From misty mountains to golden coastlines - discover the best of Sri Lanka with Lisence to Travel Lanka.
A cool-climate hill town wrapped in tea estates, colonial architecture and misty mountain air - nicknamed "Little England" for its Tudor-style cottages, manicured gardens and a pace that feels worlds away from the coast.
Perched at around 1,868 metres above sea level, Nuwara Eliya was built up by British planters in the 19th century as a hill retreat from the coastal heat, and it still carries that legacy - red postboxes, a golf course, half-timbered bungalows and rose gardens sit beside emerald tea plantations rolling over the surrounding hills. Evenings are genuinely cool, often the only place in Sri Lanka where a jacket feels necessary.
We build Nuwara Eliya into the hill-country route as an overnight stop, timed for a tea factory visit and tasting, a walk through Victoria Park or around Gregory Lake, and the scenic drive in or out through the surrounding tea country - one of the most photogenic stretches of road in Sri Lanka.