Handpicked experience · Kandy
Kandy, Sri Lanka
A private car for the day between Kandy and the tea country hill station, on a road that climbs fourteen hundred metres and takes far longer than the distance implies.
A private door-to-door transfer from Kandy with a driver for the whole day
A scenic drive through the central highlands and tea country with photo stops
Several hours of free time to explore Nuwara Eliya at your own pace
Flexible stops on the way, subject to the schedule
Nuwara Eliya sits at around nineteen hundred metres in the middle of Sri Lanka's tea country, and it is unlike anywhere else on the island: cool, damp, planted with hedges and Tudor gables by the British and still trading on the resemblance. Reaching it from Kandy means a long climb through the plantations. A private car buys you the stops on that climb, which is where much of the day's pleasure actually is.
You are collected in Kandy and the road begins climbing almost immediately, leaving the valley heat behind within the hour. The landscape changes as you rise: paddy gives way to terraces, then to the clipped green corrugation of tea, with pickers working the slopes and waterfalls dropping out of the cloud on the left-hand side.
Your driver will stop where you ask. Most days that means a waterfall or two and a tea estate on the roadside, where the factory will usually show you the withering lofts and the rolling floor and finish with a cup. In town you have several hours to walk: a Victorian park, a lake with boats, a racecourse and a post office that has changed very little in a century.
Around eighty kilometres, and two and a half to three and a half hours each way. It is a continuous sequence of hairpins with a drop on one side for much of the climb. Anyone prone to travel sickness should sit in the front and take something beforehand — this is the route on which people discover they get carsick.
The line up to the highlands is one of the great railway journeys anywhere, and travellers who drive both ways sometimes regret it. With a private vehicle you can split the difference: ride the train one way and have your driver meet you at the station with the car. Ask about it when booking rather than on the day, since it needs arranging.
This catches out almost everyone arriving from the coast. Nuwara Eliya can sit fifteen degrees below Colombo, evenings are genuinely cold, and frost is not unheard of in the coldest months. A fleece or jacket is not optional, and nothing in your beach luggage will do.
The highlands are frequently in cloud, and the pattern usually runs clear early and closed in by mid-afternoon. An early departure buys the views; a late one often buys a white wall. April is the exception to everything — the town fills with domestic holidaymakers for the new year and both the roads and the hotels are at their busiest.
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Two and a half to three and a half hours each way for about eighty kilometres. The road is a near-continuous climb of hairpins, which is why a short distance takes so long.
It is a real risk on this route. Sit in the front, take something before you set off rather than once you feel it, and ask the driver to stop when you need to — private means you can.
Consider doing both. The highland railway is among the finest journeys of its kind, and with a private car you can travel one way by train and have the driver meet you at the station. Arrange it when booking.
Cold enough to surprise people arriving from the coast — often fifteen degrees below Colombo, with genuinely chilly evenings and occasional frost in the coldest months. Bring a jacket.
The stops are, in the sense that your driver will pull in. Most estate factories show visitors the process and finish with a cup, though anything you buy is your own.
April, when Sri Lankan new year fills it with domestic holidaymakers and both the road and the hotels are at their most crowded.