Kandy

Kandy was the last Sinhalese kingdom to fall to the British, so its lake, its tooth-relic temple and its nightly drum rituals survived as a living court culture rather than a ruin.

It is also where the hill-country tea train begins, built to move leaves not tourists, still crawling past cloud-level plantations toward Ella.

Fly into:

• Bandaranaike International CMB

The hill-country train links Kandy, Nanu Oya (for Nuwara Eliya) and Ella in second class for a few euros, slow but unmatched. In town, metered tuk-tuks via the PickMe app; shared vans cover the tea-country roads.

Catch the evening puja at the Temple of the Tooth around 6.30pm, when locals arrive with lotus blooms and the drumming starts. For the tea train, board at Kandy early and stake out an open door, the carriages frame the plantations better than any window.

Best in Winter

Winter: warm and fairly dry in the hills around 18 to 26C, with cool misty evenings up in the tea country.

• light layers for cool hill evenings
• a compact umbrella for sudden showers
• broken-in shoes for temple steps and trails
• a refillable water bottle