Central Highlands · Hill Country
At 1,868 metres, colonial bungalows and cool mountain air give Nuwara Eliya a character unlike anywhere else on the island, a town built around tea, gardens and a slower climate.
The story
Nuwara Eliya in short Best March to May · stay 2 nights · about 4.5 hours from Colombo airport · pair with Ella or Kandy.
Our guides: Kandy to Ella by road
By The Pearl Edition · Updated 7 October 2026
Founded by the British as a highland retreat from Colombo's heat, Nuwara Eliya still carries that colonial imprint, Tudor-style buildings, a golf course, a racecourse and a lake ringed by gardens, all wrapped in the coolest climate in Sri Lanka.
The real draw is what surrounds the town: tea estates stretching across every hillside, producing some of the world's finest high-grown Ceylon tea. Estate tours end, as they should, with a cup poured within sight of the leaves it came from.
What to see
Plan your visit
Where we’d stay
Colonial bungalows on tea estates, and town hotels that are colder than you expect. These are the ones with a fire lit in the evening.
A boutique property hidden in the tea at Radella, built recently but carrying itself like a planter's bungalow that has been there a century. Read more
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Mock-Tudor gables and clipped lawns on Grand Hotel Road, once the hill residence of a British governor and still the centre of Nuwara Eliya. Read more
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Up at Shanthipura, the highest village in Sri Lanka, with the best guest rating of any hotel in the hill country across nearly three thousand reviews. Read more
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An 1875 Scottish planters' club above the golf course, with a log fire, a library and the best-kept lawn on this side of the town. Read more
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A large modern hotel on the west side of town with a 4.8 across more than two thousand reviews, and an indoor heated pool that earns its keep here. Read more
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An 1876 British gentlemen's club that still asks men to wear a jacket and tie for dinner, and still has the leopard above the bar. Read more
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Good to Know
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Indicative low-season rate. We may earn a commission on bookings made through these links.
While you are here
In Nuwara Eliya, and within reach of it
Private tea estate tour
Leaf to cup on a working estate, with the pluckers on the slopes at dawn and a tasting of grades that never leave the island.
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The Pekoe Trail
Three hundred kilometres of tea country in twenty-two stages, opened in 2023. Walk one, or string several together.
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Nanu Oya to Ella by train
Two hours through tea country and cloud forest, doors open, feet out. The Kandy end of the line is closed for repairs; you join at Nanu Oya. Regularly called the most beautiful rail journey in the world.
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Sunrise on Adam's Peak
Five thousand steps through the night to a summit sacred to four religions. At dawn the peak throws a perfect triangle across the plain.
Read moreNuwara Eliya, in a route
Eighteen degrees and colonial bones. Bring something warm.
