Two temples in Sri Lanka. Dambulla Cave Temple has 192 tickets and tours to book; Ella Temple has 10 tickets and tours to book. The table and the two notes below put them side by side; the full pages have what to see, the ticket and the timing for each.
Dambulla is easy to visit on your own. Foreign visitors buy a ticket at the office near the Golden Temple at the foot of the hill and then walk up to the caves, where the ticket is checked. There is nothing to book in advance and no timed entry, so for most travellers the only question is how to fit Dambulla into a day in Sri Lanka's Cultural Triangle.
That is what most tours are about. The classic day trip combines the cave temple with the rock fortress of Sigiriya, 19 km away, and often adds a village visit with a home-cooked lunch, a jeep safari to see elephants at Minneriya, or the ancient city of Polonnaruwa.
There is no ticket for this temple alone, and none is needed: like most village temples in the hill country around Ella, it is free to enter and kept up by donations from worshippers and visitors. A small box by the shrine or a few rupees for flowers to offer is the usual way to contribute.
What travellers book online is transport and a route that passes it. The common types are day tours by tuk-tuk or car from Ella that string together several sights of the area, such as a waterfall, the tea estates around Haputale and Lipton's Seat, the rock-cut Buddha figures at Buduruwagala or the Nine Arch Bridge, with a temple stop on the way;
