The Hill Club

Founded in 1876 as a private members' retreat for British tea planters, The Hill Club is the best-preserved colonial building in Sri Lanka — a rambling Victorian manor of dark polished wood, oil portraits, log fireplaces, and billiard tables that have not changed in character since the days of the Empire. The dress code still applies at dinner; the silver service still appears at breakfast. Yet the experience is not a museum piece — the warmth of Sri Lankan hospitality infuses every exchange, and the kitchen has updated its table without abandoning tradition. Rooms are furnished with four-posters, woven carpets, and curtains thick enough to block the Nuwara Eliya cold that descends after nightfall at 1,800 metres. The library, with its leather wing chairs and views of the manicured lawn, is arguably the finest reading room on the island. A short walk leads to tea estates whose leaves produce the world's most celebrated high-grown Ceylon.