• Gregory Lake - This lake is popular with domestic tourists who enjoy strolling the footpaths, taking out a swan-shaped pedal boat (30 minutes Rs 500) or trotting around on a pony (15 minutes Rs 300). However be warned that jet skis and speedboats disturb the peace on weekends, and during holiday times expect big crowds and funfairs. There are picnic tables, a small restaurant and a snack bar. Boat hire is from the smaller adjoining lake on the opposite side of the road from the main lake.

• Private transportation
• In-vehicle air conditioning

Often referred to as
Often referred to as
‘Little England’, this genteel highland community does have a rose-tinted, vaguely British-country-village feel to it, with its colonial-era bungalows, Tudor-style hotels, well-tended hedgerows and pretty gardens. Indeed, Nuwara Eliya was once was the favored cool-climate escape for the hard-working and hard-drinking English and Scottish pioneers of Sri Lanka’s tea industry.

A recent construction boom has blighted the scene to a degree, and the dusty and bustling centre is a thoroughly Sri Lankan urban tangle, but Nuwara Eliya still makes a fine base for a few days’ relaxation. The verdant surrounding countryside of tea plantations, carefully tended vegetable plots and craggy hills is highly scenic. Treat yourself to a night in one of Nuwara Eliya’s colonial hotels, play a round of golf or a few frames of billiards, and soak up the town’s unique bygone heritage.

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.