Go Beyond

The Hill Country and beyond

Beyond The Hill Country
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