Walking Horton Plains to World’s End

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
6
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
0
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
6
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?
3
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
52 *What the scores mean and where do they come from
continent
Asia
country
Sri Lanka
Length of time
1 day or less
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
$ 60
Time of year visited
December
Primary Tags
Click on any of the tags to see all travel experiences with the same tag
All Tags
RANKING
How this travel experience ranks compared to all the other experiences on this site
283rd/372 This travel experience's ranking compared to all the other experiences on this site
Top 80% SUMMARY RATING: Worth doing

Summary

Horton Plains National Park is a plateau sitting over 2000m / 6500 ft in the centre of Sri Lanka between the 2nd and 3rd highest peaks in the country.  It’s often called out as being one the of highlights of Sri Lanka because of World’s End, a 880m / 2900 ft sharp drop at the end of the walking route, that gives good views of the valley below when the clouds part

 

I’d probably hold back on calling it a highlight of Sri Lanka though for two reasons – 1. World’s End isn’t all that impressive.  Yes, it’s a drop into the nearby valley, but the valley is fairly basic and not that much better than some of the steep valleys you see in the likes of Ella and even more generally on the train through the Tea Country; 2. The Horton Plains landscape is mild undulating hills with a few small rivers, which is nice, but nothing more than that.  Combine it with the cold and general wet, and you’re getting more autumn Scotland, less tropical Sri Lanka

 

That being said, it is a nice walk, I really enjoyed it.  Just manage expectations.  A few tips to help:

 

 

1. The weather – good and bad. I went in mid December, which is dry season and supposed to be the best chance for clear views … but the hill country is very unpredictable and tends to be wet so it was raining most of the time I was there (bad) … but the plains tend to be clearer than the surrounding areas (good).  I didn’t quite believe this at first, but it was certainly true for me – the whole journey up was super misty and raining, but around 10mins into the walk it cleared up significantly

 

2. They say go super early. This is for 3 reasons: 1. Chance to see the sunrise; 2. Chance to see leopards – it’s a long shot (although we missed one by 30 seconds as a guy who’d been waiting to see one for 5 days saw one walking along the road at 730am just before us); 3. Better chance of Worlds End being a clear view – you should aim to get there before 830am ish.  So, assuming you’re not bothered about the sunrise, a 6am start from Nawara Eliya is best (1.15hrs drive, 15mins faff with tickets, 1 hour walk from the entrance to Horton Plains to World’s End)

 

3. The walk – it’s a 9km loop. It’s more strenuous than the guidebooks and locals make out – mostly either uphill or downhill. Very doable in 2hrs quickly or 3 hours if going slow. 13k steps, equivalent of 56 floors climbed 

 

4. Where to stay – stay in one of the towns nearby such as Nuwara Eliya (see Staying in Nuwara Eliya’s “Little England’), or at a stretch Ella (see The Hill Country Village of Ella) which is a bit further. There is nothing around Horton Plains 

 

5. Cost (in Dec 2022) – US$40 entrance fee (it says US$25, but in Sri Lanka they tend to add all sorts of extras); transport US$40 (although in sure you could haggle down)

 

 

highlights

#1 Walking through the Horton Plains themselves - mild undulating hills, sprinkled with small rivers for a really pleasant 2-3 hour walk

#2 Looking over the 880m / 2900 ft sharp drop at World's End

#3 Checking out some of the waterfalls, like Baker’s Falls

#3 The World's End view before the clouds (hopefully) move!

#4 Getting the chance to sight some of the local wildlife, in this case Sambar Deer

#5 Being reminded of Autumn in Scotland in Sri Lanka's dry season

Experiences nearby

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

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