In short
Ella is a mountain village at about 1,000 metres, in the middle of the tea plantations of central Sri Lanka. It runs along one main street and lives entirely off passing travellers.
The appeal is the relief: Little Adam's Peak, an easy hour's climb, and Ella Rock, longer and steeper, frame the village. The Ella Gap opens the view towards the southern plain.
Arriving and getting around
The train from Kandy to Ella is the reason to come. Seven hours through the plantations, the tunnels and the viaducts: it is regularly described as one of the finest rail journeys in the world. Reserved-class tickets must be bought several days ahead; second and third class are taken without reservation, standing or seated as luck has it, and many travellers prefer them for the open doors.
The village is walked. The paths leave from the centre.
What it really costs
Ella is cheap, guesthouses included, despite a rise linked to its popularity.
Guides are not needed for Little Adam's Peak; Ella Rock is less well marked and the path is easy to lose.
When to come
January–March is the best period for the hill country: clear skies and dry paths.
The north-east monsoon affects this area from October to January; the south-west one from May to September. Mornings are almost always clearer than afternoons, when cloud rises from the valley: setting off early means seeing something.
Nights are cool at this altitude, which surprises in a tropical country.
What nobody tells you
The Nine Arch Bridge is a working railway viaduct, built in masonry without steel during the First World War. Trains cross a few times a day, and the times are posted in the village: turning up at random means seeing an empty bridge.
Visitors stand on the track for photographs. It is an active line; accidents have occurred.
Adam's Peak, the pilgrimage mountain, is not at Ella despite the similarity of name with Little Adam's Peak. It is at Dalhousie, several hours away by road, and is climbed at night.
The tea plantations can be visited: the factories show the processing of the leaf, and the pickers still work by hand.
