"Nuwara Eliya - City of Light" Nuwara Eliya by mightywease

Nuwara Eliya Travel Guide: 97 reviews and 201 photos

Grand Hotel, Nuwara Eliya - Nuwara Eliya

Faded Grandeur

Nuwara Eliya is the highest town in Sri Lanka situated in the tea growing hill country.
The town was a favourite with the British. The climate being cooler, more like a spring day in the English home counties than the sometimes fierce heat of the lower laying areas of Sri Lanka. Indeed the British tried to make the town as near to a small English village as they could. There is a golf course, a race course and colonial style houses that look like they should be situated on Epsom Downs or feature in a TV adaptation of an Agatha Christie novel.
However, the town itself is now rather dusty and rundown. The centre of the race course is used as a rubbish dump and the main street is a ramshackle mix of concrete, wood and corrugated iron out of which the buildings have been constructed. It retains, though, a certain dilapidated charm. The town is very easy to walk around, there are shops and markets selling cheap clothes, footwear etc.. and it is a good base for exploring the countryside and tea growing area.

Pros and Cons

Pros:Good base to explore the surrounding countryside
Cons:Rather run-down and dirty

Last visit to Nuwara Eliya: Sep 2002
Intro Updated Oct 19, 2003
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Hakgala Botanical Gardens - Nuwara Eliya

Hakgala Botanical Gardens Things to Do (1)

The Hakgala Botanical Gardens – approx. 9.6km from Nuwara Eilya – are much smaller in scale than the Peradeniya Gardens... more travel advice

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freya_heaven Apr 7, 2004 at 4:06 PM

Very well put! You saw Nuwara Eliya just as I did. The surrounding hill country & Tea Plantations were beautiful though. Happy travels (~_~)