Nuwara Eliya

At close to 1,900 metres above sea level, Nuwara Eliya is one of Sri Lanka’s highest towns and the centre of its celebrated tea country. Emerald plantations ripple over every hillside, waterfalls tumble beside the winding roads, and the cool climate, Tudor-style buildings, red post office and rose gardens earned it the nickname “Little England”.

Days here begin with mist lifting off the valleys and a pot of tea grown a few miles away. You might tour a working tea factory to follow the leaf from withering troughs to tasting room, walk the estate paths with a planter, or row out on Gregory Lake in the afternoon. Evenings are for log fires, a good dinner and the novelty of needing a jumper in the tropics.

For the energetic, a dawn drive leads to Horton Plains National Park, a high plateau of grassland and cloud forest where a loop trail passes Baker’s Falls and the sheer drop of World’s End, ideally before the clouds roll in. On the road from Kandy, Ramboda Falls and the tea estates around Pussellawa make lovely stops, and the colonial-era golf course and racecourse add to the town’s period charm.

Nuwara Eliya sits neatly between Kandy and Ella, so it fits easily into a hill-country journey. Many guests arrive by road from Kandy and continue by train from nearby Nanu Oya, enjoying one of the most beautiful stretches of the line.