The Hill Country Village of Ella

Nature
The wow factor for nature - does it show nature at its best? Doesn't need to be the wilder-beast migration or diving with hundreds of hammerheads. Rather make you pause as you realise just how awesome the natural world can be
7
Culture
How much does this experience showcase some of the better and finer things that us humans can offer? Sure, it can be ancient ruins and renaissance churches, but it can also be festivals or soaking up some of the great modern cities of the world
6
Fun factor/activity
Very simple - was it fun? This is usually linked in with doing some kind of activity - i mean, walking along some cliffs is nice, but paragliding from them, now that is fun. Its a vastly underrated factor in a truly great experience
6
Avoid the crowds
Big tour groups and being surrounded by loud fellow tourists can sap the life out of even the greatest of travel experiences. This score is to reflect just how much you can avoid this. But. . . The score also takes into account if the crowds actually add to the experience, such as with a party town or a bustling food market
5
World famous
How world famous is the experience?
3
unique
How hard is it to have a similar experience in other places round the world?
5
Overall Score
The highest score of nature or culture, + fun factor, + avoid the crowds, + the highest score of world famous or unique. Then turned into a score out of 100. More details at the bottom of the page
57 *What the scores mean and where do they come from
continent
Asia
country
Sri Lanka
Length of time
1-2 days
Rough cost
Obviously people have different tastes, so this will depend on those tastes, but this is a rough idea of price of the whole experience based on 2 people able to split the accommodation costs and excluding travel there and back
$ 40
Time of year visited
December
Primary Tags
Click on any of the tags to see all travel experiences with the same tag
Hiking Hilltop towns Mountains
All Tags
Bridges Forests
RANKING
How this travel experience ranks compared to all the other experiences on this site
244th/372 This travel experience's ranking compared to all the other experiences on this site
Top 70% SUMMARY RATING: Worth doing

Summary

Ella is the prettiest of the towns that are scattered throughout Sri Lanka’s Hill Country, and makes the most sense to start / finish at as part of the wonderful train journey through the tea plantations that most people are here to experience.  Definitely worth a day on its own as the mini hikes, tea factories and waterfalls make for a nice day to explore the immediate surroundings, and the town itself is full of restaurants and chilled out guesthouses (typically with great views) to relax after the train journey

 

Top Tips:

1. Walk to see the Nine Arches Bridge – it’s only a 15min walk from the main road and is just so brilliantly picturesque.  See if you can time it so that you are at one of the viewing points in the trees when it passes by and be sure to ask your hotel the time of the train will be as it changes each day

 

2. Walk up to Little Adam’s Peak – best views across Ella, including through Ella Gap, and only an easy 1.5 / 2 hours round trip.  Be sure to start your walk at the main road (at the Ella Flower Garden Resort) rather than drive up to the Ravana Pool or the Flying Ravana Mega Zipline, which is what most people did.  The walk from the main road is the prettiest bit as it winds its way through the tea estate and is pretty flat, compared to the steep bit from the zipline area

 

3. Where to stay – there are HUNDREDS of homestays in and around Ella, so you’ll have a huge variety to choose from.  I stayed at the Blooming Rose which has relatively basic rooms, but made up for it with its amazing view through Ella Gap and wonderfully welcoming host family, would very much recommend

 

4. Restaurants and vibe – Ella has a very backpacker / traveller vibe, so there are plenty of restaurants catering for all that are all within a 2min walk of eachother.  Cafe Chill was great as it had both Sri Lankan and Western food to a high standard

highlights

#1 The absurdly pretty Nine Arches Bridge and waiting for the train to beep its horn as it passes along this old railway bridge on its way through the forest

#2 The Walk along to Little Adam's Peak for the views through the Ella Gap

#3 Walking through the tea estates at the start of Adam's Peak - there's something about the luscious rows all mapped out together like a child's puzzle

#4 The picturesque hills that surround Ella

#5 Finishing the day with a cup of tea enjoying the view from the balcony of your homestay (Blooming Rose homestay in this photo)

#6 The birdlife which comes right up to your window to say hi

#7 Nervously looking on at the snake charmers that are dotted around the plantations . . . and being reminded of the dangers the pickers face with cobras just about everywhere in the Hill Country

#8 Sensing the Harry Potter envy . . .

Waterfalls

Experiences nearby

The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences

Other Pretty Hilltop Towns

Hiking the 4 day / 3 night Inca Trail
Overall Score: 85

4WDing across the Hajar Mountains via Hatt
Overall Score: 93

Hiking up to the former utopia of Livingstonia from Lake Malawi
Overall Score: 78

Driving through the White Towns of Parque Natural Sierra Grazalema
Overall Score: 78

Sapa – taking a motorbike around the mountain scenery and hilltop villages
Overall Score: 73

PR3 hike from Ermelo to Figas de Ermelo
Overall Score: 70

Driving through the Sacred Valley
Overall Score: 70

Walking the Valley de Cocora, visiting the humming birds and soaking up Salento
Overall Score: 68

Score Detail

Background - how many times have you asked someone what a travel experience was like and the response was "amazing" or "awesome"?  That response is nice to know, but it makes it hard to differentiate that experience compared to others.  That is exactly what these scores are trying to do - differentiate the experience by giving a score out of 10 based on 6 categories and then giving an overall experience score

This overall experience score is calculated by:  take the highest of the "Culture" or "Nature" score (1-10) + "Fun factor" (1-10) + "Avoiding the crowds" (1-10) + highest of the "Unique" or "World Famous score" (1-10).  Then convert into a score out of 100

Extra detail - the logic being that I find all of the 6 individual scores important, but I don't want to mark an experience down just because it doesn't cover both "Culture" and "Nature", or because it isn't both "World Famous" and "Unique".  Take the examples of Safari in The Serengeti and walking through Rome - they both appeal at opposite ends of the nature / culture spectrum, and you can have a fantastic time without needing to appeal to both sides.  So, their overall scores aren't penalized for their lack of one or the other, and I've done the same for "World Famous" vs "Unique".  But . . . I do think that the "Fun factor" of an experience is important, irrelevant of other factors, and so is "Avoiding the Crowds" (or where there are crowds that add to the experience).  So, both of these scores are standalone