Into the Hill Country

Climb away from the coast and the island changes its temperature and its temper. The hill country is cool, green and slow, terraced with tea and threaded with waterfalls, and it is the best antidote there is to a week of heat on the sand.

Base yourself somewhere with a view — Ella, Haputale, or the old planters'' town of Nuwara Eliya — and let the days unspool. Walk a tea trail in the morning mist, ride a stretch of the famous railway, and be back on a porch with a pot of single-estate tea before the afternoon cloud rolls in.

Bring a jumper. First-time visitors never believe Sri Lanka gets cold until the hill-country evening proves them wrong.