The Kandy to Ella Train: How to Actually Get a Seat
Reserved seats on the hill line sell out weeks ahead. How we get them, which class is worth it, and what to do when we cannot.
Nuwan Perera··7 min read
The hill line between Kandy and Ella is the one journey almost every visitor asks for, and it is the one thing on a Sri Lankan itinerary that cannot be arranged at the last minute.
Reserved first and second class seats open thirty days ahead and the good ones are gone within hours. We book the moment the window opens, which is why we ask for your dates earlier than you might expect.
If the reserved carriages are full, unreserved second class is not the disaster people fear. You stand for the first hour out of Kandy, seats free up at Peradeniya and Gampola, and the open doorway is where you wanted to be anyway.
Third class is the one to avoid in the middle of the day, not because of the company but because of the heat.
Planning this trip?
The planner drafts a route from our own catalogue in about ninety seconds, and a consultant in Colombo checks it before anything is quoted.
