elcome to everyone’s favourite hill-country village and the place to ease off the travel accelerator with a few leisurely days resting in your choice of some of the country’s best guesthouses. The views through Ella Gap are stunning, and on a clear night you can even spy the subtle glow of the Great Basses lighthouse on Sri Lanka’s south coast. Don’t be too laid-back though; definitely make time for easygoing walks through tea plantations to temples, waterfalls and viewpoints. After building up a hiking-inspired appetite, look forward to Sri Lanka’s best home-cooked food and the minisplurge of an extended Ayurvedic treatment.

In recent years the popularity of Ella has soared and seemingly every month yet another new guesthouse or hotel opens. Sadly, some of these newer hotels have been built in a hurry by people with little knowledge of the desires and requirements of the average foreign tourist in Ella, resulting in some large, multistorey, cheaply made blots of ugliness scarring the hills of the village. Fortunately, the rumour of a cable-car running between Little Adam's Peak and Ella Rock does (we dearly hope) appear to be just a rumour.