Kandy

Set around a misty lake in the heart of the highlands, Kandy was the last capital of the Sinhalese kings and remains the island's cultural soul and a UNESCO World Heritage city. The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, which enshrines a tooth of the Buddha, draws pilgrims to its thrice-daily drumming and offerings, while the compact lakeside core makes Kandy rare among Sri Lankan towns in being a genuine pleasure to explore on foot. The kingdom held out against the Portuguese and Dutch and fell to the British only in 1815, and that proud independence still shapes its temples, its Kandyan dancing and the spectacular Esala Perahera procession of caparisoned elephants. It is also the natural gateway to the tea hills, where the celebrated rail climb to Nuwara Eliya and Ella begins.