The Glorious Kandy to Ella Train: A First Class Ride!

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Hailed as one of the world’s most beautiful train trips, the Kandy to Ella train was a highlight of our visit to Sri Lanka.
The seven-hour adventure takes you from Kandy (one of the country’s eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites), through the emerald carpet of tea country, to the chill town of Ella in the cool highlands.
We reserved 1st class tickets in advance (recommended). Think comfy seats, air-conditioning and clean Western-style loos.
Plus, we got to hang our heads out the door from the open-air vestibule at the end of the carriage to fully soak up those iconic views!
Here’s our complete guide on the train experience, the difference between the three classes of train tickets (and why first class is worth it) and how to snag your tickets.

Contents: Taking the train from Kandy to Ella
First class on the Kandy train
1st class vs. 2nd and 3rd class tickets
Stunning scenery on the Kandy to Ella train ride

Sri Lanka Railways is the country’s national railway.
Dating back to 1864, the train line was originally built by the British to transport tea and coffee from the inland hill country to the capital city of Colombo. Today, it links Colombo with several other major tourist destinations in Sri Lanka.
The most popular ride is aboard the famous blue train between Kandy and Ella, cutting through the heart of the island’s stunningly scenic interior.

We were captivated by the scenery that unfolded outside.
It wasn’t long after departing Kandy that we chugged past rice terraces and then pine forests.
Later, the landscape shifted to lush tea plantations. We watched as tea pickers, with green woven baskets strapped to their backs, moved slowly among tea plants like upright turtles.
The higher we climbed, the mistier it got – the white mist weaving in with the white jasmine that grows wild over the bushes and trees, all creating a surreal dreamlike vista.
It was pure beauty from start to finish.
First-class experience

We booked “first-class” seats on the popsicle blue train.
That gave us access to two Western-style flush toilets in the carriage and our own allocated space in reserved seats.
But mashing our noses against glass windows in an air-conditioned carriage couldn’t match the thrill of fresh mountain air whooshing in through the open doorway of the vestibule at the end of the carriage.

We ended up gleefully hanging out the open train door much of the time, gripping the grab bars tightly, watching Sri Lanka’s lush tea plantations fly by.
Some travelers, braver than us, sat on the floor with their legs dangling out as we clackety-clacked our way through the mist-streaked hills, ribboned with rows of tea plants.
Our train reached Ella late in the afternoon.
At the train station, a tuk-tuk driver whisked us to our Ella hotel – where we checked in just in time to catch a brilliant sunset.
Train from Kandy to Ella: First class vs. second class

Don’t listen to the naysayers who discourage you from buying first-class tickets for the Kandy to Ella train (and the reverse Ella to Kandy train).
They say that you won’t get a “real feel” for the ride in first class – that you’ll share the carriage with mostly other foreigners in a locked carriage where the windows don’t open. They recommend you go in second or even third class.
So what are the second- and third-class seats like?
The first thing to note is that there’s no air conditioning in second and third class.
Mind you, this may not matter too much in 2nd class, as the windows open, so you can stick your head out the window. (But it can still be warm and muggy in the carriage.)
In 3rd class, seating tends to be a “free for all” on wooden benches – you can really experience some local color! We wouldn’t wish to sit on those wooden benches for a long train ride.
In both 2nd and 3rd class, you can book reserved seats.
(There’s also the option of buying unreserved tickets at the Kandy train station. With a third-class ticket, you might have to stand – and that’s if you’re lucky enough to even get on the train!)
One other point to note. The toilets in second- and third-class carriages are squat ones (and you should bring your own toilet paper). This alone is reason enough, in our view, to book first-class
Why we recommend going 1st class

You actually get the best of both worlds in first class.
You can make like a local and get that heads-out-the-train experience in the vestibule area at the end of the first-class carriage (where passengers enter and exit the train).
The door to our carriage wasn’t locked, and we could come and go from that vestibule and our seat as we pleased.
And when we wanted to sit down and rest awhile, we could do so in relative comfort. We appreciated the air-conditioning (and the clean loos – oh, we already mentioned that).
Bottom line? Our advice is to go 1st class.
Train schedule

You can find information about the train schedules on the official Sri Lanka Railways website. For the Ella train station, look for “Elle” (not “Ella”).
There are usually two government-run daytime express trains from Kandy to Ella (as well as a slow overnight train):
- The first daytime train leaves a little before 9:00 am (typically scheduled for 8:46 am)
- The second daytime train leaves around 11:00 am (typically scheduled for 11:03 am)
We recommend booking the first train that leaves just before 9:00 am. If you take the later morning train from Kandy, you risk arriving in Ella after dark – and it’s nice to see your surroundings when you first arrive at someplace new!
The schedule indicates that the first train should arrive in Ella by around 3:20 pm.
But the trains are notoriously late, with delays common along the route. So it’s best to plan on an arrival time in Ella closer to 4:00 or 4:30 pm (possibly even 5:00 pm).
Buying tickets
The Kandy to Ella train journey is very popular, and seats sell out quickly.
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In peak season especially, you have to reserve train tickets in advance if you want to guarantee snagging a seat.
Buy online through 12Go
You can buy your Kandy to Ella train tickets online through 12Go.com.
12Go is a trusted online train, bus and ferry ticket agency that sells online train tickets around the world, including for Sri Lanka. We booked our tickets with 12Go (and we recommend doing it this way).
Simply enter “Kandy” and “Ella” along with your planned train trip date at the top of the page and the available train options will show up. If you’d like to see options for other stations on the route (e.g., Nuwara Eliya to Ella), go to the 12GoAsia Sri Lanka page.
Don’t dally. Book your tickets well in advance. (We recommend reserving with 12Go at least 2 months before your planned train trip.)
Here’s why… Sri Lanka Railways sells train tickets 30 days in advance. They’re immediately snatched up by tour companies and agencies like 12Go, which then turn around and resell them to you (at an extra cost, of course). Reserving with 12Go well in advance gives them time to buy tickets for you as soon as Sri Lanka Railways put them on sale.
We paid something like $20 USD each for our Kandy to Ella first-class train tickets. (They cost a little more today.)
Pro tip
When filling in the online 12Go form, choose “flexible.”
This way, the 12Go agent in Sri Lanka will buy 2nd class tickets if all 1st class tickets are booked, so you at least get seats. (You’ll get a refund for the difference.)
Once your tickets are confirmed, you’ll get a PDF ticket voucher by email. We received ours about a month before the train departure date.
Picking up your 12Go online train tickets
The voucher you get from 12Go doesn’t constitute your actual train ticket, however. You still need to pick up (or receive) your actual physical paper tickets in Sri Lanka.
You have two choices:
- You can opt for delivery of the 12Go train tickets to your hotel for an additional $10 USD fee.
- You can choose to pick up the tickets yourself at 12Go’s partner’s office in Colombo.
We chose the second option, as we wanted to make absolutely sure we’d actually get our hands on these highly coveted tickets!
So the first day after arriving in Colombo, we took a taxi to the travel agency office (12Go’s partner), shown on the PDF ticket voucher emailed to us in advance.
It was a bit difficult to find the actual office in the smallish mall with some boarded-up doors, and we wondered if we were in the right place.
But do persist – the office does exist!
And it was all quite amusingly old-school when we got there. The agent had to riffle through a wooden box to find the envelope with our tickets.
Alternative online ticket option
You can now also book 2nd class train tickets through Viator or GetYourGuide (GYG) – two of the largest international online day tour sellers. (On our travels, we’ve booked many other day tours with both companies, and they both offer excellent customer service and satisfaction.)
You’ll be buying tickets offered by one of the Sri Lanka travel agencies we mentioned earlier that get their tickets from Sri Lanka Railways (when they go on sale 30 days in advance).
Here are a couple of options with the highest reviews (but they may be more expensive than using 12Go):
- 2nd or 3rd class reserved seats (on Viator, through Mahaweli Tours and Holidays)
- 2nd class reserved seats, with delivery to your hotel in Kandy (on GYG, through SURO Travels and Tours)
Tips for riding the train

Travel a shorter section
Option 1: Nuwara Eliya to Ella
Since the entire journey takes at least seven hours on a good day, some travelers break it up by stopping at the Nanu Oya station, a few miles away from Nuwara Eliya. This small charming city in the tea country hills (often dubbed “Little England”) is about a four-hour journey from Kandy.
After spending a couple of days exploring around Nuwara Eliya, they hop back on the train to complete their trip to Ella.
Option 2: Ella to Badulla

To experience a much shorter train adventure that’s similar to the Kandy-Ella route, here’s a great alternative: Hop on an early morning train from Ella to the town of Badulla, the last stop on the train line. Once in Badulla, you can catch a return train the same morning.
On this route, you’ll rumble over the famous Nine Arch Bridge, also known as the “Bridge in the Sky.” This marvelous stone train bridge, built in 1921 by the British colonial government, stands 80 to 100 feet tall and is located between the Ella and Demodara stations.
The one-way trip takes about an hour to 90 minutes, and there are usually three trains each morning going back from Badulla to Ella.
Sit on the best side for the most beautiful views
As the train winds its way through the countryside, the views from the open windows and doors steal the show.
And the side of the train where you sit (or stand in the vestibule) makes a difference.
If the carriage is full, you obviously won’t be able to move seats. But if possible, on the leg from Kandy to Nuwara Eliya, grab a seat on the right side of the train for sweeping views of rolling hills and lush tea plantations. If you’re on the left, you’ll mostly see cliffs and dense vegetation.
Once you’re on the way from Nuwara Eliya to Ella, aim for the left side if you can. But it’s less crucial on this leg, since both sides offer equally picturesque scenery.
Bring snacks
We were forewarned to stock up on bottled water and snacks ahead of time, so we bought pre-packaged cheese puffs and lemon cookies at the Kandy station.
As it turns out, vendors hop onboard the train at different stops, carrying baskets of freshly roasted peanuts, mandarin oranges, cans of Pringles and even samosas for sale.
You should still bring your own food and drinks with you, so you have what you want. But you’re unlikely to starve if you don’t.
Where to stay in Ella?
You’ll want to stay at least two nights in the laid-back village of Ella.
There’s no shortage of wonderful activities in Ella to keep you busy – from hiking up Ella Rock and Little Adam’s Peak to visiting Diyaluma Falls (Sri Lanka’s second tallest waterfall) and touring a tea factory. Not to mention simply escaping Sri Lanka’s searing heat and relaxing among the idyllic green hills and mountains…
98 Acres Resort & Spa

Perched on a scenic tea estate, 98 Acres Resort & Spa is one of the most delightful Sri Lanka hotels – and an eco-luxury gem.
It’s the sister hotel to the one we stayed at (which is currently closed for renovations).
And it’s won several awards over the 12 years it’s been operating, including “Best Luxury Mountain Resort in Asia” in the 2022 World Luxury Hotel Awards and “Best Relaxation Experience in Sri Lanka” in the 2024 Haute Grandeur Global Awards.
Thatch-roof chalets, built from recycled materials, blend into the lush hillside and offer jaw-dropping views. Some rooms even feature private plunge pools.
With direct access to the Little Adam’s Peak trail and an inviting freeform pool, it’s romantic and perfect for nature-loving couples. Just be prepared for lots of steps!
HIDE ELLA Hotel & Resort

Clinging to a steep slope, HIDE ELLA Hotel & Resort is a modern cubist hotel in the heart of Ella, with stunning views of Ella Gap. It recently snagged a 2024 TripAdvisor “Travelers’ Choice Award.”
The rooms are thoughtfully designed. They include family-friendly connecting options and others with extra-large balconies where you can relax and admire the treetop canopies – and even catch glimpses of monkeys swinging by!
Just a short 5-minute walk down the hill, you’ll find yourself surrounded by Ella’s funky restaurants and cafés. The hotel also features a refreshing outdoor pool for unwinding after a day of exploration.
Last words on taking the train to Ella
For the best experience on this famous train ride, we suggest going first class. While there are several ticket options, first class offers extra comfort, which makes a big difference on the long journey. You can also ride the train in the opposite direction, traveling from Ella to Kandy.
Whichever way you go, enjoy the scenic journey and your stay in Ella!
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Photo credits: 4 to 7, 10 © Janice and George Mucalov, SandInMySuitcase
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