Taxi in Kandy: private transfers at fixed prices

For a hop across town, take a tuk-tuk. A ride from the railway station to a lakeside hotel costs a few hundred rupees, and no car is faster through the one-way system at 17:30. PickMe works well in Kandy for the same short rides, with a metered fare and no negotiation; Uber runs on the same drivers with fewer of them. Where both apps fall down is the long leg: drivers accept an intercity request, then cancel when they see the destination, and the fare quoted for Ella or the airport is an estimate that changes with traffic and waiting. A pre-booked private transfer is the opposite product: one price agreed in advance, a driver who knows he is going to Ella, and a car that is waiting at the door at 05:00 for a flight.

The train is the exception worth planning around. Kandy to Ella by rail takes about seven hours through the highest scenery in the country, and if you travel light and have the day it is the better journey. Reserved seats sell out weeks ahead in season and the unreserved carriages are standing room only, so many travellers send their luggage by car ($70€65CHF 57AED 260Rs 22,000₹6,600¥470₽5,800 (Rs 22,000) for the vehicle) and ride the train themselves; tell us the train and the driver meets it at Ella. Colombo to Kandy by train is also pleasant, three hours from Fort, but it does not serve the airport, which is why the 100 km road transfer remains the most-booked first leg in the country.

We collect from any hotel in the city centre, from the properties above the lake on Rajapihilla Mawatha, and from the hill hotels towards Hantana, Digana and the Victoria reservoir. Several of those access roads are steep and narrow, so give us the property name rather than a landmark and we send a vehicle that can reach it. Kandy railway station is one of our most common pickups: travellers arrive on the train from Colombo and continue by road, and we meet the actual arrival, not the timetable. Give us the train number when you book. During the Esala Perahera in July or August, the central streets close in the evening for the procession and no operator can drive you to the door; we agree a meeting point outside the cordon in advance. Fifteen minutes of waiting are included at every pickup, an hour at the airport.

Kandy is compact enough to walk around the lake and impossible to drive around at rush hour: a one-way system funnels everything past the Temple of the Tooth, and on Poya days and during the Esala Perahera whole streets close. Leaving is a different matter. The airport is 100 km away, 2 h 30 on the E04 and E03 expressways with a short stretch of the old A1 through Kadugannawa; Colombo city is 115 km and 3 h. North, the A9 reaches Sigiriya in 2 h 15 for 90 km, passing Matale and the Dambulla cave temple. South, the A5 climbs to Nuwara Eliya, 80 km that take 2 h 30 because of the hairpins above Ramboda, and on to Ella. Pinnawala, the elephant orphanage, is 40 km west on the A1 and an easy stop on the way to the airport rather than a separate trip.

Kandy is cooler than the coast but not cold, and it rains more than visitors expect, all year round. If you are heading to Ella or Nuwara Eliya, leave by 09:00: the mountains cloud over in the afternoon and the view you paid for disappears. For a flight after midnight, the sensible plan is to leave Kandy around 19:00; the drive takes 2 h 30, the airport asks for three hours, and a 15% night surcharge applies to pickups between 22:00 and 05:00, shown before you pay. The Temple of the Tooth is busiest at the evening puja, which is also when it is worth seeing, and the Royal Botanical Gardens at Peradeniya are twenty minutes out and deserve half a day. Kandy works best as a base: Sigiriya, Dambulla and Pinnawala are all day trips with the same driver, and cheaper as one hire than as three transfers.

The Temple of the Tooth, the Sri Dalada Maligawa, is the reason most people stop, and the puja times, early morning and late afternoon, are when it comes alive. The walk around Kandy Lake takes an hour and is the best thing to do at dusk. Peradeniya, the Royal Botanical Gardens, is the finest garden in South Asia. Beyond that, Kandy is a crossroads rather than a destination: the tea country to the south, the cultural triangle to the north with Sigiriya, Dambulla and Polonnaruwa, and the Knuckles range to the east are all within a morning’s drive.