Nuwara Eliya

At 1,868 metres, Nuwara Eliya is the highest town in Sri Lanka and one of the most unexpected surprises in a country full of them. Founded by the British in 1823 as a hill station retreat from Colombo's tropical heat, it earned the nickname "Little England" for its Tudor-style bungalows, English country gardens, horse racing track, and golf club — all still remarkably intact.

The town is enveloped by rolling hills carpeted in perfectly manicured tea estates — a vivid patchwork of emerald and jade that stretches to the horizon. Ceylon tea, considered by many connoisseurs to be the finest in the world, was first commercially cultivated here in the 1860s by Scottish planter James Taylor, and the region still produces some of the most sought-after high-grown teas. A visit to a working factory — watching the withering, rolling, fermenting, and firing of tea leaves — is one of the most fascinating industrial experiences in Asia.

Beyond the tea country, Nuwara Eliya is the gateway to Horton Plains — a wild, windswept plateau at 2,200 metres with grasslands, cloud forest, and the dramatic cliff face of World's End, where the land drops 870 metres in a single precipitous plunge. Visited at dawn before the mist rolls in, it is one of the great landscape spectacles of Sri Lanka.