Nuwara Eliya and the Tea Country

Nuwara Eliya sits at close to 1,900 metres in the central highlands, high enough that the air is genuinely cold at night and the British planters who built it filled it with mock-Tudor bungalows, a racecourse, a golf course and a post office that would not look out of place in Surrey, earning it the nickname Little England. The reason it exists is tea: the slopes all around are combed into the neat green terraces of some of the highest-grown estates in the world, where pluckers work the bushes and factories still process the leaf on Victorian machinery, offering tours that end in a tasting. Between the estates lie waterfalls, the Gregory Lake promenade, vegetable smallholdings, and easy access to Horton Plains. The hill-country train that climbs here through the tea is among the most beautiful railway journeys anywhere.

What you actually see

• The tea estates - the terraced slopes and the pluckers working the bushes.
• A working tea factory - processing on old machinery, ending with a tasting.
• The colonial town - the bungalows, post office and racecourse of Little England.
• The hill-country train - the climb through tea country, one of the great rail journeys.

When to go

January to April is the driest and clearest window and the season when the town fills for the April new year holiday; the highlands are cool year-round and genuinely cold at night, so bring warm layers whenever you come. Mist rolls in most afternoons, so mornings are best for views.

Honest expectations

The town itself is scruffier and more built-up than the Little England label suggests, with traffic and concrete alongside the bungalows; the beauty is in the estates around it. Mist and drizzle are frequent even in the good months. Tea estate work is hard, poorly paid labour, and the plantation communities' conditions are a real issue behind the pretty terraces, worth knowing when choosing a tour. Book train seats well ahead, as the scenic legs sell out.

Nearby

Horton Plains and World's End are a short drive; Ella and the famous Nine Arch Bridge lie down the line.