Kandy – quick travel guide

Popular cultural tourist city in central highlands. Great food, variety of shopping, good mix of city accommodations or nature lodging.

Great food, lots of things to do and see. And still carries a very local vibe. I enjoyed my time in Kandy a lot. The more you stay, the more you find things to do.

Kandy and nearby tourist attractions can be seen in 2-3 days but with all the farther-out sights, I think 4 days might be better to fully enjoy it.

Where to stay:

• City center:
  • This seems most ideal if you want to be in the city, closest to endless restaurant options, and easily walk around. But there are many reasons why I think the city center is a bad idea.
  • Kandy is a beautiful hilly city and staying in the city center keeps you from appreciating this true beauty.
  • The city center is also super chaotic. Hundreds of angry screaming birds flying around and pooping on everybody. It’s gross, scary, and really sounds like the end of the world, like god is cursing us with a plague-apocalypse here. Full of traffic, honking vehicles on the road in every direction, people everywhere.
  • Why bother staying in the center when you can find many hillside options closer to nature, while still being easily accessible to the city?
• Kandy Lake:
  • NORTH – you might assume this is a good central place but I’d disagree. The northern-most part of the lake is too close to the noisy city center, street traffic, and too chaotic IMO.
  • EAST – The eastern-most part of the lake is more quiet and peaceful but is only a little farther to walk to city center. Nothing a tuktuk ride can’t fix but also there are no restaurants along the water. Feels like a purely residential neighborhood. It’s a good option if you want to be close to the lake and walk along the water.
  • WEST – this is the best area to stay if you want to be in the city center. The places here are elevated on a hill and give you a nice view of the city and lake below, while still quickly walkable to busy city center below. Peaceful vibe with variety of nice restaurants on the hill with great views below as well. Going to or from home is also a cheap tuktuk ride as you’re not in an isolated area. Many tuktuks passing by. Also tons of monkeys around here, careful of your belongings!
  • SOUTH – elevated hill area with (zoomed out) beautiful views looking down directly at the lake and the city center. It’s a nice view at day or also night since the city is well lit. The internet shows a bunch of hotel and hostel type of commercial accommodations south of Kandy Lake, making it seem like a good area (but it’s not IMO). It’s still a remote-ish area, much farther walk to the city center than it appears on the map and not many restaurants available. They’re all hotel restaurants which often close early and are expensively priced. During the day and night, there’s not much of a vibe here…just a quiet row of hotels, and tuktuk drivers take advantage of this. Don’t be fooled by the restaurants and shops appearing on Google Maps.
• Remote nature:
  • I think this is a great option for many reasons. One because the remote accommodations are so much nicer, bigger, and have nature views. Another is because unless you’re getting a place right in the center, you will have to pay for tuktuk rides anyway so might as well just go out 5-10 minutes farther and get a nicer place for lower price.
  • Our place was 20 minutes from the city center, which we hated the idea of at first but once we got to our place…we absolutely loved it and had no regrets. The city is crowded full of traffic so tuktuk rides always take 5-10 mins to get anywhere…adding another 10 minutes was no big deal considering how beautiful our place was in nature.

The first thing that needs to be said is which areas are nice to stay, already covered above. But the second thing is which areas are where the touristy stuff are. Just about all the touristy stuff is south of the city. So in that regard, you should be on the south end or west side of the city to be closer to touristy stuff. Which helps if you’re only there for 1-2 days. We stayed 4 days and so being 20 mins on the northeast side was no big deal.

Hostels & Hotels:

• Siri Villa Kandy – amazing house in the northeast side of the city center. Big beautiful modern villa…perfect for relaxing, taking photos. The host Gayan is so super nice and helpful!

Neighborhoods & Walking areas:

• City center – lots of people, shops, malls, stores, restaurants, cafes, etc. Not particularly beautiful, touristically or culturally significant. The main highlight is also the main lowlight of this place…the crazy birds everywhere (making tons of noise, as they sound very unhappy). Take a video of them to show your friends, then go inside before they poop on you.
• West hills – nice views of the city below. You can treat it like a scenic city hike. Exploring as high or as far as you want, then just go back downhill when you feel like resting or being in the city again. The big buddha is around this area.
• Kandy Lake – walk around the water, take photos, enjoy the sights and relax. Be careful of the trees with so many birds, you can get pooped on.

Activities to do:

• Parks, gardens, green spaces:
  • Royal Botanical Gardens**
    • Absolute highlight of Kandy for me. Even if you’re not a big fan of botanical gardens, I still think you should go here.
    • It indeed feels very royal and majestic, but in a natural way. It’s not just your typical well-manicured giant flower garden. You see many huge and exotic trees and plants here. Some in a more arranged decorative format, others in a scientific-study type of formation, others in wild jungle growth. Tons of animals all over (especially monkeys, birds, flying squirrels, some rodents, etc).
    • Let me reiterate again that this park is very grand and very beautiful. You’ll see the typical tourist photo of the giant palm streets here. There’s also huge trees with monkeys climbing about. Old narrow foot bridge with monkeys running across, like something out of an Indiana Jones movie.
    • I also love that there are tons of locals everywhere just hanging out. So your photos don’t look touristy with westerners in every shot. Feels like you went back in time when Sri Lanka only had Sri Lankan people.
    • Overall this place feels like the combination of a big park, zoo, botanical garden. You should treat it more like a relaxing day at the park. I walked past 80% of it in 2 hours, but I would have loved to spend a whole afternoon of 4 hours here.
    • The walking route I took, and recommend, is…go right after the entrance…then up palms…then back, bridge, then come back down on left side. Will type names of spots later.
  • Udawatta Kele Sanctuary – was recommended to me by my host. Said it was a beautiful nature forest so I looked it up. The hiking loop is just 60-90 minutes. And lots of wildlife (which Kandy already has even in the city). Turtles, snakes, etc. Be careful of leeches during rainy season, wear closed-toe shoes!
  • Kahalla bus stop – I found this place by accident because the tuktuk ride to our remote villa passed by here. There’s a really cool photo op on the train bridge, just be careful that you don’t fall through (or you can stand on the footbridge part to be safe). Also right next to the street if you look closely, you’ll see huge trees with hundreds of screeching bats. I just though it was it really cool to see and proud of myself for noticing. It’s a quick 15min tuktuk stop.
• Buildings & architecture:
  • Ambuluwawa Tower:
    • Big white crooked tower that looks something like a Sri Lankan version of Gaudi or Dr Seuss, sticking out very high into the sky giving you beautiful views of the green nature landscapes below. There are many viewing platforms, and also another smaller tower (of different design) for you to climb as well. Tons of nice pictures to be had.
    • 1 hr drive south of Kandy and worth it. Because the ride is cheap enough via tuktuk anyway. I recommend paying the vehicle fee at the front gate so your driver can drop you off at the top of the hill by the start of the Ambuluwawa Tower. Otherwise, you will have to pay for another tuktuk from inside the park to go up the hill.
    • Do NOT try to walk up the hill from the park entrance to the Ambuluwawa Tower. IMO, it’s a waste of 40 minutes of time and energy when a tuktuk is so cheap for forigners anyway. You’re better off saving your time for climbing the tower. Not because it’s so physically difficult but because you’ll wait for a long while if it’s crowded (sunny or weekend days). Many people have to squeeze past each other like sardines. You can do the walk down if you insist on a hike.
    • In case you’re wondering, it’s not necessary to go all the way up. Even the small platform just 3 levels down will offer the same views.
  • Sacred City & Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic** – aka “tooth temple”, famous for having the Sacred Tooth Relic. Usually people come here right after the Cultural Dance Show (at Kandy Lake Club) to see the puja ceremony. I enjoyed walking around the beautiful temple and different structures. I didn’t bother waiting in line to see the tooth, though. I also felt I would have enjoyed coming here in the daytime to hang out at the big park grounds, and also see more of the museum.
  • Sri Maha Bodhi Temple aka “Big Buddha”* – a giant buddha statue on the hill, allowing you to climb up and see elevated views of the city below. Easy enough to walk to. The real highlight for me was walking to a nice restaurant on the hill with great views afterwards. Lots of monkeys around.
  • Three Temple Loop:
    • There are a 3 closely-located temples (Embekke, Lankathilake and Gadaladeniya) about 30min south of Kandy, making a convenient stop between Kandy and the Ambuluwawa Tower. Many tour and tuktuk drivers will try to include them to add value but IMO, they’re not worth the time even if there was no entrance fee.
    • The temples are not that big, not that beautiful, not particularly special or unique, and the view at the top is also not anything different from what you’d see elsewhere in Sri Lanka. The Dambulla Cave temples and Anuradhapura Sacred City alone would be better than anything you’ll see here IMO.
    • I can’t predict what someone else would and wouldn’t enjoy but I would suggest to skip this (or at least don’t go out of your way to visit it).
    • Disclaimer: I only saw Lankathilaka Vihara – a small little buddhist temple on the hill, with views of green landscape below. You have to climb the stairs of some dark rock to reach the top. I read reviews speaking of its beauty and views, etc…but ultimately left unimpressed compared to other things I saw in Sri Lanka already.
• Beaches, bridges, water-points:
  • Kandy Lake – definitely recommended to walk around here, and you probably will since it’s next by the city center. The north and east sides are ground level, so you can walk along the water. The west side and south sides are elevated on the hill and looking, so you get a better view but it’s more of a walk and feels like you’re walking alone up the hill (since few people do it).
• Markets, shopping:
  • Good shopping available here on the main streets. Many shops with low-priced clothes, etc.
• Arts, museums, culture:
  • Kandy Lake Club – come here for the cultural dance show at 5:30pm everyday. We arrived at 5pm and bought tickets there in person. During late off-season late December, it was only 25% capacity. In peak season, I can see this place being totally full. The show was an hour long and very enjoyable. About 10 performance songs in different traditional outfits, live music, mix of rhythms and patterns, program explaining cultural signficance of each dance, some juggling and acrobatics, and fire show at the end.
• Viewpoints, landmarks, sunsets:
  • Best viewpoint of the city for me are in the westside hills (by Marinate restaurant) or southside of Kandy Lake by the Kandy Lake Viewpoint (or Arthur’s Seat Viewpoint). I prefer the westside hills because it’s a great view but also feels like you’re in it. Whereas the Kandy Lake Viewpoint feels like you’re far away. Visit both and you’ll see what I mean.
• Tours:
  • There are many tuktuk drivers and just about everybody you meet will offer to take you on an amazing tour of the Kandy area, and see many beautiful things. They may show you booklets, photos, handwritten testimonials of happy guests. It seems more convenient to have one guy drive you all over the city and wait for you, but I don’t recommend it.
  • Your time should be focused on the better stuff, which you can get to on your own. Rather than having a driver rush you around, waiting for you, and then later asking you for extra money because he waited for you. (Again, this was his idea.)
  • Also, I’m distrustful of many tuktuk drivers who keep trying to take us to places where he gets commissions…like certain tea factory, “traditional restaurants”, etc.
• Watch cricket game at Pallekelle International Stadium.

Restaurants & Cafes:

• Marinate** – my absolute favorite. Cool vibey restaurant on the westside hill area of Kandy with a great view of the city and great food. Monkeys climbing everywhere. Must go for first-timers.
• La Mulberry* – good Indian restaurant in city center. Has stairs going up that connect to little rooms inside or the outdoor space on the roof. I thought the food was ok but my friend loved it and missed it.
• Golden Curry Restaurant* – we were happy with this Indian restaurant. Good food and service.
• Soul Food – highly rated vegan restaurant. But we didn’t try it.
• Kandy Lake View – for a viewpoint from the south of Kandy Lake at night…you can try the Oak Ray restaurants around here. Beware, they are tourist priced.

Bars, clubs, and nightlife:

• There many bars everywhere.
• Slightly Chilled Lounge Bar and Restaurant – good place for sundown drinks and food. At night becomes a “nightlife place”. Our host recommended this spot to us but we never got around to checking it out.

Miscellaneous tips:

• General travel tips for Sri Lanka.
• Tuktuk mafia – they are very aggressive here. Colluding together on pricing so they all give you a high price. If you call a tuktuk driver on PickMe in a public space like the train station, they might not come. And if they do, they may get bullied by the tuktuk mafia (one of them threatened to punch our driver). Your best bet is to call a driver from a less busy area rather than right where many tuktuks are congregated. If you arrive at the train station, just walk a half block out and call one.
• Tuktuk recommendations – many tuktuk drivers will try to sell you tours or recommend you to places (accommodations or tourist sites, restaurants). Beware ok? Because they are doing it for commission. Any hotel they recommend, tea factory, restaurant…they get commission for taking you there! Stick to your itinerary…especially if the day has rain forecast, don’t waste time with non-important detours.

Itinerary:

• DAY 1 (half day) – walk around the lake and perhaps up to the big buddha, then eat at Marinate. Otherwise, just stay around the lake and city center. If you’re early enough, you should go see the cultural dance show to get that out of the way.
• DAY 2 (full day) – Royal Botanical Gardens in the morning, then big buddha and cultural dance show (if you haven’t already done those), then Tooth Relic in the evening. If you HAVE done the cultural dance show or big buddha already then you can use that extra time to explore the Sacred City instead.
• DAY 3 (full day) – Ambuluwawa Tower in the morning, then back to town (with a stop by the 3-temple loop if you’re curious). Then do any of the recommended items if you missed any.

Nearby towns:

• Ella** – yes, definitely.
• Sigiriya/Dambulla* – yes definitely, for that Sigiriya lion rock and Dambulla cave temple.

Unfiltered notes:

• An Essential Guide to Kandy, Sri Lanka’s Capital of Culture – The Common Wanderer
• 9 Great Things To Do in Kandy, Sri Lanka – Salt in our Hair