Taxi from Hiriketiya to Colombo

The journey from Hiriketiya back to Colombo is an inversion of the journey that brought a traveller here, but it is not quite the reverse of it. The outbound trip is an arrival at something quiet; the return is a departure from it. That is not a small difference. A car that leaves Hiriketiya in the late afternoon or early evening covers the same 175 kilometres that the outbound journey covered, takes the same 180 minutes, and follows the same roads in opposite order — and yet it is an entirely different proposition, because what it leaves behind matters far more than what it is driving towards.

The practical mechanics are straightforward: up the lane to the Dikwella road, then the coast road that runs back west toward Matara, then onto the expressway that crosses the island toward Colombo, then through the city itself. Three hours, a highway that handles most of the work, and an arrival at a capital that is still awake and still functioning. What makes this particular journey worth understanding is that the return from a place like Hiriketiya is rarely just a transfer. It is the final thing a visitor does at a destination, and the timing and execution of that departure colours the whole stay retroactively.

An evening departure from Hiriketiya is not a logistical necessity, like an airport transfer that must happen at a particular hour. It is a choice, and the reason it is a sensible choice is one of the load-bearing facts about this route. The bay is a place where the quiet matters. Coming back to Colombo from somewhere this deliberately remote is a re-entry into infrastructure, and doing that re-entry in the early evening — when the expressway is flowing and the city is transitioning from working day to evening — is a far better experience than making the same journey at other hours.

The geometry of the return: three sections that look simple and mostly are

The route from Hiriketiya to Colombo divides into three parts, and understanding which part is actually consuming time is the foundation of planning this journey correctly. It looks like a simple thing: bay to highway, highway to Colombo, done. The reality is more nuanced, because the three sections have such different characters that a traveller accustomed to motorway driving might find themselves surprised by how much of this journey is not on a motorway at all.

• Distance: 175 kilometres by road, retracing the coast road and expressway in reverse.
• Time: about 180 minutes, three hours, under normal conditions.
• The shape: a steep ascent from the bay to the main road, a long, quiet coastal section, a high-speed expressway crossing the interior, and then a city approach that consumes time disproportionate to its distance.
• What decides the trip: almost entirely the departure timing and the Colombo arrival hour, which dictates what traffic awaits on the approach.

The reason an evening departure is specifically mentioned in the route notes is that it produces the best geometry for this particular journey. Leaving in the late afternoon or early evening — say, four, five, or six o'clock — means the expressway segment is travelled when the road is flowing, and the arrival in Colombo happens when the city is transitioning, not when it is fully congested or fully shut down. The return drive, when timed this way, feels shorter than it is, and the arrival feels less chaotic than it would at other hours.

Leaving the bay: the ascent from Hiriketiya

The departure from Hiriketiya is the physical inverse of the arrival. The single lane that descends steeply from the Dikwella road, the one that made entering the bay feel like a commitment, is what now has to be ascended to leave it. There is nothing metaphorical about this: it is a steep climb, narrow enough that two vehicles cannot comfortably pass, and the driver will be working the steering, the engine, and the brakes to manage it going uphill rather than going down.

Most travellers do not drive down that lane to begin with — they park at the top and walk. But a vehicle that has been waiting, whether it has been there since arrival or collected later in the day, will need to make the ascent to retrieve passengers. From the bottom of the bay, the climb takes a few minutes, but it is not a negligible few minutes. It is a reminder that the bay, for all its accessibility by road to larger towns, maintains a physical barrier between itself and the rest of the island.

The ascent is the point where a traveller makes the decision to leave. It is not a large decision — the car is ready, the bay has been seen, the time has come — but it is a decision nonetheless, and it has a weight to it that a drive through a city or across an expressway does not. Coming out onto the Dikwella road from the lane feels like a transition: suddenly the road is wide enough for two vehicles, suddenly there are other cars, suddenly the bay is behind and not ahead.

Dikwella itself is a proper town with a road through it, shops, and working infrastructure. It is the point where the local scale gives way to the regional scale. From Dikwella, the road continues east and west along the coast, and the westbound route is the one that connects to the wider road network and eventually to the expressway.

The coast road, and why an afternoon traveller sees a different landscape than a morning one

From Dikwella back toward Matara, the journey is along the coast road, the same route that was travelled outbound. It is a single carriageway that parallels the Indian Ocean, follows the line of the land, and connects the small towns of the south coast. The distance from Dikwella to Matara is something over an hour in ordinary conditions, and it is a section of the journey that behaves very differently depending on what time of day it is travelled.

In the early morning, the coast road is quiet and the landscape is lit by low light. In the afternoon, it is considerably busier, the light is harsher, and the road is full of the traffic that uses this section as an ordinary commute rather than as a scenic drive. An evening departure means the coast road is travelled in the late afternoon or early evening, when the light has started to soften and the heat of the day is finally declining. The quality of light changes and so does the character of the drive: it stops feeling like a journey through a tourist landscape and starts feeling like a journey through ordinary places where people have lives and work.

The towns along the way — Mirissa, Unawatuna, and others that have built tourism infrastructure around themselves — are passed again on the outbound journey, but they look different going west than they looked going east. Coming from Colombo, these places are destinations and possibilities. Leaving Hiriketiya, they are evidence that the journey is progressing and that the city is getting closer. The psychological experience is quite different even though the physical geography is identical.

One practical note for the coast road section: it passes through a series of small towns and junctions where other roads branch off inland, but these do not create congestion or complicate navigation. The main road is clear and direct. What slows this section is not traffic jams but the simple fact that it is a single carriageway with towns along it, which means the speed is moderate rather than fast. There is no bypass around the towns themselves; the road simply threads through them. This is not a problem for most travellers, but it is worth understanding that the coast road section of this journey is not a motorway experience and is not going to feel as fast as the expressway section that follows.

Matara, and the point where the landscape opens up

Matara is the junction where the coast road meets the expressway, and it is the most significant geographical moment of the return journey. Coming from Hiriketiya, Matara appears suddenly after an hour of coast road driving: a town, the beginning of wider infrastructure, the entrance to a different mode of travel.

The expressway begins at the edge of Matara rather than inside it, and the transition from the coast road to the expressway is one of the clearest moments of the journey. The road widens, the pace accelerates, and the sense of leaving the coast behind becomes absolute rather than gradual. A traveller who has spent an hour and a bit on the coast road watching towns pass often finds the expressway section a relief in the most literal sense: relief from heat coming through the windows, relief from the need to pay close attention to the road, and relief from the knowledge that the majority of the remaining distance is going to be covered quickly and predictably.

Matara itself is a town with history and infrastructure, but from the perspective of this journey, it is almost entirely a junction. The expressway does the work from this point forward.

The expressway to Colombo: why this is the section that feels fast

The Southern Expressway runs from Matara northwest towards Colombo, covering the distance across the interior of the island and producing the middle section of this journey. This is the section where most of the 175 kilometres are covered, and where most of the remaining time is consumed.

The expressway is dual carriageway, fenced on both sides, mechanically simple, and relatively empty when compared to the coastal roads that branch from it. An evening departure means this section is travelled when the road is flowing — not necessarily empty, but moving steadily without the stop-and-start of congested traffic or the unpredictability of a busy trunk road.

What a passenger experiences on the expressway is almost entirely determined by the quality of sleep they managed and whether they have eaten and drunk enough. The road asks nothing of a traveller except presence. There are no bends that require attention, no junctions that need navigation, and no decisions to be made. The driver handles all of it. Most passengers either sleep through this section or watch the landscape, and both are entirely reasonable responses. Coming from a place where quiet has been the entire point, the expressway offers a different kind of quiet: the quiet of a road that is doing its job efficiently, a road where nothing can go wrong, and a road that requires neither attention nor conversation.

The landscape visible from the expressway is industrial and working infrastructure rather than scenic. There are lorry parks, warehouses, and the general apparatus of the island's freight and commerce system. Some passengers find this interesting as evidence of how the country actually works. Most find it restful because it is not demanding their attention. On this journey, either reaction is fine, because the expressway is the tool that moves a traveller from one place to another, not the destination itself.

Service stations are positioned roughly an hour's drive apart, and they are adequate — cold drinks, edible food, functioning toilets. An evening departure means the facilities are not crowded, which changes the experience of using them. A stop that might be a negotiation in the middle of the day becomes straightforward in the evening.

The approach to Colombo: where the geometry changes

The expressway ends at the edge of Colombo rather than inside it, and from the expressway entrance to an actual pickup point or hotel in the city is where the final and most significant time cost of this journey sits. The approach to Colombo is not congestion in the way that a fully gridlocked road is congestion; it is the overhead of actually reaching a dense city from a highway designed to bring traffic to its edge.

An evening departure — arriving in Colombo between six and eight in the evening — arrives at a moment when the working day is ending and early evening traffic is in motion. This is not the worst time to approach the city, and it is considerably better than arriving during the evening peak or arriving after dark when navigation becomes a problem. The city is still functional, the light is still there enough to see, and the infrastructure of the city is still operating at normal capacity.

Getting from the expressway to an actual destination inside Colombo means using either Galle Road, which carries most of the southbound traffic through the city, or Marine Drive, which runs parallel as a release valve when the main road is congested. The pickup destination matters enormously for how this final section is experienced. A hotel on Galle Road in a central location means a straightforward arrival. A hotel inland from Galle Road means a longer negotiation through city traffic before reaching the actual destination.

The honest advice for this final section is simple: if the destination is flexible, a pickup point closer to the expressway entrance costs less time than one in the city centre. The difference is not trivial — it can be fifteen to thirty minutes depending on time of day and location. Most hotels offer more than one pickup point or have preferences about where cars are met. Asking for the point closest to the expressway is a legitimate request and one that makes a material difference to the experience of arriving.

Why an evening departure works so well for this route

The route notes describe this as "an easy transfer for an evening departure", and that specific callout deserves unpacking because it is the single most important piece of information about this journey.

An evening departure works well because of how the three sections of the journey align with the hours of the day. The coast road section, which in the early morning or midday can feel like a long, slow, hot drive, is experienced in the evening as a transition through places that are becoming quieter. The expressway, which is busier at certain hours and can be full of freight and working traffic at peak times, is travelled in the evening when the traffic is flowing and the road is moving smoothly. The arrival in Colombo happens when the city is awake but is transitioning from working day to evening, which is a moment when the city is navigable without being either empty or impossibly congested.

By contrast, an early morning departure means the coast road is travelled in the harsh early light, the expressway might be travelled during morning commute time if the departure is early enough, and the arrival in Colombo would be before the day has started, which creates its own problems. A midday departure means the hottest part of the coast road drive, the busiest part of the expressway if it is travelled around midday, and the arrival during Colombo's afternoon peak.

An evening departure produces the path of least resistance for all three sections, which is why it is specifically called out. It is not the only time this journey can be made — it can be made successfully at other hours — but it is the hour that makes the most sense for this particular route.

Timing the departure: how to choose the actual hour

The principle is that an evening departure should arrive before Colombo shuts down for the night, but after the evening peak has moved enough that the roads are no longer completely congested.

Choosing between 4, 5, and 6 o'clock departures

A departure at four in the afternoon means arrival around seven in the evening, with light still in the sky and the city still fully awake. A departure at five o'clock means arrival around eight, which is still evening but definitely later in the evening. A departure at six means arrival around nine, which is late but not unreasonable. The city is still open, hotels are still staffed, and navigation is still possible.

What should be avoided is a departure at any time that would produce an arrival significantly after the city's normal operating hours. An arrival at eleven in the evening or later starts to involve late-night city navigation, finding accommodation in lower light, and negotiating with a staff that may be skeleton-crew only. That is not impossible, but it is considerably more complicated than an arrival while the city is still awake.

The weather and light matter too. In the dry season, from December through March, light fails around half past six or seven o'clock. In the monsoon seasons, it can be darker earlier, both because the sun sets a bit earlier and because cloud can darken the sky regardless of the actual sunset time. An evening departure should take into account when the light is going to fail, because the coast road section is easier to navigate in daylight and arriving in Colombo before full dark is considerably simpler than arriving fully after dark.

A specific timeline for an evening departure might look like this. The times are approximate and depend on actual conditions, but they give a realistic sense of how the three hours are distributed. Departure from Hiriketiya at five o'clock means luggage is gathered, the ascent from the bay to the lane-top takes a few minutes, and the car is ready to move by five. The coast road from Dikwella to Matara takes something over an hour, arriving at Matara around six o'clock. The expressway from Matara to the Colombo entrance is about an hour to an hour and twenty minutes depending on traffic, arriving at the expressway exit around seven or seven-fifteen. The approach to an actual destination in Colombo takes another thirty to forty-five minutes depending on location and time of day, meaning an arrival sometime between seven-forty-five and eight-thirty. That entire sequence produces a result where the coast road is travelled in good light but declining light, the expressway is travelled when the road is flowing, and the city approach happens while Colombo is still awake and functional.

Practical considerations: water, food, and when to stop

The journey is three hours, and most of it is either on a highway or on a well-developed road. It is not a journey that demands constant attention or that has difficult sections. What it does demand is the ordinary requirements of being in a car for that length of time: hydration, food, and a willingness to move if necessary.

The expressway section, which covers most of the distance and most of the time, is the section where passengers often sleep or zone out. That is fine, but it means that thirst and hunger are not always registered in the moment. The sensible approach is to eat and drink something in the middle of the journey, regardless of whether thirst or hunger is being felt. The service stations on the expressway are positioned roughly an hour apart, which makes a stop at the hour-and-a-half mark of the journey natural and convenient.

An evening departure means the facilities are not crowded, which makes a stop at the service station less of a negotiation and more of a straightforward five-or-ten-minute break. Cold drinks and edible food are available. That is all that is needed.

The drive from Hiriketiya is not physically demanding — no mountain passes, no difficult driving — so most of the tiredness that arrives at Colombo is the tiredness of having been stationary in a car for three hours, not the tiredness of having concentrated hard on difficult roads. The remedy is movement and fresh air at the service station stop, not anything more ambitious.

Luggage, the ascent, and the departure logistics

The departure from Hiriketiya includes one element that the departure from a normal hotel does not: the luggage that needs to come up the lane from the bay to the main road.

If a vehicle has been waiting at the top of the lane, the luggage can be placed in it directly. If the vehicle is arriving to collect passengers, the luggage needs to be brought up from the bay on foot or carried by staff at the accommodation. This is not a complex problem, but it is a problem that should be negotiated with the accommodation before the departure date. Most guesthouses have staff available to help with luggage, or they have specific arrangements about how luggage gets from the bay to the waiting vehicle. All of them expect this conversation.

The sensible arrangement is to confirm the following with the accommodation at least a day before departure: Does the vehicle need to come down the lane, or does luggage come up to it? If luggage comes up, is there staff to carry it, or do guests carry their own? If the vehicle is booked as part of the trip and is waiting at the top, can the driver assist with luggage, or is that something the accommodation handles?

Once the luggage is up the lane and loaded into the vehicle, the departure is simple. The car heads to Dikwella and from there follows the main road, expressway, and city directions as normal. The departure moment itself is often the one that carries emotional weight — leaving a place that was chosen deliberately for its quiet and difficulty of access is different from leaving an ordinary hotel — but from a logistics perspective, once the luggage is loaded, the journey is straightforward.

What the departure means: the end of one kind of stay

Leaving Hiriketiya is a punctuation mark on the visit in a way that leaving many other destinations is not. The bay is a place where the difficulty of access is integral to the experience. That difficulty starts the moment someone books — thinking about the lane, thinking about luggage, thinking about how to actually enter a place that is deliberately remote — and it ends the moment the vehicle crosses the ridge at the top of the lane and heads toward the main road.

The journey back to Colombo, made immediately after that departure, is the physical transition from the quiet place to the working world. It is a few hours of roads getting wider, traffic increasing, infrastructure becoming more obvious and more complex, and the island's working life becoming visible. For a traveller leaving a place deliberately chosen for its remoteness, this re-entry is deliberate rather than accidental, and it is often accompanied by a kind of reflection about what the stay meant and whether it was worth the drive.

Most travellers who make the journey to Hiriketiya report that the return drive is less tedious than the outbound one, not because the roads are different or the time is shorter, but because leaving is a different psychological act from arriving. The destination has been seen, the time has been spent, and the journey back is a straightforward return to normal infrastructure rather than an approach to something unknown. That makes even three hours of driving feel shorter and easier to endure.

Arriving in Colombo: what to plan for when the car stops

An evening arrival in Colombo puts a traveller back in the city when it is still awake and still functioning, which is the easiest condition for an arrival. Hotels are fully staffed, restaurants are open, and the city is navigable without special local knowledge.

What Colombo actually looks like at night, what the accommodation actually is, and what is possible in terms of eating and movement depend entirely on the specific location and what has been booked. What is not in question is that the arrival happens while the city is functioning, which changes everything about how straightforward the arrival is.

If the booking is a one-way transfer and the traveller has separate accommodation in Colombo, the arrival is simple: car stops at the destination, passenger gets out, and that is the end of the journey. If there is no onward journey booked and the stay in Colombo is open-ended, then the arrival is more of a transition point, a moment to collect thoughts and decide what comes next.

Onward from Colombo: what is possible after an evening arrival

A traveller arriving in Colombo in the evening has options depending on what the evening itself is like and what the next day is supposed to bring.

Evening arrivals and the choice of next destination

• Onward to Kandy — 115 km, about 210 minutes. Not feasible on an evening arrival unless the accommodation is already booked and waiting, but worth noting that Kandy is the next obvious inland destination.
• South to Galle — 125 km, about 120 minutes. Possible as an evening arrival and onward the same night if accommodation is secured, but more sensibly a destination for the next morning.
• North to Negombo — 37 km, about 60 minutes. Short enough to be feasible as an evening arrival if needed, though staying in Colombo is more practical.
• To the airport — 39 km, about 45 minutes. If the journey ends with a flight, this is the connection from the city to the departure terminal. An evening arrival from Hiriketiya gives time to sleep before an early morning departure.
• West to Bentota — 76 km, about 75 minutes. Another beach destination, shorter than Hiriketiya and less remote. Possible as an evening onward but sensible as a next-day destination.
• East to Ella — 200 km, about 330 minutes. Hill country town, too far for an evening arrival but a reasonable next-day destination if the trip is continuing inland.
• Northeast to Dambulla — 155 km, about 210 minutes. Cultural triangle entry point, not feasible for evening arrival but reasonable as a next destination.
• To Sigiriya — takes 175 km, about 240 minutes to get from Colombo. Rock fortress in the cultural triangle, significant next destination if the trip is inland-focused.
• North to Anuradhapura — 205 km, about 270 minutes. Ancient cities route, not an evening destination but a legitimate onward journey for a trip that continues inland and north.
• Far north to Trincomalee — 260 km, about 360 minutes. East coast town, significant journey requiring an overnight in Colombo at minimum.
• Southeast to Yala — 305 km, about 315 minutes. National park, requires a full next day or an overnight in Colombo before departure.

For most travellers arriving in Colombo after a long return drive from Hiriketiya, the practical onward journey is not made the same evening. The sensible approach is to stay in Colombo, rest, and make whatever onward journey is planned the next day. That allows for a proper breakfast, a look at weather and conditions, and a car that has not just completed three hours of driving.

The booking: what to communicate about the return

The return journey from Hiriketiya to Colombo needs the same level of planning as the outbound journey, even though the route is simpler and the logistics are more straightforward.

If the car and driver have been part of a multi-day booking, the return is usually already arranged and confirmed. The driver will know the route, will know the timing, and will have experience with Hiriketiya departures. In that case, the main things worth confirming are the actual departure time, what luggage handling is needed, and where the car will take the traveller to in Colombo.

If the return journey is being booked separately as a one-way transfer, the conversation needs to include: the departure time from Hiriketiya, whether luggage assistance is needed at the bay, and the exact pickup location in Colombo (a hotel name and a road, not a vague area). The time of day will be evening, so giving the driver a specific time — four o'clock, five o'clock, six o'clock — is important so that both the accommodation and the driver are aligned on when departure is happening.

One thing that is rarely necessary to say but sometimes still useful to confirm: if the journey is a final departure and not returning to Hiriketiya, mention that clearly. It avoids confusion about whether the driver should wait or how the luggage should be handled on arrival in Colombo.

The other option: staying longer and leaving the next morning

An evening departure is ideal for this route, but it is not the only option, and for some travellers the better choice is to stay another night at Hiriketiya and leave the next morning.

The argument for an extra night is that an evening departure, while geometrically sensible, still means leaving a place that was specifically sought for being quiet and remote. An extra night means one more morning at the bay, one more evening watching the light change, and one fewer night in Colombo at the end. For a traveller who came to Hiriketiya for the place itself rather than as one stop on a larger journey, an extra night often feels like time better spent than arriving in the city with the evening.

The argument against an extra night is the obvious one: another night of accommodation, another day of travel time that is not going anywhere particularly significant. If the trip schedule is tight or if the onward journey is urgent, the evening departure is more efficient and produces an arrival in Colombo that still has time in the evening for whatever comes next.

The practical decision is usually driven by accommodation availability. If there is space at the current guesthouse, the extra night is simple. If there is not, then the evening departure is the natural option.

The return journey as reflection

One thing that distinguishes the return journey from the outbound one is that most travellers, even those who are tired, find themselves more engaged with the landscape and the process of the drive on the way back. The destination is not unknown; the time has been spent; and the journey is a conscious return to normal infrastructure rather than an approach to somewhere mysterious.

The coast road, which on arrival felt like a progressive approach to something else, on departure feels like evidence of the place being left behind. The expressway, which was a necessary monotony on arrival, feels like the beginning of return to the familiar. The approach to Colombo, which on arrival felt like a final obstacle before actually arriving, on departure feels like a re-entry into the normal world.

That shift in perception does not change the roads or the time, but it changes how the journey is experienced. Most passengers are more awake on the return drive, even if they are tired. Most notice the landscape more, even if they have already seen it three or four hours before. That is not something that needs to be planned for or managed; it simply happens because a return is a different psychological state from an approach.

The drive itself: what to expect on the road

The drive is straightforward and technically undemanding. There are no mountain passes, no sections of poor road quality, and no complicated navigation required. The driver does all the work, the road is marked clearly, and a passenger's job is simply to be present and to handle the ordinary requirements of being in a car for three hours.

The coast road section can feel longer than it actually is because it is a single carriageway and the pace is moderate. The expressway section is fast and undemanding. The city approach requires more attention to navigation but is not complicated if the destination is clearly communicated beforehand.

Weather is rarely a problem on this route. Rain, when it occurs, is usually brief squalls that pass rather than sustained conditions that would close roads or significantly impair traffic. The south-west monsoon brings rain and rough conditions to the bay itself, particularly from May through August, but the drive back to Colombo is not significantly affected by monsoon conditions except that the light might fail a bit earlier in the day because of cloud cover.

The journey in reverse: why this is not quite the same as the outbound in backwards

The journey from Hiriketiya to Colombo follows the same roads as the journey from Colombo to Hiriketiya, but in the opposite direction. The distance is the same, the time is the same, and every physical feature of the road is identical. What is not identical is the psychological and practical context of the journey.

The outbound journey is an arrival at something deliberately chosen for being remote. The return journey is a departure from that same place, a re-entry into infrastructure, and a final moment of a stay that is ending. Those are not small differences. They change how a traveller experiences the drive, what they notice along the way, and what the arrival feels like.

The outbound journey needs to happen at an hour that allows for a reasonable check-in and settling time at the destination. The return journey benefits from an evening timing for entirely different reasons — it produces optimal conditions for all three sections of the drive and an arrival when the city is still functional.

An inversion of a route is geometrically the same but operationally different, and nowhere is that clearer than with a journey that connects something deliberately remote to something deliberately urban. The roads are the same. The journey is not.

What comes after the arrival

A traveller arriving in Colombo in the evening has several hours before the city shuts down. That is time enough for a proper check-in at accommodation, a meal at a restaurant that is actually open, and time to rest before the next thing, whatever it is.

If there is an onward journey planned, it is usually booked for the next day, not the same evening. That allows the traveller and the driver to be fresh for whatever comes next. If there is no onward journey, then Colombo has time and attention given to it on the following day rather than rushed into in an evening arrival.

The evening arrival is the end of the Hiriketiya part of a journey and the beginning of whatever comes next. The three hours of driving mark the transition. What happens after that depends entirely on what was planned, but the arrival happens at an hour when everything in the city is still operating normally, which makes whatever comes next considerably easier to arrange or undertake.

Why this return journey, despite its straightforwardness, matters

A return journey from a remote destination to a capital is not inherently dramatic or interesting. It is a drive on good roads, a transfer that is straightforward, and an arrival at a city that is still functioning. What makes this particular return worth understanding is that it is the final moment of a stay at a place that was deliberately chosen for being difficult and remote.

The return journey is not a tourist attraction. It is a transition, a re-entry, and a punctuation mark on the time spent at the bay. An evening departure produces the best conditions for that transition — the roads flow, the arrival is timely, and the city is still awake. That is not just convenience; it is the difference between feeling like the stay was worth the drive and feeling like the drive was a tax on the stay that should have been shorter. For most travellers who make the journey, an evening departure is the version of the return that makes the whole trip feel like it made sense.