Is It The Journey or The Destination?

 

At just over one thousand metres high and served by roads so poor as to make most international journeys faster and easier, Ella has become the hill country’s Happy Town, attracting thousands of tourists to its mountains, waterfalls, cloud forests and tea plantations.

 

The town itself is an unremarkable mishmash of restaurants and hotels of varying grandeur: the beauty as ever, lies in what exists beyond its boundries: huge mountains and valleys, walks, rivers , wildlife, tea, and all the fecund temptations of raw nature.

 

For visitors, the wisest chose is to park yourself outside town on plantation homes such as AMBA, famed for its Veuve Clicquot-like tea.

 

Close by is the famous Nine Arch Bridge, a spectacular railway viaduct bridge built near Ella during the First World War, which forms the backdrop to innumerable holiday films and photographs.

 

The journey to Ella includes the high-ticket bucket stop item – the train journey itself: 4 to 6 hours [depending on landslides] from Kandy to Ella, and regarded by trainspotters and influencers as one of the most scenic train journeys in the world.

 

To arrange the journey please contact the Hotel Office.