St Andrew’s Hotel

Nuwara Eliya


North of town on a beautifully groomed rise overlooking the golf course, this striking colonial residence was once a planters’ club. Today, it's a luxurious, carefully renovated heritage hotel, well managed by the Jetwing group. Highlights include a graffiti-stained cocktail bar, a library filled with dusty books and a roaring log fire, a billiards room and a decent restaurant.

The rooms themselves are a melange of the old and the new. It's worth splashing out on a deluxe room, which have more character and better sound insulation. There’s an in-house naturalist who leads excellent guided nature walks in and around the hotel grounds. Talking of which, the gardens, with their terraced lawns and white cast-iron furniture, seem custom-designed for an afternoon cup of tea.