About this experience
This day tour takes you from Kandy into the cool hill country of south-central Sri Lanka, travelling by train to Nanu Oya — the Main Line station that serves Nuwara Eliya — before continuing by road into a town unlike anywhere else on the island. Nuwara Eliya sits at over 1,800 metres above sea level, making it the coldest place in Sri Lanka, and its mean annual temperature of around 16°C gives the air a quality that takes most visitors by surprise. The Sinhala name translates as 'City of Light'; the British, who shaped so much of the town's character during the 19th century, simply called it 'Little England'.
The journey itself is half the point. Sri Lanka Railways' Main Line carries you out of Kandy and up through the Central Province, the track curling through hillside tea estates, small stations, and stretches of dense tropical forest. Nanu Oya, opened in 1885 and the 63rd station on the Main Line, sits at roughly 1,613 metres elevation. From there, your English-speaking chauffeur guide drives you the short distance into Nuwara Eliya town along tightly winding mountain roads, the landscape opening into rows of low tea bushes running across every slope in sight.
Nuwara Eliya was founded as a hill retreat in 1846 by British explorer Samuel Baker and quickly became the preferred resort of colonial civil servants and tea planters, who built the Tudor-style houses, clubs and public buildings that still line the streets today. The tour takes in Lake Gregory, the calm reservoir at the heart of the town that was a centre for recreation in colonial times and remains so. You will also visit the Nuwara Eliya Post Office, completed in 1894 and constructed in Tudor Revival style with a red-brick exterior, a clock tower and a tiled roof — one of the oldest functioning post offices in the country and a protected archaeological monument. It is entirely possible to buy a stamp and post a card from the building on the day.
The tour runs as a private arrangement for your group, with hotel pickup and drop-off in Kandy and air-conditioned road transport for the Nuwara Eliya portion. Train tickets are included in second or third class, with a first-class upgrade provided free of charge where seats are available on the day. The full day runs to twelve hours, and children aged five and above are welcome. Entrance fees to sites, meals, drinks and gratuities are each paid separately on the day.
