Taxi from Kandy to Colombo

What the drive from Kandy to Colombo is actually like

Leaving Kandy

The road up from Colombo climbs the whole way and spends its last stretch winding through the Kadugannawa pass, where a line of lorries sets the pace for everyone behind them. This is why the journey takes so much longer than the distance suggests, and why leaving later rarely makes up the difference. Coming from the Cultural Triangle in the north the roads are flatter and faster; coming from tea country to the south they are slower still.

Arriving in Colombo

Almost every long journey on the island starts or ends here, and the first and last half hour is usually the slowest part of it. The Southern and Katunayake expressways both begin on the edge of the city, so once you are on one the distance stops mattering much — it is reaching the entrance that costs the time. Galle Road carries most of the southbound traffic and Marine Drive runs beside it as a release valve, though it rejoins the same congestion further down.

Where the driver meets you in Kandy

The town sits in a bowl around the lake and the streets on the lake side are narrow and one-way in places, so a driver will often suggest meeting on a main road rather than at a doorway. If you are going on to Nuwara Eliya or Ella afterwards, a car with reasonable ground clearance is worth having — the hill roads are surfaced but not smooth.

Arriving in Colombo

Give a hotel name and a road, not a landmark: several of the main roads change name every kilometre or two and the numbered ones are used more in speech than the names. Colombo traffic is heaviest either side of the school run and again in the early evening, so a journey booked for the middle of the day will move considerably faster than the same journey at half past four.

Worth stopping for on the way

• Kitulgala — White water on the Kelani river, and the valley where The Bridge on the River Kwai was filmed. Grade 2 and 3 rapids that run all year. Allow a morning, 3–4 hours. The river is highest just after the south-west monsoon. Bring a change of clothes — you will not stay dry, and the drive back is long in wet shorts.
• Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic — Sri Lanka’s most important Buddhist shrine, on the lake in the middle of Kandy. Busiest during the evening puja. Allow 1–2 hours, and an entry ticket is required. Shoulders and knees covered, shoes off at the entrance. Time your visit for a puja — 5.30am, 9.30am or 6.30pm.
• Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage — A state-run herd of orphaned and injured elephants, on the Colombo–Kandy road. Most visitors stop on the way up. Allow 2 hours, and an entry ticket is required. Go for the river bathing — late morning and mid-afternoon. Outside those hours there is much less to see.
• Knuckles Range — A mountain range of cloud forest, grassland and villages that keeps its own weather. Riverston gives the view without a serious hike. Allow a full day, and an entry ticket is required. The road is narrow, high and often in cloud. It is a drive to enjoy rather than hurry, and it is not one to do after dark.
• Ambuluwawa Tower — A narrow spiral tower on a hilltop near Gampola, climbed for a 360-degree view over the central hills. The last few metres are not for anyone uneasy with heights. Allow a couple of hours, and an entry ticket is required. The staircase narrows to a handrail near the top and there is two-way traffic on it. Go early, before the queue makes that worse.

Where people go next from Colombo

The journeys most often booked onward from Colombo:

• Colombo to Galle — about 125 km, around 2 hours.
• Colombo to Negombo — about 37 km, around 1 hour.
• Colombo to Sigiriya — about 175 km, around 4 hours.
• Colombo to Nuwara Eliya — about 165 km, around 5 hours.
• Colombo to Bentota — about 76 km, around 1 hour 15 minutes.
• Colombo to Anuradhapura — about 205 km, around 4 hours 30 minutes.