Unawatuna to Ella taxi: private transfer at a fixed price

The driver collects you from your guesthouse or villa, whether it is on the beach road, in the lanes behind the bay or up on the Rumassala side, and heads inland round the edge of Galle to join the Southern Expressway (E01). Tolls are included in the price. The motorway runs east, inland of Weligama and Mirissa, past Matara and on into the Hambantota district. From there the driver has two good lines north. The direct one leaves the expressway at its eastern end and follows the A2 through Wirawila and Thanamalwila to Wellawaya. The other heads up through Embilipitiya to the Udawalawe reservoir and then along the edge of the national park to Thanamalwila; it is the one to choose if you want to stop at the Elephant Transit Home, where young orphaned elephants are fed at set times before being returned to the wild. Both lines meet at Wellawaya, at the foot of the hills, for the final climb through the Ella Gap, past Ravana Falls and into the village. Allow about 4 hours 50 minutes without stops, and six to six and a half hours with lunch and the elephants.

The slowest kilometres of the morning are the first few. The coast road through Unawatuna is narrow and busy with buses, and getting round Galle to the expressway can take a while at school time. After that the E01 is easy: a 100 km/h limit, light traffic, and service areas with clean toilets and coffee. Off the motorway, the dry-zone roads are straight but run through villages, and in the heat of the day you share them with tractors, cattle, bicycles and the odd buffalo cart. Near Udawalawe the road follows the electric fence of the national park and elephants often stand right beside it; the driver will slow down so you can look, but will not stop alongside them, and nobody should hold out food. The climb from Wellawaya is narrow and steep, with buses coming down fast on the bends and lorries grinding up in low gear, so overtaking happens only where the driver can see well ahead. Cloud often settles on the upper bends in the afternoon.

Almost five hours of driving, with a long climb at the end, is where the choice of car shows. The economy sedan seats three with three bags and is fine for a couple travelling light. With two large cases plus beach bags, snorkels and whatever you bought in Galle Fort, the comfort sedan is the better choice: four bags in the boot, more legroom and a calmer ride on the hairpins. Families of four to six travel best in the Comfort van (6 seats), where the children get a window for the elephants and the bags stay behind the last row; groups of seven or eight need the 8-seat van. If you stop at Udawalawe, the luggage stays locked in the car with the driver. Child seats are free on request. Keep a fleece in the cabin rather than at the bottom of a suitcase: you leave the coast in tropical heat, and Ella evenings, at around 1,000 metres, are cool.

There is no rail line from the south coast to Ella. The coastal railway from Galle runs north to Colombo, and the hill-country line starts there and climbs through Kandy, so the train turns one day into two, with a night in Colombo or Kandy on the way. By bus you would change at Matara and again at Wellawaya or Tissamaharama, carrying your bags through crowded bus stands in the heat. App taxis are easy to find for short hops around Galle, but few drivers accept a five-hour run into the hills. If you have the time and want a real safari rather than a glimpse of elephants from the road, split the trip: Unawatuna to Udawalawe or Tissamaharama one day, a jeep the next morning, then on to Ella. We can price each leg separately, or you can hire a car with driver by the day.

Aim to leave Unawatuna between 07:00 and 08:00. You are on the expressway before the Galle traffic builds, reach Udawalawe in time for a late-morning stop, and start the climb from Wellawaya in the early afternoon, ahead of the cloud that rolls over the Ella Gap on many days. Arriving in daylight matters on a mountain road with no street lighting. Unawatuna's season runs from about December to April, when the bay is calm. From May to September the south-west monsoon brings rough sea and showers to this coast, which is often when people decide to head for the hills, as Ella is usually drier then. The Uva hills get their own heavy rain from about October to January, and the climb is slower after a downpour. A pickup or arrival between 22:00 and 05:00 adds 15%, and booking more than 14 days ahead takes 5% off.