---
type: Place
title: Nuwara Eliya
description: Sri Lanka's "Little England" — a cold, cloudy hill town of tea plantations with Edinburgh on a plantation sign, a pub, a Windsor Hotel, and Tamil rather than Sinhala in the streets.
tags: [sri-lanka, nuwara-eliya, tea, trains, hill-country, little-england, colonial, weather]
coordinates: {lat: 7.0124, lng: 80.7572}
timestamp: 2026-08-06T14:40:00Z
---

# Nuwara Eliya

A town in the hill country of [Sri Lanka](/countries/sri-lanka.md), south of
[Kandy](/places/kandy.md), which Harry is told before he gets there looks like
England.

## Getting there by train

The journey is the reason most people come this way, and is routinely called one
of the most beautiful rail rides in the world.

- **About four hours from Kandy**, scheduled at 8:30 and leaving nearer 8:47.
- **Three classes. Third costs about 200 rupees — roughly $1** — with no reserved
  seats; see [take the cheapest class](/tips/take-the-cheapest-class.md).
- **The line climbs through jungle, then open valleys, villages and tea
  plantations.** Potatoes are grown up here too, which Harry doesn't expect.
- **Watch which station you get off at.** He and Mac miss theirs and get off at
  the next one, a small village halt in the terraces, and finish the trip by
  tuk-tuk. Tuk-tuks are found for you at these stations without asking.

## Little England

The town's nickname, and per the video description it is colonial in origin: this
is the coolest place in the country, so the British made it their hill retreat in
Ceylon — a place for fox, deer and elephant hunting, polo, golf and cricket — and
the naming stuck.

What survives of it, in the street:

- **A tea plantation with "Edinburgh" signed across it.**
- **Devon Cottage**, a **Windsor Hotel**, a **pub**, and the **Bank of Ceylon**.
- **The Lion Centennial clock tower**, officially opened in 2007 per its plaque.
- **Architecture Harry calls a cousin of British rather than a copy.** His line is
  that this is how Sri Lankans think England looks, and it is not quite what
  England looks like.

## The cold, and the cloud

- **Around 15–20°C**, which after a week in the lowlands he finds genuinely cold —
  it is the coolest area in the country.
- **Heavy cloud that rolls over the hills**, which he thinks looks better here
  than the same weather does at home.
- **A local's account of the seasons**: April, May and June are the bad months.
  Harry got this in February anyway.

## Practical

- **This is Tamil-speaking country.** The Sinhala greetings that worked all week
  in [Kandy](/places/kandy.md) don't land here.
- **A tuk-tuk from an outlying station to town runs about 3,500 rupees** — $17 or
  $18 — which is what the missed stop cost.
- **Eating in the Western-facing part of town is dearer**: two noodle dishes, an
  egg fried rice and three iced coffees came to 3,850 rupees, just under $20, or
  about $10 a head. He says outright this is above the Sri Lankan norm.
- **Guest houses are the alternative to hotels** and give you a kitchen, a washing
  machine and far more space — see
  [book for the wi-fi when you work on the road](/tips/book-for-the-wifi-when-you-work-on-the-road.md).
- **Local buses run from a terminal in the centre.**
- **The market** sells jackets, shoes and clothes, plus counterfeit branded caps at
  around 650 rupees and socks at 300.

## The market, in detail

The central market is where the town's shopping is, and it is almost entirely
warm clothing — odd in a hot country until you remember this is the cold one.

- **Jackets run 2,000 to 7,500 rupees**, roughly $10 to $37, for what is sold as
  the same garment at different stalls. Harry pays **2,800, about $14.**
- **Every stall sells the same stock.** He does four laps and says so to the
  sellers.
- **Prices move when a camera appears** — one seller triples his quote on
  realising Harry is filming.
- **Counterfeit branded caps** at around 650 rupees, and socks at 300.

**Why the labels are cut out**, per a seller here: Sri Lanka manufactures for
Western brands, a run of ten thousand pieces will have two or three thousand
rejected at quality control, and those cannot legally be sold locally as branded
goods — so the label is removed and they come to markets like this. Real or fake
is therefore the wrong question; the honest answer is *the same factory, a
garment the brand refused* — or a straight copy, and no way to tell which.
*(The seller's account, uncorroborated.)*

## The temple

A small Buddhist temple in the town, with a large Buddha above it, smaller
painted figures, a tree growing in the middle of the courtyard, incense and
offerings. Shoes off at the entrance. It is Harry's first temple visit in the
country — he never got into either of the ones in Kandy — and his approach is to
stay out of the way of people who are there to pray.

## Harry's tips

- **Check which station is yours** before the doors open. Getting it wrong costs
  the price of several days' meals.
- **Come for a tea plantation with a day in hand.** He arrives too late to do one
  and says it is the regret of the visit.
- **Don't judge the town by the station crowd.** A great many tourists get off the
  train and almost none of them are visible in the town afterwards.
- **Do the whole market before you buy anything.** It is small, the stock repeats,
  and the same jacket varies by a factor of three across it.
- **Walk away and come back.** If the price has held, that was the price.

## Leaving, towards Ella

- **About four hours by train to [Ella](/places/ella.md)**, and the most scenic
  stretch of the whole line.
- **$5 in first class**, against about $1 in third from Kandy. First class is
  air-conditioned, reserved, nearly empty — and its windows are sealed.
- **The crops change as the line drops south**, from tea to other planting and
  palms.

## Source

- [Chaos on $1 Sri Lankan Express 🇱🇰](/videos/RToF3gJBTeY.md) —
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RToF3gJBTeY
- [We didn't expect an English Town in Sri Lanka! 🇱🇰 Nuwara Eliya](/videos/yx6IP7cFyVQ.md) —
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx6IP7cFyVQ
- [$14 North Face Jacket in Nuwara Eliya 🇱🇰](/videos/IsCbHfG6sM8.md) —
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsCbHfG6sM8
- [Best Train Ride in the World (Only $5)🇱🇰](/videos/T_b8ggPhVvA.md) —
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_b8ggPhVvA