Region guide · the hills, about 1,900 m
The hill station of Nuwara Eliya, tea factories, Lake Gregory, the 1889 golf club and the planters’ bungalows around Hatton.
The back story
The cool hill station of the British planters, and the tea estates around Hatton and the high mountains.
The back story
How a coffee disaster made Sri Lanka one of the world’s great tea producers, and how to visit a tea estate.
See how tea is made
Working estates and factories in the hills, many with tours and tea rooms.
Boats and walks
A lake on the edge of Nuwara Eliya, created in the British period, with paths and boating.
Founded 1889
A historic hill-country course in the centre of Nuwara Eliya, founded in 1889.
Early-morning walk
A high plateau of grassland and cloud forest, with a walk to World’s End, a sheer drop of hundreds of metres, and Baker’s Falls.
Night climb
The sacred mountain climbed by pilgrims at night to see sunrise from the summit, in the season from about December to May.
Roses and ferns
A hill botanic garden below Hakgala rock, south-east of Nuwara Eliya.
Hill-station park
The town park of Nuwara Eliya, with lawns, flower beds and birds.
Victorian grandeur in the hills
A Victorian-era hotel in the centre of Nuwara Eliya, beside the golf course.
Restored planters’ bungalows
Restored tea planters’ bungalows on working estates in the hills near Hatton, run by Resplendent Ceylon.
Since 1876
A stone clubhouse in Nuwara Eliya from 1876, with log fires and formal dining.
A converted factory
A hotel inside a converted tea factory high in the hills near Nuwara Eliya, surrounded by tea.
Tea since 1841
The tea centre of Mackwoods, a tea house founded in 1841, on its Labookellie estate on the road up from Kandy.
The Kandy–Ella line
The national railway, including the famous hill-country line from Colombo and Kandy to Nanu Oya (for Nuwara Eliya) and Ella.
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