I was curled up on the couch in the living room of Villa No. 3 at the newly opened Uga Ghiri in Ella, reading Monarchs of Lanka, when it occurred to me that this is perhaps the way to experience Ella now.
My driver, Mahesh Gamage, told me that before the age of Instagram and TikTok, there was little in Ella beyond a backpackers’ hostel and a coffee shop. Then came the ’Grammers, Tokers and Tubers, and with them an endless stream of perfectly frameable moments.
I got a taste of it at the Nine Arch Bridge. I timed my visit with the arrival of a train at the now-famous viaduct.
When I arrived, people were scattered along the tracks and viewpoint. Most were not there to board the train. They were waiting for the locomotive to emerge from the darkness and roll across that impossibly photogenic curve of the bridge. Leaning out from the carriage doors were influencers, waving to the crowds and striking poses.
The Nine Arch Bridge is just one of the visual attractions that have made Ella a magnet for travellers. There is Adam’s Peak, with its mystical footprint, along with tea country, waterfalls, cloud forests, and a growing network of hiking trails, including Stage 16 of the Pekoe Trail. All of this has given Ella a youthful, backpacker energy.
But Ella’s greatest attraction is its geography.
The town itself is perched on a cliff, with a valley surrounded by forests that funnel cool mountain air into the valley and allow it to circulate around the town. The result is a remarkably pleasant climate, between 18 and 25 degree Celsius, through much of the year.
After my six-hour journey from Negombo and a night at Uga Riva, I entered Ella through a tunnel emblazoned with the words: “Ella, the breathing space.”
It is, or used to be, an apt introduction. The city, however, has now also become crowded.
Cars and tuk-tuks fill the streets, their engines growling as exhaust hangs in the air. The very popularity that transformed Ella into one of Sri Lanka’s most desirable mountain destinations is beginning to alter the experience of being there. Which is why Uga Ghiri makes sense.
A few minutes uphill from Ella, spread across 11 acres of tea estate, Uga’s newest property offers a different way of inhabiting the destination. It is close enough to dip into the Ella energy—the cafés and the hikes. Even for the Nine Arch Bridge, all I have to do is look straight down through the cliff and use the zoom on my phone to get a shot that could be mistaken for a drone shot.
There are just 15 villas, each a generous 1,200 square feet, scattered across the estate so that privacy comes almost as naturally as the breeze. A semi-circular pool on the other side overlooks the ancient forest. An in-house spa on this side offers Sri Lankan- and Balinese-inspired Ayurvedic treatments, for which Sri Lanka is best known.
Uga Ghiri is positioned at the upper end of Ella’s accommodation market, with rates around Rs. 1,00,000. But the real indulgence here is not simply the size of the villas or the polish of the service. It is seclusion. The goal is to change the destination’s image.
Here, there are no dark wooden floorboards, brooding interiors, leather couches, or candelabra chandeliers. Instead, everything is light, airy, and contemporary. And almost every corner is designed to look outwards.
A muted palette of beige and white softens the interiors. Yet it is impossible not to notice the precision of the details.
An invisible divider slides between the bedroom and living area. A full-length mirror glides out from the wardrobe. A work desk transforms into a vanity when needed. An in-room freestanding bathtub adds a touch of luxury.
At turn-down service, a padded foot mat waits beside the bed, ready for my bare feet when I wake. Once I step out of the room, golf carts are always ready to whisk me away to the main core, which has a restaurant, a library, a bar, and a games room, all encamped around a central courtyard.
The restaurant, with both alfresco and semi-covered seating, draws generously from Sri Lanka’s culinary traditions. There are fragrant plates of gundu dosa, rice and curry, gotu kola sambol, and appam, alongside more playful interpretations of global dishes, such as lasagna layered with Sri Lankan vegetables or tuna tempered with curry leaves.
The bar takes a similarly local approach. Rather than relying on bottled syrups, its cocktails are built around fresh ingredients, drawing on the flavours of the hills, such as passion fruit, coconut, and curry leaves. Uga Ghiri also makes a point of bringing the best of Ella to you. It collaborates with Amba Tea Estate for tea-plucking, rolling, and tasting sessions. All the treks and hikes can be arranged through the property with its in-house naturalist, Vishee, who has an endless supply of local folklore, stories, and secrets about the landscape.
Over my three days at Uga Ghiri, the property began to feel less like a hotel and more like a vantage point for understanding Ella.
One afternoon, at the steps of my garden, for the very first time, I listened to the voice of the leaves, the way I had never heard but had only read about in Enid Blyton’s books—a woo-shoo from the Faraway Tree.
As I breathed in the deepest breath of the perfect 20-degree Celsius air, this was the Ella I had imagined while scrolling through social media.
Uga Giri is approximately a six-hour drive from Sri Lanka’s international airport, located between Negombo and Colombo. To break up the journey, consider staying at Uga Riva in Negombo, just 30 minutes from the airport.
The 180-year-old colonial bungalow, where Mahatma Gandhi once visited, is one of the coolest airport hotels around the world.