Colombo Airport (CMB) to Kandy

The usual route leaves the airport on the Katunayake Expressway, sweeps around Colombo's northern suburbs and joins the A6 hill road towards Kandy. Sections of the newer Central Expressway have been opening stage by stage and can shave time off the first half, but the last stretch is the old Kandy road and all the better for it: the climb through Kadugannawa threads a narrow gap in the hills that travellers have written about for two centuries. Allow three to four hours; a landing at rush hour or a festival weekend can add a little.

The drive is one of the island's most stop-friendly. The Pinnawala elephant sanctuary area sits a short detour off the route near Rambukkana, and the Kegalle–Mawanella stretch is spice-garden country — your driver will steer you to a working garden rather than a gift shop with a sales pitch. A rice-and-curry lunch stop in the Kadugannawa valley, with the hills stacked behind you, is a fine halfway ritual. Tell us at booking which stops tempt you and we will shape the day around them.

With children or nervous passengers, the logic is simple: a break every ninety minutes or so, water within reach, and the winding final hour taken gently. Motion-sensitive travellers do best in the front seats with eyes on the horizon rather than a screen. If you time it to arrive in Kandy for the early evening, you will catch the Temple of the Tooth's puja drums drifting over the lake — one of the great arrival moments in Sri Lanka.