The hook
The last royal capital, wrapped around a lake and guarding a temple that holds a tooth of the Buddha, and the gateway to green tea highlands crossed by a slow, spectacular train.
01Why it's worth it
Kandy sits in the hills at the heart of Sri Lanka and was the seat of the island's last independent kingdom, holding out against colonial powers until 1815. Its lakeside Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, said to enshrine a tooth of the Buddha, is the country's most important Buddhist site, and its grand August festival, the Esala Perahera, parades caparisoned elephants and dancers by torchlight. Above the city rise the tea highlands the British planted in the 1800s, a rolling green world of manicured plantations, colonial hill stations like Nuwara Eliya, and the pilgrim mountain of Adam's Peak. The classic way to experience them is the train from Kandy up to Ella, hours of clattering slowly past waterfalls, tea pickers, and misty ridges, widely rated one of the loveliest rail journeys anywhere.
02How to experience it
See the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, ideally at an evening ceremony, then take the hill-country train toward Ella for the scenery, not the speed. Tour a working tea estate, and if you're fit and devout enough, climb Adam's Peak overnight for the sunrise. The hills are cool, so pack a layer.