You can travel to Jaffna by bus, car, minivan, train, or even plane. Unfortunately, few of these options are available from Kandy. We have a great way for you to find the best, cheapest, or fastest way to travel from Kandy to Jaffna, just use this site! We can also tell you how to get to Jaffna via the ancient city of Anuradhapura, by rail.
How To Get To Jaffna From Kandy
Use the widget below to directly compare departure times, journey times and prices. You can normally book any form of transport from this site. As you can see, travel options between Kandy and Jaffna are very limited.
Our post is simply a suggested way to travel between Kandy and Jaffna, other routes exist that may fit your itinerary better.
Jaffna Airport
Jaffna International Airport in the town of Palaly in Jaffna District, Northern Province, Sri Lanka is approximately 16 km, 9.9 miles north of Jaffna city. It is an international airport and flghts arrive in Jaffna from India, Thailand and Dubai, but there are no flights from Kandy. Kandy does not have its own airport. The nearest airport to Kandy is Colombo International. I have been unable to find internal flights from Colombo to Kandy.
Trains To Jaffna from Kandy
There is no direct train line between Jaffna and Kandy. Kandy has it’s own railway station, as does Jaffna, but to travel by train to Jaffna from Kandy is quite complicated. Polgahawela Train Station is the nearest place to Kandy for catching the train to Jaffna.
You should be able to get to Polgahawela in about an hour, using bus and/or taxi or in over an hour by train. The train is very cheap, see the widget below.
From Polgahawela the train ride to Jaffna is just under 7 hours. The ancient city of Anuradhapura is on the way on this train line, so if you’re planning on seeing the sights of Sri Lanka it would be a good idea to spend 2 nights here. Allow a full day to explore the ruins. You will need to book a guide or transport, but this complex and the ancient Bo Tree are well worth seeing. There will be plenty of guides offering their services when you arrive. Unfortunately, these trains don’t seem to be bookable online. You may have to go to the train station.
This is the route we took to get to Jaffna from Kandy, via Anuradhapura.
Trains in Sri Lanka are still very affordable, so this train route should work out as your cheapest way of travelling between Kandy and Jaffna.
You can also travel to Anuradhapura by bus from Kandy, we’ve done it, it’s not an easy 4 hour bus ride.
Enjoy Jaffna! Read our posts on al of these places, they’re in the related posts section, below.
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