Viscoelastic boundary layer flow and heat transfer over an exponential stretching continuous sheet have been examined in this paper. Approximate analytical similarity solution of the highly non-linear momentum equation and confluent hypergeometric similarity solution of the heat transfer equation are obtained. Accuracy of the analytical solution for stream function is verified by numerical solutions obtained by employing Runge-Kutta fourth order method with shooting. These solutions involve an exponential dependent of stretching velocity, prescribed boundary temperature and prescribed boundary heat flux on the flow directional coordinate. The effects of various physical parameters like viscoelastic parameter, Prandtl number, Reynolds number, Nusselt number and Eckert number on various momentum and heat transfer characteristics are discussed in detail in this work. (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.