Sri Lanka's Waterfalls

A lush hill-country village with iconic train rides, waterfalls, and tea plantations.

A dramatic highland plateau with World's End cliff and misty cloud forest.

Sri Lanka's last great lowland rainforest - a UNESCO World Heritage Site bursting with endemic species.

The 'City of Gems' - Sri Lanka's sapphire capital, gateway to Sinharaja and the classic Adam's Peak trail.

Badulla's famous 'bridal veil' waterfall, reached by a fun kilometre-long jungle path.

A remote highland station and the hair-raising hairpin road to Bambarakanda - the hill country's wildest day out.

Sri Lanka's tallest waterfall - a 263-metre thread of white falling through pine forest near Kalupahana.

A waterfall shaped perfectly like a sacred Bo leaf - Sri Lanka's most symmetrical cascade, minutes from Ratnapura.

A breezy mountain-foot village of streams, hikes, and reservoirs - the adventurous back door to the highlands.

A 109-metre triple-tier waterfall tumbling beside the Kandy–Nuwara Eliya road at the Ramboda Pass.

A graceful 97-metre triple cascade named for a coffee planter - St. Clair's elegant neighbour on the tea highway.

King Dhatusena's 5th-century inland sea, whose canal to Anuradhapura falls just one foot every mile.

A mighty 126-metre cascade in the Maskeliya hills, framed by legend and hydro history.

A wind-blasted mountain pass in the Knuckles foothills, with the 'Mini World's End' cliff and grassland plains.

The 'Little Niagara of Sri Lanka' - twin cascades pouring through tea country near Talawakele.

A 98-metre plunge into a jungle amphitheatre near Ginigathhena - wilder and quieter than its tea-country cousins.

Sri Lanka's second-highest waterfall, with natural infinity pools you can swim in at the very lip.

Ella's serious hike - railway tracks, tea paths, and a cliff-top summit staring down the whole Gap.

A 64-metre waterfall pouring off the Hunnasgiriya heights above Elkaduwa - Kandy's closest big cascade.

A 116-metre plunge in the gem country near Pelmadulla - among the tallest waterfalls in Sri Lanka.

Belihuloya's lamp-flame waterfall - a small cascade and natural pool that became one of the island's most loved swims.

A dramatic 30-metre waterfall framed by jungle, near Ella.

The waterfall you can walk behind - a twin cascade with a hidden cave passage, in the wilds below Riverston.

A 60-metre film-star waterfall beside the Belihuloya road, reached by a short forest amble.

A 68-metre plunge in the wet hills above Ratnapura - gem country's forest waterfall.

A Ramsar wetland of ancient cascade tanks between Chilaw and Puttalam - heronries, mangroves, and morning bird clouds.

Sri Lanka's widest waterfall - a curtain of a dozen cascades in the hills between Welimada and Nuwara Eliya.

A Shakespeare-named cascade pouring through the Pundaluoya tea estates - tea country's prettiest secret.

The waterfall the trains window-shop - a bridal-veil cascade beside the line near Ambewela.

The waterfall you reach by railway - a jungle cascade a short walk from a station with no road.

A 2,212-metre peak named for a railway - climbed from the station at its foot through tea and cloud forest.

The south's great rainforest - waterfall pools, giant creepers, and endemic wildlife without Sinharaja's crowds.

Nuwara Eliya's walk-to waterfall - a 30-metre ribbon above the Pedro tea estate, wrapped in a tragic legend.

A road's-end village deep in the Knuckles, living traditionally beneath the sacred peak of Lakegala.

A 111-metre giant hidden above Hasalaka's paddy terraces - one of the tallest and least-visited falls on the island.

The camping summit above Bambarakanda - a bare ridge with Sri Lanka's tallest waterfall at its feet.