Top choice in Ella
Run by an engaging local team, this huge, stylish roadside cafe-bar-restaurant goes from strength to strength. Its latest addition is an upper deck scattered with cushions and tables that's graced with a sculpted, wave-inspired wooden roof. Background music is modern and carefully selected. Oh, and the food is excellent too, with flavoursome local and Western dishes and espresso coffee.
Try the lamprais (meat and veggies cooked slowly in a banana leaf) or one of their 10 different curries.
18.6 MILES
The Horton Plains plateau comes to a sudden end at World’s End, a stunning escarpment that plunges 880m. The walk here is 4km, but the trail then loops…
13.15 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…
10.55 MILES
This beautiful Benedictine monastery once belonged to tea planter Sir Thomas Lester Villiers. To recreate his English lifestyle, he developed some English…
17.48 MILES
Horton Plains is a beautiful, stark world with excellent hikes in the shadows of Sri Lanka’s second- and third-highest mountains, Kirigalpotta (2395m) and…
6.97 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…
1.44 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…
14.51 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…
18.54 MILES
To see where your morning cuppa originates, head to the Pedro Tea Estate, about 3.5km east of Nuwara Eliya on the way to Kandapola. You can take a 20…
0.67 MILES
This cave is associated with the Ramayana story. Located in a cleft in the mountain that rises to Ella Rock, the cave is reputed to be where the king of…
0.7 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…
5. Uva Halpewaththa Tea Factory
1.44 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…
2.24 MILES
The highlight of the charming Dowa Temple, 6km east of Bandarawela, is a 4m-high standing Buddha cut into the rock face. The walls of the adjacent cave…
2.35 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…