This good guesthouse (in the old YMCA building) has four spacious rooms and a lounge, and is the best place to hook up with other travellers. Hikes to Maragala Rock and a rubber plantation are offered, the latter involving a night in a hilltop mountain lodge. There's decent food, too: rice and curry is Rs 350.
Kanda Land Villa
The East
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
22.2 MILES
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…
28.9 MILES
This beautiful Benedictine monastery once belonged to tea planter Sir Thomas Lester Villiers. To recreate his English lifestyle, he developed some English…
24.23 MILES
This popular tea factory was built in 1890 by Sir Thomas Lipton, one of the most famous figures in tea history. The tour through the works is an education…
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21.45 MILES
The Uva Halpewaththa Tea Factory, 5km north of Ella, runs some of the better tea plantation tours in Sri Lanka. After you've enriched yourself with…
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10.18 MILES
Only the bottom third remains of this ruined dagoba, but the setting is evocative and your imagination can run riot with thoughts of how amazing it must…
26.82 MILES
About 12km west of Pottuvil lies this evocative 5th-century ruin, set in a peaceful forested spot. Probably built by King Dhatusena (r 459–77), the site…
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9.54 MILES
Among the trees of verdant Maligawila lie the extensive remains of Pathma Vihara, including two graceful Buddha statues, carved by devotees in the 7th…
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23.53 MILES
The Lipton’s Seat lookout is one of Sri Lanka's most impressive viewpoints (unless it's misty and cloudy of course, which is why early morning is the best…
Nearby The East attractions
0.71 MILES
This is a colourful little Hindu temple, where the priest will probably be as happy to see you as he would Lord Ganesh himself.
8.76 MILES
This gorgeous old temple is set amid a blanket of fertile green. It's roughly midway along the road between Buttala and Maligawila.
9.54 MILES
Among the trees of verdant Maligawila lie the extensive remains of Pathma Vihara, including two graceful Buddha statues, carved by devotees in the 7th…
10.02 MILES
The moss-encrusted ruins of the small 12th-century Chulangani Vihara have a pudding-shaped dagoba and fragments of a decapitated 7th-century Buddha. It is…
10.18 MILES
Only the bottom third remains of this ruined dagoba, but the setting is evocative and your imagination can run riot with thoughts of how amazing it must…
6. Rakkhiththakanda Len Viharaya Cave Temple
16.33 MILES
The rock face around this remote and little-visited cave temple, which is signed off the road to Wellawaya, is covered in faded Kandyan-era paintings…
19.76 MILES
The tours at this green-tea factory are pretty rushed and the guide may or may not be informative – some are more intent on flogging leaves. Newburgh is…
20.15 MILES
The 19m-high Rawana Ella Falls are about 6km down Ella Gap towards Wellawaya. During rainy months, the water comes leaping down the mountainside in what…