Sri Lanka’s interior is filled with mountains and is a beautiful landscape. Undiscovered by most tourists and cutting across the tea fields you will find The Pekoe Trail. A 300 kilometer long route with 22 ‘stages’ you can follow. You can choose to walk The Pekoe Trail all the way: 300 kilometers through the mountains to walk from Kandy via Ella to Nuwara Eliya. Or you can just hike one stage at a time. Either way, The Pekoe Trail in Sri Lanka is a fantastic initiative!
Content of this blog:
What is The Pekoe Trail?
The Pekoe Trail is a 300-kilometer hiking trail through the central highlands of Sri Lanka. It was made to better develop sustainable tourism in Sri Lanka. The Pekoe Trail introduces tourists to the most beautiful and rugged form of nature in Sri Lanka.
The Pekoe Trail is self-guided. There are 22 stages, leading you from Kandy, through Hatton, Horton Plains and Ella to Nuwara Eliya. Along the way there are (in 2025) no separate places where you can spend the night when hiking The Pekoe Trail. So in advance you have to figure out on your own where to stay overnight based on the known route. Sometimes this requires you to walk 2 stages in one day, because at the end of the first stage, for example, there is nowhere to spend the night. The stages are between 8.5 and 18 kilometers long, so this can be combined.
Fully hiking The Pekoe Trail: 22 stages with the app
As mentioned above, you will have to plan the hike well yourself with places to stay overnight. However, you can possibly ask for suggestions via email, as the organizers are obviously aware of this. You can contact them at [email protected].
The Pekoe Trail has an app where you can find a good overview and clear information: how long a stage takes, what the difficulty level is and where the trail ends up. You can find it all in the app, which is super convenient.
Of course, if you are going to hike the 22 stages, you need to be well prepared. Good hiking boots are a must, as are the right hike clothes for both the hot and cold climates. A raincoat is also not a luxury, as the weather in Sri Lanka’s central highlands can change quickly.
The Pekoe Trail: hiking single stages
Of course, you don’t necessarily have to hike all 22 stages and thus spend 15 – 22 days on the road. You can also just choose to hike a single stage once in a while. For example, we walked 3 different ones:
- Stage 15: Makulella – Ella (over Ella Rock)
- Stage 16: Ella – Demodara (back by train)
- Stage 22: Kandapola – Pedro Estate (Nuwara Eliya)
The Pekoe Trail website https://www.thepekoetrailsrilanka.com/ provides more information about the various stages.
How do you find the route of The Pekoe Trail?
On The Pekoe Trail’s app, or website, you’ll find the hike’s starting point. From there, you can easily follow the distinctive orange dots and arrows for the route. Along the entire 300 kilometers, you will encounter these orange – white dots and arrows everywhere. This way you don’t actually have to look at your phone and can enjoy the peace and quiet of nature to the fullest.
Haven’t come across an arrow or dot in a while and think you’ve walked the wrong way? Then via the live location on the App you can always check if you are still walking correctly, handy!
You can walk The Pekoe Trail stages both ways. The markings are visible from both directions. For example, we walked the Ella Rock stage back and forth from Ella and stage 22 we walked in the opposite direction. This was quite manageable.
Guide to The Pekoe Trail
Because you can follow the route so easily by yourself, a guide is really not necessary. However, it can be nice – if you are walking the entire route and spending 15 to 22 days hiking – to do so with someone, or a guide.
We ourselves met a very nice guide during our multi-day hike in Knuckles National Park who was incredibly enthusiastic about The Pekoe Trail and specializes in it. His name is Susantha Ashoke and his phone number is +94 78636 2112. You can send him a WhatsApp to discuss your needs or email him at [email protected]. He is a super friendly man who knows an immensely much about nature. You are guaranteed to have a wonderful time hiking The Pekoe Trail with him.
Which Pekoe Trail stage do we recommend the most?
That is, without a doubt, Pekoe Trail stage 16 from Ella to Demodara. This is such an insanely beautiful trail. The thing we loved most about it was that you walk out of busy Ella, across the Nine Arch Bridge where there are a lot of tourists and then suddenly you hear nothing but the birds chirping. You walk right through the tea fields, where you experience so much peace and quiet after busy Ella.
This is the shortest route of The Pekoe Trail – 8.8 kilometers – but certainly one of the most beautiful. You end in Demodara at the train station, where you can easily catch the train back to Ella for 100 LKR (€0.33). We definitely recommend hiking this Pekoe Trail stage during your stay in Ella.
Pekoe Trail stage 22 from Kandapola – Pedro Estate in Nuwara Eliya is also highly recommended. This is the last stage and you can well imagine what euphoria the hikers who have covered 300 kilometers must feel here. Also during this stage you walk right through the tea fields in the countryside, where you hardly meet any other tourists. This makes The Pekoe Trail a great initiative for us: few tourists, one with nature and absorbed in the beautiful nature of the central highlands of Sri Lanka.
